Arts Alive! w/ Bill DeYoung: Author L.L. Kirchner' 2-14-25

Season 2, Episode 437,   Feb 14, 09:22 PM

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Author L.L. Kirchner is celebrating the release of her second novel, Vegas Girls. On today’s edition of Arts Alive! she talks about the origins of the book, a sequel to 2024’s Florida Girls.

Like its predecessor, this book is set during the waning days of World War II. A group of strong but not-quite-fearless women, led by industrious Thelma Miles Wright, leaves St. Petersburg for the bright lights of Las Vegas. There, in the early days of the casino-building boom, they work to take down a crime outfit whose boss is none other than Sal Giancarlo, the Tampa hoodlum that caused them all so much trouble in the first book.

He happens to be Thelma’s father, which complicates things considerably.

Kirchner explains that there’s another Thelma book coming this summer – the third in a series she calls The Queenpin Chronicles.

Fiction writing comes naturally to the one-time journalist, although her previous books, American Lady Creature and Blissful Thinking, were memoirs.

Kirchner follows her muse wherever it leads. She recently resigned, after nine years, from the Home Shopping Network (HSN) as an on-air pitchperson. Just days before the company announced it was shuttering its St. Petersburg studios. #stpetecatalyst #billdeyoung #llkirchner #artsalive #tampabay #radio #radiostpete