Learn more about Kline and her writing at www.christinabakerkline.com
Q. Orphan Train is, so far, the most popular of your novels — in fact, garnering phenomenal success. How has that been for you as an author?
A. To be honest, Orphan Train’s success was unexpected—by me, my agent and my editor. It’s sold 2.5 million copies. I’m the same writer as I was with the other novels. I haven’t learned any new tricks. So what caught readers’ imaginations and hit a nerve? I think the topic itself has drawn readers—that a quarter-million orphans by the best estimates were, between 1854 and 1929, put on so-called orphan-trains and transported from the east to mainly the Midwest not to be adopted but to be put to work in indentured positions until age 18 or 21, depending on the deal struck.
It’s important to note that at the time the program started there were no social safety nets, no laws protecting children’s rights and no labor laws. Also, ours is not the only country to have dealt with orphans in this way.
Still, the very notion is striking to the modern sensibility.
My novel focuses on a fictional orphan train rider, Vivian, as an elderly woman, looking back on her orphan train experiences, and Molly, a contemporary seventeen-year-old who is also an orphan but who, of course, has very different experiences about what that means in our times. Molly is assigned to do community-service and helps Vivian sort through keepsakes and mementos. In the process, she learns that they have more in common than she would have imagined.
Ultimately, my novel is about identity and understanding our roots, even after they seem broken.
Q. How did you come up with this great idea as a novel premise?
A. About ten years or so ago, my husband, sons and I were visiting with my mother-in-law in Fargo, North Dakota during the holidays. A blizzard made us housebound. I happened upon my mother-in-law sharing with one of my sons an old book called “Century of Stories,” a celebration of Jackson, North Dakota’s centennial in 1983. The book contained various articles and photos, including a reprint of an old article about my mother-in-law’s father, who had ended up being a banker, but who as a child had arrived in the Midwest on an orphan train.
That was my introduction to this slice of American history. I was stunned; I’d never known about the orphan trains. I spent the next seven years with this idea percolating. In that seven year period, I wrote two other novels and a nonfiction book, but I also began researching, reading hundreds of articles and interviewing a few of the surviving train riders, by now between ages 90 and 100.
Finally, it was time to start writing the novel inspired by all I’d learned about orphan trains and their riders! By then, I had such extensive notes, in fact, shelves filled with notes and books on the topic.
Q. Has this level of success changed your approach to writing—either the way you construct a manuscript or the subject you choose as the premise?
A. Not really. I’ve always been a writer who wants the next novel I write to be a bigger challenge for me in some way. Orphan Train is the first of my novels with an historical component. I like giving myself harder challenges in my fiction each time out. If anything, writing Orphan Train has taught me that I like having those challenges, and has given me the confidence to embrace challenges.
My current novel-in-progress is based on Christina’s World, the iconic painting by American artist Andrew Wyeth. So many people love that painting with a passion that just by using it as a basis of inspiration for my current novel, I’ve created a challenge for myself!
Q. Any tips for aspiring writers?
A. I always wanted to be a writer, but had a lot of fear about being successful, whether artistically or commercially. Fortunately, I decided early on that when in doubt about my abilities or about a particular project, I’d “follow the yes,” meaning take the advice, for example, of a teacher or mentor offering encouragement. That’s not the same as ignoring constructive criticism or not being willing to admit and learn from mistakes. What I mean is that, to me, it’s important to listen to the most helpful, encouraging voices that are trying to help you become a better writer, rather than to voices that dismissively say you can’t write.
Another favorite tip I like to share with students is to put everything you can think of in the first draft of a work. No one is going to see that first draft, because you’re going to revise it several times before you give it to trusted readers for feedback or submit it to publication. But if you don’t put it in the first draft, you can’t pull it out or shape it. It’s important to just get the words down first, as lavishly as possible, knowing you’ll revise and edit later.
Correction: Kline's husband's grandfather was not on an "official" orphan train; his train came from Missouri. Additionally, trainer riders who are alive now are generally between the ages of 95 and 105.
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