“This is my library,” well-known author Lorna Landvik announced while speaking on Thursday night, May 19, 2011 at the newly renovated and recently reopened Nokomis Library in south Minneapolis.
- Lorna Landvik, author of "Angry Housewives Eating Bon-Bons" and more, signed autographs following a humor-filled speech at the Nokomis Library in Minneapolis on May, 19, 2011.
A photo of Landvik as a child appeared in the Minneapolis Star to herald the opening of the library in 1968.
As an adult, she used the library as her “office,” showing up every Monday and Thursday night to write.
It was the library where her mother showed up on Mondays to check out six books that she returned on Saturdays. And it was the library where her daughters went.
Looking around the changed space, Landvik commented, “I still see it as the old library.”
- Landvik is one of the children in the loft of the Nokomis library on the day it first opened in 1968. This newspaper clipping was on display May 19, 2011 during her speech at the newly renovated library.
ON WRITING
Torn between writing a novel and staring in a Hollywood blockbuster, Landvik moved to Hollywood, residing on Hollywood Boulevard. There she did stand-up comedy, waitressed to pay rent, and worked temp jobs (which included a stint at the Playboy mansion cataloguing Hugh Heffner’s video tapes). She wrote short stories to keep writing, although she never thought that style was her strength.
One day, two women came into her head, Patty Jane and Harriet, Landvik recalled. Next came the title: Patty Jane and the House of Curl. And she started writing. All of her books have followed this same pattern.
When she finished “Patty Jane and the House of Curls,” she sent the book out to publishers. One day while she was vacuuming — “This is such a woman’s story,” Landvik injected — she got a call from an agent who wanted to represent her.
- Lorna Landvik was among the first to speak in the new community room at the Nokomis library after its reopening on April 30, 2010 following a two-year closure. The library renovation project cost $7 million.
Four years and 30 rejection letters later, a small publishing company decided to print her first book — without giving her an advance. The paperback rights went faster, and ended up being purchased by Ballentine, the publisher she has been with since.
Despite her success, one book that she has written hasn’t yet been published: “Mayor of the Universe.” “They said it wasn’t a Lorna Landvik book,” Landvik explained. “I said yes it is! I wrote it!”
- My daughter met her first novelist. Lorna Landvik is a native and current resident in the south Minneapolis neighborhood we just moved into. How exciting!
Landvik currently resides in South Minneapolis, and is nearing the end of her next novel. She returns to the Bryant Lake Bowl in Minneapolis for a comedy routine in July. Expect free margaritas.
BOOKS
• Angy Housewives Eating Bon Bons
• Oh My Stars
• Patty Jane’s House of Curl
• The Tall Pine Polka
- Landvik doesn't just write funny books, she gives hilarious speeches. She will be performing a comedy routine at the Bryant Lake Bowl in July.
• A View From Mount Joy
• ‘Tis the Season
• Welcome to the Great Mysterious
• Your Oasis on Flame Lake
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