SIX MINUTES WITH LARISSA THEULE:
Author Larissa Theule joins LitPick for Six Minutes with an Author! Larissa’s first book, Fat & Bones (illustrated by Adam S. Doyle), was published in October. Larissa is more than a world traveler. In addition to living in the United States, she has lived in Nigeria, Japan, Costa Rica and Shanghai, China! One of her best adventures was tobogganing down the Great Wall of China! Larissa has read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt at least thirty times, sometimes twice in one sitting!
How did you get started writing?
Writing has always been the best way I’m able to express myself. I don’t usually think quickly on my feet, and writing allows me time to work through my thoughts. When I was a kid I sometimes wrote stories for fun, and I tried keeping a diary but failed to do so with any regularity. Inhabiting story, as writer or reader, is where I feel most myself, where I feel like my best self, and so at some point I decided to write every day because doing so made me a kinder person to my family and friends. Knowing that the odds of getting published were pretty slim, I tried hard to keep in mind that if no one wanted my stories, that’d be okay. But nearly all writers long for an audience and I’m no different, and so I’ve been relieved and grateful for every open door.
Who influenced you?
The author whose work I return to regularly is Madeleine L’Engle. I admire the way her fiction portrays the workings of family and points to the bigness of the cosmos, as in A Wrinkle in Time and The Arm of the Starfish. And while I like her fiction, her nonfiction is what inspires me because it serves as a guide for an author’s life. She writes a lot about integrity, about serving the story, about being a faithful artist, and these things matter a great deal to me. I have two children who watch my every move. I try to model for them that being a writer is difficult and rewarding, requiring commitment and hard work while offering joy and meaning.
Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?
The answer to this is ever changing depending on my current project or what I’m reading to my kids. I’m working on a picture book about Kafka and so I’m reading a lot about him and am smitten with how kind a person he was, which a reader of his fiction might not pick up on as his stories are fairly absent of kindness. So he’s a favorite at the moment. Also a favorite is the book Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan, about children in Norway outsmarting the Nazis to save their town and millions of dollars in gold. What adventure! I read this for the first time when I was about eight years old and it utterly thrilled me, making me hold my head up high, believing with all my heart that kids are able to change the world. I’m reading this to my children now and every night they demand another chapter when I start to put it down. It’s a real page-turner.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?
Don't hurry yourself. Don't compare your style and success to someone else's. Write the story your heart burns to tell, even if (especially if) it is strange.
Where is your favorite place to write?
Mostly, I write in my home. I live in California with all this sunshine, so my home is bright and when the windows are open it’s as if the outside is inside. Sometimes I write on my porch so that I can visit with the geckos and hummingbirds, and sometimes I write in the public library with two author friends. It’s nice to write with friends once in a while because writing can be a lonely job.
What else would you like to tell us?
Just that I think LitPick is a really wonderful space allowing for dialogue about literature. Thank you for having me, and thank you for taking time to write smart and thoughtful reviews. I wish you all the best.
Larissa, thank you very much for spending six minutes with LitPick and you very much for your kind words! It was very interesting to read that writing every day made you a kinder person.