NO SPOILERS in this conversation with #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train. Join us with Christina Baker Kline discussing her newest novel, The Exiles.*** Christina shares why it is so important for her, through her writing, to illuminate little-known aspects of history from the perspective of ordinary people, including women and children of a certain social class. She likes stories of women, hidden stories, and in discovering them she realized a fascinating link with her historian father and her own ability to tackle ambitious tales. (05:25)*** We loved hearing why Christina feels so compelled to write about complicated women. Her declaration that “It’s just not interesting unless they’re complicated” could be our new tagline! Her female leads in The Exiles, like everyday women, find joy in all sorts of places and ways, transforming themselves in the process. (10:44)*** Christina’s picks for the complicated fictional women that inspire her are true classics, doomed, complicated heroines in 19th century powerhouse novels that are responsible for their own tragic fates, yet constrained by a society that had no room for women like them. (17:11)*** All children are born creative and Christina explains that she just didn’t lose that in her writing, pursuing the slim “yes” even in the face of lots of “no”. Her path to published novelist took off from there, but the path was not linear and not at all what she (or we) expected. Turns out being scrappy really pays off! (19:54)*** We get Christina’s take on the ways in which fiction written by women is pigeonholed or categorized and whether she thinks we are making progress or continually taking one step forward then two steps back. Somehow this had us talking about Palm Springs, the new Netflix movie that’s perfect for the pandemic. (27:57)*** As always, we talk astrology...Christina is “obviously” a practical and methodical Capricorn. While she is not “woo woo” she acknowledges that creativity and writing are intuitive and not intellectual. We just HAD to know what Christina meant in her acknowledgements where she said that as a novelist she’s “learned to trust a particular tingle, a kind of spidey sense” but the answer exceeded our expectations! (34:00)*** The Exiles is told from three different points of view, one of them being an indigenous little girl Mathinna. Christina shared how she managed to write about such a fraught and complicated perspective. (44:27) *** The Exiles has been optioned by Bruna Papandrea and her team at Made Up Stories for TV adaptation. Christina will executive produce and boss people around whenever she can! (49:06).Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @popfictionwomen and on Twitter @pop_women. To do a full deep dive, check out our website at www.popfictionwomen.com. Stay Complicated!We've launched a platform at patreon.com/popfictionwomen to keep making the podcast you love -- and to make it even better. For a one time contribution to support this episode, use venmo @ carinn-jade. Thank you for your support and enjoy the show!!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.