Author Kristin Levine on Lions, Austria, and Chocolate
February 7th, 2012
Kristin Levine didn’t always want to be a writer, but she (wisely) changed her mind, and now she’s officially in the Cool Kids Club. In fact, she’s pretty much at the head table now that her second book, THE LIONS OF LITTLE ROCK, is out on shelves. It follows two girls whose unbreakable friendship challenges the notions of segregation and Jim Crow in 1950s Arkansas.
Kristin was kind enough to stop by the blog and chat about her inspirations, her writing process, and of course, I asked her to tackle the ultimate question: cheese or chocolate? If you leave a comment on this post, you’ll be entered to win a copy of LIONS, which she’s kindly giving away!
Q: What inspired you to write Lions?
KL: When I was in elementary school in the early 1980s, my mainly white neighborhood was paired with a mainly black neighborhood to create two integrated elementary schools, one for grades K-3 and the other for grades 4-6. When I asked my parents why I had to ride the bus to school, instead of just going to the school nearest my house, they told me it was a great opportunity for me to go to school with people who were different from me, by race, social class, religion, etc. They said it was only fair that the busing be shared by both neighborhoods. Their enthusiasm for the pairing of our schools made a huge impression on me.
In addition, my mother grew up in Little Rock. When I started asking her about her childhood, the very first thing she told me was about listening to the lions roar [in the nearby zoo] at night. Something about that detail stuck with me. Because of my personal experience with integration and my mother’s family history, 1950s Little Rock seemed like an obvious choice of time and place for my second book.
Q: Your main character, Marlee, is quiet — she likes math and dreams of becoming a rocket scientist. Are there traits 
of hers that you share? Do you believe authors always put a piece of themselves in their characters?
KL: I was good at math like Marlee, and I think I shared her sense of wanting to do what was right, but otherwise, I don’t think I was too much like her as a child.
The idea of Marlee being so quiet came from my editor telling me I needed to work on Marlee’s “voice.” I think I took her a little too literally, but I started thinking about a girl I had known when I was in junior high who almost never spoke. Once I tried briefly to be friendly to her, but when she didn’t respond right away, I went back to simply ignoring her like everyone else. I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I’d tried a little harder.
I’m not shy at all in person (in fact, I love to talk), but sometimes I do feel really shy when posting things online. I see other people posting all these cute, clever things on Facebook and I don’t know how they do it. I’ll obsess for 20 minutes over a status update, then decide that maybe someone could misunderstand me and be offended and end up not posting anything all. Maybe it has to do with being a writer and feeling like everything I write has to be just right.
In any case, like Marlee I’m trying to get better at participating in discussions, especially online, and not just lurking in the background. So yeah, I guess I do believe authors always put part of themselves in their characters.
Q: What is your favorite book of all time? If you can’t name one, could your narrow it down to two or three?
KL: Naming one is just so hard, but I can tell you about a series that really meant a lot to me:
When I was eleven years old and in 5th grade, I was having a hard year. I’m not sure exactly why — changing friends, puberty, feeling like I didn’t fit in, etc. At one point during that year I read Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain series (The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, The High King) and I loved them so much, I started carrying around all five of them in a bag with me at all times, just in case I wanted to read part of them again.
It sounds like this would have caused me to be even weirder and more isolated, but it actually had the opposite effect. I started loaning out my books, and pretty soon, everyone in the 5th grade was reading them. Eventually, even the cutest, most popular boy in school came up to me and asked to borrow the first book in the series! So those books have always maintained a special place in my heart.
More recently, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis was probably the biggest influence on The Lions of Little Rock and my first book, The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had. I love Curtis’ mix of humor and history, and just adore what a loving family he portrays in that book, despite all the conflict and drama.
Q: What is your writing process like? Do you methodically plot and plan, or do you sit down and pound out everything at once?
KL: Put it this way, my first book was all plotted and planned and it worked out fine. So when I sat down to write my second book, did I follow that tried and true method again? No, of course not! I decided I didn’t need to do that anymore, because now I was a “real writer.”
Sigh. Well, that was a huge mistake. Turns out, I am not a “seat-of-your pants” kind of a writer. (I totally admire those of you who are!) I guess it was a good thing to learn about myself, but it was painful to realize I needed to go back and plot things out when I was already 170+ pages into the story.
Needless to say, for my next book I shall return to the plotting method.
Q: Cheese or chocolate. Pick one.
KL: Chocolate. It’s not even close. As a child, I didn’t like cheese at ALL. I didn’t even like pizza. I like cheese now, but I’m afraid I will never be a true cheese connoisseur like you, Lara.
Q: What advice would you give to any aspiring authors reading this?
Kristin said she didn't want to be a writer when she was younger, but this photo of her typing away could indicate otherwise.
KL: Find a good critique group. Learning to give and receive criticism — and how to respond to constructive criticism from others without losing what makes your voice unique — is an invaluable skill. Also, the thicker your skin (think rhinoceros) the better. My editorial letters were always pages long. But the thing is, my editor was right like 99% of the time, so I had to find a way to listen to and respond to her comments.
Q: Do you have any pets?
KL: I have one husband and two small children — that’s enough chaos in our house for now. Once the children are a little bigger, I would love to get them a dog.
Q: When you picture your ideal vacation spot, what is it like?
KL: Austria. I was an au pair in Vienna, Austria, after high school before I went to college and it remains my #1 favorite place to visit. If you’ve never been there, watch The Sound of Music. It really does look like that. Luckily, my husband is a German teacher, so every three years we take about 20 high school students to Austria on an exchange program. I love the mountains, the lakes, the cafes and all the music.
Q: What are you working on next?
KL: I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I’m going to do next. I’ve always wanted to write sci-fi or fantasy, which at first seems like a big leap, but I guess it’s really not. In historical fiction, you’re trying to create a time and place, just like you’re creating a different world in sci-fi or fantasy.
But of course I also really enjoy historical fiction. And now that I’ve based one book on my grandfather (The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had) and one book very loosely on my mother (The Lions of Little Rock) my father is clamoring that it’s HIS turn for a book. So there may be a book about a paperboy in Chicago in my future!
Thanks again for stopping by, Kristin! And friends, don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered to win your very own copy of LIONS!
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