Kristen Chandler tells story she wants to tell in ‘Girls Don’t Fly’

Kristen Chandler hopes readers fall in love with their own lives by watching the main character in her new book, “Girls Don’t Fly,” fall in love with hers.

“Girls Don’t Fly” follows Myra, a high school senior who, with four younger brothers, overworked parents and a pregnant older sister, has a lot of responsibilities. Despite the challenges at home, Myra is sure of her path until her boyfriend dumps her. Now, everything feels in flux and Myra’s doing things decidedly unlike herself — quitting her job, applying for a scholarship to study birds in the Galapogos and falling for someone who thinks she should leave her old life behind.

Life is about choices Kristen, who is also the author of “Wolves, Boys and Other Things That Might Kill Me,” told Cracking the Cover. “But I don’t think you always have to give up the people you love, no matter how flawed they are, to be honest, to be brave, to be adventurous. In some ways this story is a love letter to people trying to make that choice.”

Though Kristen’s ideas for books usually come from dreams alone, the idea for “Girls Don’t Fly” stemmed from an IMAX movies about the Galapagos Islands and an ensuing dream.

“The dream involved me sitting in a chair like I was a character in the trailer scenes of ‘Raising Arizona’ looking out over the West Desert, looking for Galapagos tortoise,” Kristen said. “I didn’t see any, strangely enough, but I just kept looking. Finally someone in my family came out and told me I was getting sunburned. I woke up still looking. That scene isn’t in the book, but it kind of is the book.”

Kristen says she loves to geek out when working on a book and in preparation for “Girls Don’t Fly” she spent hours studying birds in the field and in books. She even assisted in an AP biology class a few times. The culmination was a trip to the Galapagos with her son. “Well, that wasn’t really research,” she said. “That’s like going to heaven and then coming back and calling it research.”

Birds play a large role in Kristen’s book, serving as Myra’s research topic for her scholarship program. Kristen admits she’s not an authority on birds, just a fan. “I often go fishing and end up watching the birds fish instead. Working on this book made me a much bigger fan. An old high school teacher took me birding at Utah Lake a few times and after that I was hooked.”

Set in Utah, “Girls Don’t Fly” features another popular body of water with a unique ecosystem of its own — the Great Salt Lake. “I spent a lot of time at the lake, bumming around with the staff there and goofing around at Antelope Island,” Kristen said. “I was a temporary vagrant in Magna. I went birding at the Refuge, and I even got people to take me sailing. It was a blast.”

Kristen says she was terrified of writing about Utah. “Really! I didn’t know how to navigate all the ‘peculiar people’ stuff that goes with the dominant religion,” she said.

She was also afraid to write about dating and family situations that are fairly dark. “But that’s why I wrote about it,” Kristen said. “It was satisfying to write about ‘my own backyard’ and feel like I told the story I wanted to tell.”

*Kristen took a lot of time and care to answer Cracking the Cover’s questions. Read a complete transcript of her interview. 

**The launch party for “Girls Don’t Fly” will be at The King’s English, 1511 S. 1500 East, in Salt Lake City this Tuesday at 7 p.m.  Kristen has a number of other signings planned in Utah and California. Visit her events page for more information.