Hello Everyone - how's The View From Mount Joy where you're from?

This is one of my wilder books - although how can you not get a little wild when you write about cheerleaders? (No, I was never one myself, although I did try out to be our high school mascot, the Teddie Bear. It's not that I was infused with team spirit - I just wanted to wear that furry bear costume and make people laugh.)

The book begins as our narrator (and hero) Joe Andreson and his mother have moved down to Minneapolis from a small town in Northern Minnesota. He joins the Class of '72 at Ole Bull High School and two of the girls he meets - Kristi Casey, the cheerleading captain who assumes the earth's orbit is for her benefit, and Darva Pratt, who cares more about art and politics than her ranking on the popularity chart - will impact the rest of his life.

We follow Joe's story as he graduates high school and college and tumbles into a life that includes an unchosen, yet ultimately satisfying career, unexpected fatherhood, an evangelical super-star, guitar-playing, love and loss, and grocery store bargain days.

I hope The View From Mount Joy will make you laugh and cry, and finally, will make you wonder at all the wild and crazy heart and beauty in this world of ours.

-Lorna Landvik

BEHIND THE WRITING of VIEW FROM MOUNT JOY I'm embarrassed to say this; but I can't recall the exact time and place Joe, Kristi and Darva of THE VIEW FROM MOUNT JOY came into my head. Usually a book begins for me with the appearance of the main characters in my head and usually, I can remember where I was or what I was doing when they made their appearance. Not so for t his book. If I were a more careful chronicler, if I kept a journal or if I had a better memory (really, my powers of recall couldn't activate a night light) I could tell you this, but the genesis for this book will just have to go mysteriously unexplained. __

Although...the story does start as Joe's about to begin his senior year and his story mirrors mine in that we're the same age. I've said before I don't like to write about my real life (it's always more fun for me to make it up) but I did enjoy writing about the early seventies and its shag haircuts (you bet I had one), platform shoes, music (ahh...slow dancing to "Stairway to Heaven" and "Color My World") and its general still-sorta-hippie-ish aura. I also enjoyed taking Joe through the years up to the present, and having him confront the big questions that we all ask ourselves and stumble toward answering. __

I love Joe - he's a good man and I'm especially partial to good men. He's not afraid to show his emotions, a quality I find most good men have. It wasn't hard to write as a male (I hope I've succeeded) - I'm of the belief that men and women are more alike than they are different. Kristi too was a lot of fun to write - man, is she diabolical! - but underneath her narcissism and ruthlessness, I think you'll find...more narcissism and ruthlessness. Just kidding - you don't act (entirely) like her without being motivated by pain and hurt. __

A male reporter who interviewed me said he thought the book was about loyalty and although I never set out with 'themes' in mind, I agree with him in that Joe is certainly loyal - to family and friends and the sense of what is right. _

I think the world's in a lot of trouble right now and I also think it's people like Joe - those who love with open hearts and try to help others - who will make it better.