To Mystery and Wonder – An Evening with a Bestselling Author

Is there some unexplained phenomenon in the universe that allows people to automatically tell if another person is a writer? Something that causes you to look at a person and just think, I’ll bet she writes for a living. And what is the strange connection between writer folks that gives them the power to just know?

Lorna Landvik, bestselling author

That’s somewhat of my line of thinking tonight as I stood in my local bookstore with a room full of eyes turned on me while the guest speaker of the evening waited expectantly for an answer to a question she’d just asked me.

“Are you a writer?”

In fact, she had returned my question with a question. I didn’t think it was a question that warranted suspicion as to my profession.

"What time of the day do you find most productive for writing?” 

Lorna Landvik is a bestselling author of Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, Oh My Stars and The View From Mt. Joy. While she’s previously been published with Ballantine Books and Random House, her most recent title Mayor of the Universe is her debut self-published title.

She talked about some of the differences of being traditionally published to independently publishing her first book. She said doing book tours was a different deal. She has been used to publishers lining up events – hotel reservations and reminding her what time she needed to be at the bookstore – to doing the main promotion footwork. While she is on Facebook, Landvik says she is slowly making her way into the social media scene and fears spending more time in self-promotion mode than actually writing.

Landvik eventually got around to answering my question in a witty style that she has become known for; her best writing time is at night because, no matter how often she takes on a “seize the day!” type attitude, she has to make coffee and read the newspapers and take her dog for a walk and see what her husband is up to first. Still, she says she aims for about 1000 words a day.

This was the first author Q&A event that I’ve ever attended. It was a lot of fun, and proved to be an educational experience for me as well.

Her new title had sold out by the time I got up to her after the Q&A session. I overheard her asking the bookstore owner, “We sold all of them? Even the extra box I brought?”

So instead, I decided on Patty Jane’s House of Curl to be my introduction to Landvik’s writing.

When she saw me next in line she went on to ask what I wrote and the routines I’ve developed to be as productive as I can as a writer.

And then she signed my book: “Amanda, To mystery and wonder – best of luck with your own writing!”

So this week I’ll ask you the same thing Larna Landvik asked me: When have you found is the best time of day to write?