Jan Karon


BIO

Jan Karon was born in Lenoir, North Carolina, in 1937 ("A great year for the Packard automobile," she says). Her creative skills jan came alive when her family moved to a farm. "On the farm there is time to muse and dream," she says. "I am endlessly grateful I was reared in the country. As a young girl I couldn't wait to get off that farm, to go to Hollywood or New York. But living in those confined, bucolic circumstances was one of the best things that ever happened to me."

Jan knew that she wanted to be a writer, and even wrote a novel at the age of ten. Her jan real opportunity as a writer came at age eighteen when she took a job as a receptionist at an ad agency. She kept leaving her writing on her boss's desk until he noticed her ability. Soon she was launched on a forty-year career in advertising. She won assignments in New York and San Francisco, numerous awards, and finally an executive position with a national agency.

Recently she left advertising to write books, and moved to Blowing Rock, North Carolina, a tiny town of 1,800 perched at 5,000 feet in the Blue Ridge mountains. "I immediately responded to the culture of village life," says Jan. "And I must say the people welcomed me. I have never felt so at home."

Blowing Rock is the model for Mitford, and the similarities are strong. "None of the people in Mitford are actually based upon anyone in Blowing Rock," says Jan. "Yet, the spirit of my characters is found throughout this real-life village. You can walk into Sonny's Grill in Blowing Rock and find the same kind of guys who hang around Mitford's Main Street Grill."

Jan is quick to assert that there are Mitfords all over the country, those hundreds of towns where readers of Jan's books cherish their own cast of eccentric and beloved characters. Currently, one of Jan's chief delights is getting to meet those readers. "Some people finish writing and open a bottle of scotch or a box of chocolates," she says. "My reward is meeting my readers face-to-face. I think an author is something like a glorified bartender. My readers tell me all kinds of things about their lives, and I get these long, long letters. I answer every one, of course."

Jan has a daughter, Candace Freeland, who is a photojournalist and musician.

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INTERVIEW

December 14, 2007

After launching her first novel AT HOME IN MITFORD more than a decade ago, author Jan Karon’s Mitford series numbers a whopping 30 million copies in print. Her stories about an Episcopal priest are lauded for their charming characters, the evocation of small town life and her gentle inclusion of faith. In HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS, the first installment in her Father Tim Novels, Karon takes her beloved priest to new locations and levels of self-understanding. Bookreporter.com’s Cindy Crosby talks with Karon about the book and Father Tim Kavanagh’s future escapades, the challenges of getting older, the importance of Advent and her new appreciation of Elvis.

Bookreporter.com: You have begun a new series, the Father Tim Novels, with HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS as the first installment. However, Father Tim Kavanagh is still the axis upon which the story revolves, just as he was in the Mitford series. How is the new series different? How is it the same?

Jan Karon: The new series embodies, I feel, the spirit of the old. That is to say, redemption continues to be the overarching theme in this, and all, my work. It’s different in that we’re given a far deeper look into the soul of a man we’ve come to know well --- but until now, not as completely.

BRC: What were some of the challenges of moving your fictional setting to Mississippi from North Carolina? How did you do your research?

JK: I went to Holly Springs and spent roughly a week driving through the countryside, visiting the shops and stores around the square, visiting historic homes that Father Tim would have visited as a young boy and, later, a young seminarian. The challenge was to write authentically about a real town --- that is, to get the street names right, the names of the houses properly attributed, the headstones in the cemetery notated (at least two markers and their inscriptions appear in the novel), get their insects, trees, bushes, animals (yes, they have groundhogs), flowers and seasonal quirks right.

I’d call Booker’s hardware store and say, “Hey, what’s the temperature down there today? Any rain?” For a few days I was writing within the same time framework in which the story was set. I wanted the setting to feel natural and right to the people of Holly Springs. It would have been an insult to them, and to me, if I were to make shoddy work of the facts.

BRC: THE MITFORD COOKBOOK AND KITCHEN READER based on the Mitford series was a big hit at my house. Should we look for “squirrel dumplings” or “roasted woodchuck” recipes prepared by the characters in HOLLY SPRINGS anytime soon? Come to think of it, are there such dishes and have you tasted them?

JK: The dishes mentioned in the book are --- here’s that word, again --- authentic to a part of the southern culture. No more cookbooks for me, though. And I would taste groundhog, of course — but only with a gun to my head.

BRC: It’s difficult to believe Father Tim is 70 (or “68 plus some change”)! Although you don’t look a day older than you did when you began the Mitford series, what do you like about getting older, and what is most difficult?

JK: I tried to answer this question with seemly wisdom and demonstrate how delighted I am to be growing older. But I have deleted everything I said, because I didn’t mean it. Growing older is hard. I am 17 in my heart and that’s all I can reasonably tell you. Oh. Sorry. I forgot to say that I really do like having Medicare and a Social Security check, though this hardly compensates for wrinkles and age spots.

BRC: In HOLLY SPRINGS, Jessica tells Father Tim: “I think th’ whole point of life is to know God, and be able to accept the way things turn out.” Does this reflect your own philosophy of life?

JK: Pretty much.

BRC: HOLLY SPRINGS seems to enlarge and change the way we view “family” and “home.”

JK: Home, somebody said, is where the heart is. Father Tim has a good heart, which is not so rare and unusual in this world as cynics may think. So, whether Holly Springs or Mitford, he will find home. I connect easily with people, and thus I, also, find it easy to feel at home almost anywhere.

BRC: Your detailed plot twist involving leukemia was fascinating. Do you have any personal experience with this particular medical issue? Or is it just something you thought would help make the plot interesting?

JK: Plots, like characters, come to me. There’s a sense in which the story tells itself to me, and I have to do the dirty work, the legwork, to make it all make sense. Actually, I love the research part. I have no actual experience with leukemia, but I talked with many experts in the field and then asked them to read what I had written.

BRC: Themes of forgiveness and grace permeate the novel. Is it always possible to forgive those who have wronged you in the past?

JK: I have found it so, but not without struggle. One must pray for the grace to do it. And then, sometimes, one must do it again and again, as one’s unforgiveness is like the snake you strike with a hoe. It continues to wiggle and tries to crawl off in the lilac bushes, but one must keep at it until the job is done. Sorry for the violent scenario.

BRC: Peggy tells Father Tim, “The truth is always hard…. Out of every cut springs fresh growth.” Henry tells Father Tim, “Not everything can be understood or resolved. But it all has to be faced.”

JK: Well, Peggy said it all. Out of every tribulation, every wound, every trauma, something good comes. God uses hard things for good. That’s His nature, the way He’s wired, no matter which translation of his Word one reads. And certainly, not everything can be understood or resolved. For example, we still don’t know what Father Tim’s father meant by “He was right, he was right.” We will never know. Nor will we ever learn why Matthew Kavanagh was so cold to his son. Was it Timothy himself whom Matthew disliked? Did the coldness come from the emotion associated with Matthew’s own childhood, and in reality had little or nothing to do with Timothy? Just as in real life, we’ll never understand or resolve all our questions. If it were all as clear as crystal, there would be no yearning after truth --- and yearning after truth is a very good thing.

BRC: In HOLLY SPRINGS, Father Tim grapples with some dark moments from his past that were only hinted at in OUT TO CANAAN. How do you handle your own disappointments and past difficulties?

JK: Sometimes serenely and sometimes badly. When I remember the following, it always helps: I believe that God either causes --- or allows --- everything, for a good reason. Because, as David said, His ways are too high for us, we can’t understand why He does the stuff He does, but I also believe He acts only for good. Yes, I know --- a tough one, open to heated criticism. But that’s what I believe, and I feel that any darkness in my past has been and is being used for good. I write about a great variety of characters whom I take to be pretty believable, pretty real. At least that’s what my readers say.

How might I have felt/understood/conveyed the persona of more than 800 different people if I had had a sheltered and innocuous childhood and youth? So. He uses the dross of what we’ve been and where we’ve been and puts it through the fire and, if we let Him have His way, it comes forth as gold.

BRC: Father Tim quotes George Macdonald, “You have a disagreeable duty to do at twelve o’clock. Do not blacken nine and ten and eleven, and all between, with the color of twelve.” This says a lot about worry and how to manage it!

JK: This is one of my favorite quotes, and about once every five times, I recall its wisdom and actually exercise it.

BRC: Stories about Elvis are sprinkled all over HOLLY SPRINGS. ’Fess up: Are you an Elvis fan? Have you made the pilgrimage to Graceland?

JK: I started becoming an Elvis fan about two years ago, after seeing some film clips and a television special. For the first time, I caught his spirit of tenderness and generosity, even innocence, and began to love him. The deal was sealed when two adorable Memphis sisters took me to Graceland. Don’t miss Graceland. It is a revealing tribute to a man whom the whole world loved. Hats off, by the way, to the ladies who preserved it just as it was when Elvis called it home.

BRC: I loved some of the old phrases and sayings in HOLLY SPRINGS, like “bring tears to a glass eye” or “welcome as th’ flowers in May.” Did you grow up with these, or did you discover them in your research for the novel?

JK: I grew up with the most colorful speech imaginable, primarily learned from my story-telling grandmother. We came down the Scots-Irish line, and fragments of the old speech, from the old countries, were still intact. I try hard to preserve this wonderful manner of expression, both in my books and in my own speech.

BRC: You quote some wonderful poets and authors in your book, including Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, G.K. Chesterton and --- one of my old favorites --- Elizabeth Goudge. What’s on your nightstand, reading-wise, right now?

JK: I’m reading PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Pulitzer winner Geraldine Brooks. She’s a former journalist and writes with a flair that I find compelling. This year I’ve read and savored the work of Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Elizabeth Spencer, John Steinbeck, and sailed through my third reading of GROWTH OF THE SOIL by Knut Hamsum --- a masterpiece. Also I just re-read JANE EYRE and am launching into WUTHERING HEIGHTS, which I find remarkably better written than JANE EYRE. Driving home today, I realized I was hungry for some C. S. Lewis --- nourishing.

BRC: How will you celebrate Christmas in your 18th-century Virginia farmhouse?

JK: I’ve been living in my restored National Register property (c. 1816) for just eight years, so no set-in-stone traditions yet, other than a big tree --- sometimes out of our own woods, sometimes not. I agonize over the business of Christmas, because 95 percent of the population blows right by Advent and starts celebrating Christmas a month early. I weary quickly of this, needing a time of Advent for the build-up, the silent night before the Great Rejoicing. Why is the common horde so frightened of silence? I “noodled my noggin,” as Uncle Billy would say, over this very question and out of that deep ponder came “Shepherds Abiding.”

BRC: What’s next for you, writing-wise?

JK: I have another book in the Father Tim Novels contract, which will be set in Ireland. He and Cynthia travel to Sligo, presumably to meet up with Father Tim’s cousin, Walter, and his wife, Katherine, and visit the ruin of their family castle, c. 1640. But Walter and Katherine never show. PARTY OF FOUR is the title, and I plan to visit Sligo next spring for the research. Thanks for asking.

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INTERVIEW

April 13, 2001

Millions of readers have discovered Jan Karon's fictional town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. With the publication of A COMMON LIFE, the sixth volume in the series, they have good reason to be joyous. This much-anticipated book goes back in time to recount the wedding and courtship of the beloved characters Father Tim and Cynthia Coppersmith. Join Bookreporter.com's Shannon McKenna as she chats with Karon about the year's biggest wedding, the great citizens of Mitford, and her writing life.

BRC: When you wrote AT HOME IN MITFORD, did you envision that it would launch such a successful and popular series?

JK: Never! I thought I might have a modest audience of readers like myself. I find it marvelous that millions of people love books in which there is no profanity, murder, mayhem --- you get the idea!

BRC: Father Tim proposes at the end of A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW, and in THESE, HIGH GREEN HILLS he and Cynthia are married when the book opens. Why did you choose not to work the wedding into one of these books? Did you always have the idea that you would devote an entire book to the wedding?

JK: It never occurred to me that I would devote a book to the courtship/wedding. Frankly, it was too much trouble to include such an exhausting and complex social function at the end of A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW. I did write about it, at last, because I thought it might be fun...and it WAS! I love weddings.

BRC: There have been three books in the series since the time the wedding took place. Was it difficult for you to write about an event that took place in the past and to remember what happened to the characters before and after the wedding?

JK: Not really. And I enjoyed having Miss Sadie to visit with again!

BRC: In A COMMON LIFE it's the descriptive details that make the characters come to life and make them seem so real --- like Dooley and his love of fried baloney, Cynthia and her children's books, and Esther Bolick and her orange marmalade cake. Do you have a technique that helps you achieve this?

JK: Nope. I just know the characters and stay true to who they are. I'm also willing to let my characters grow, develop, and change if necessary. Dooley has grown away from fried baloney --- and into the "stuff" that characterizes his persona.

BRC: Did you grow up in a small town like Mitford?

JK: Yes. And I live in one, as well. It's good for our health, I feel, to live in true community.

BRC: Does the town in which you currently live, Blowing Rock, North Carolina, bear any resemblance to the fictional Mitford?

JK: All small towns bear resemblance to Mitford, in my experience. Mitford has a universality that speaks, in some way, to an astonishing variety of readers.

BRC: Do you know how many more books there will be in the Mitford Years series?

JK: Two more novels, a bedside companion, a cookbook, and coming this fall, Father Tim's handwritten journal of his favorite quotes from poets, writers, prophets, theologians, etc. Also this fall --- a Mitford Christmas book, a "stocking stuffer."

BRC: Is it true that there is a Mitford television series in development? Will you write the script?

JK: So far, no series looms. But we are doing a Sunday night movie, and I will not write the script (I will watch the script like a hawk, however, through three drafts).

BRC: Do you like touring to promote your books? Tell us about a memorable event from one of your tours.

JK: Touring is exhausting. But I also love it. After an event, a large, shy man approached me and took my hand. "I just wanted to thank you, Mrs. Karon. I was [the character] Buck Leeper." He walked away. I was deeply moved by a man who was telling me in this way that his life had somehow been changed by my work.

BRC: Where do you do your writing?

JK: At home, overlooking an old orchard --- at a desk the size of a Greyhound bus terminal!

BRC: What are you reading right now?

JK: JIM THE BOY. It's great!

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PAST INTERVIEW

BRC: Jan, I feel like the dumbest reader in America. Here is this series --- this world --- that hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people love.You're into a vast but local universe.... and I've just discovered you. How did all these other people find you so long ago?

JK: I really don't know. I think they were looking for a clean, happy read and stumbled on Mitford. Mitford made them feel good. And guess what --- it's okay to feel good!

BRC: I guess a better question would be: How did YOU stumble onto Mitford?

JK: I had lived in the fast lane for a long time. I knew that this was not a whole way of life. Or a healthy way of life. I found that when I read when the English call "village novels" that they consoled me. I felt hopeful again and ready for anything. I wanted to write books since I was 10 years old. My first book was written on lined blue horse notebook paper. It had a cuss word in it --- one Rhett Butler had used. My little sister found the manuscript. She reported this blasphemy to my grandmother. I was thoroughly chastised for it. So when I left advertising to write my first book, I decided to try to write a clean read about ordinary people ---- and to see if that could be interesting. I write out of the value system that the world tells us will not sell books. And I connected with what is now a million Mitford readers, who said, "BINGO! HALLELUJAH! THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR."

BRC: Are there plans to continue the Mitford Series past the Canaan book?

JK: Yes. Absolutely.

BRC: How far into the future of Mitford can you see? And, when you started, could you even then see deep into Mitford's future?

JK: Yes. And for one simple reason. These are ordinary people. The ordinary has NO limits. Just like your life --- and just like mine. I would like to write 3 more Mitford novels.... a Mitford novella.... and a Mitford cookbook.... and then go on to other things.

BRC: When you read the last page, one might guess that Tim will be dead and Cynthia will be a widow. Isn't the end of ordinmary life a deeply felt death --- rather like what Absalom finds?

JK: Yes. But it's not my business to lose my main character. That will be up to my readers --- to dispose of him as they choose.

BRC: In today's market of material that is mostly the opposite of what you write, how did you find a Viking willing to take a chance on clean, wholesome --- even religious --- material?

JK: I was first published by a small, Christian Viking who had limited distribution. I frankly never dreamed that the 2nd largest trade Viking in the world would find these books and fall in love with them and get behind them l00%. I think it's a miracle in today's marketplace. It's a miracle to me that a book without any profanity, murder or mayhem can debut on the New York Times list at #7.

BRC: At this rate, we can expect imitators --- a veritable School of Karon.

JK: I say, Have at it.

BRC: And more....a prediction.... heard first on AOL Live... Jan Karon will be a selection of Oprah's Book Club.

JK: Holy Smoke! I'm speechless. I will say that Oprah does like Penguin books.

BRC: Ms. Karon, are you Episcopalian as Father Timothy is?

JK: I am.

BRC: John Cheever, another Episcopalian, told me that he loved church ---- so long as he left before the sermon. Do you value preaching?

JK: Exceedingly! I am a regular churchgoer. And I like a good scorching sermon! I like a bold preacher. I like someone who is bold enough to preach the Gospel.

BRC: My friends and I want to know what side of the church is the "gospel side?"

JK: It is the side facing the pulpit. The other side is called the Epistle side, from which the Epistles are read.

BRC: Hi, Ms Karon! Do you do most of your writing on the computer now, or do you still prefer the old-fashioned way?

JK: Always on the computer.

BRC: Do you have any future releases coming out?

JK: Love that question! I have a children's book --- my first. It's called Miss Fannie's Hat, coming out in the spring. I wrote it for both children and adults.

BRC: Who has been your favorite writer throughout the years?

JK: Oh, poop on that question! LOTS of writers are my favorite. But okay: Charles Dickens, Miss Read, A.B. Guthrie, Jr. Conrad Richter and --- surprise, surprise --- Louis L'Amour. He's a heck of a story teller.

BRC: Do you read "modern" books, full of smut and Satan? JK: Never. Life is too short. But let me tell you about a modern book I just did read. It was written by an 84 year-old woman. It's DOWN THE COMMON, it's the story of a year in the life of a medieval woman.

BRC: You dedicate OUT TO CANAAN to "all families who struggle to forgive and to be forgiven." Can you amplify?

JK: Dooley Barlowe comes from a shattered family. Lace Turner comes from a shattered family. These family situations seem hopeless --- but they are not. I have a great heart for the broken family which fills our society, and I believe in healing, and I believe in hope in even the most desperate situations.

BRC: Jan, I live in Charlotte, NC . Is this fictitious town patterned after a real NC city?

JK: The spirit of Bowling Rock informs Mitford. There are no actual people and no actual places. But the spirit of the little Mitford is real.

BRC: In fact, you say, "There were Mitfords everywhere."

JK: People need to open their eyes. They think Mitford is a pipe dream. I know Mitford is real. I've been there.

BRC: Can we find Mitford in a place where more than 10,000 people live?

JK: Absolutely! Mitford can be found in Manhattan. Or even Los Angeles. Let me illustrate. Mitford is a condition of the heart. Someone once said to me, "I didn't like that place --- those people didn't reach out." I would say, Did you reach IN? That is Mitford --- it's about reaching in. It's about something EVERY individual can do, and that is to connect. It's all about connecting.

BRC: Do you have any plans to "go back" and give us a glimpse of Tim before the start of the books -- kind of a prequel?

JK: Not at all. My books involve the reader because they are lived out in a linear way.... just like our own lives.

BRC: Who holds the film or TV option on this material, and will these books ever be filmed?

JK: We have had many approaches from film and TV producers --- many. That is all being worked out, and I am dreadfully choosy about who will bring this to any screen. For me, it's not about money.

BRC: Tell us about your children's book, Fannie's Hat. What is it about? You impressed me on one of the morning talk shows. Thank you for writing wholesome books.

JK: It's about sacrifice. And the lovely rewards of sacrifice. I wish to give children a model for aging. My grandmother --- Miss Fannie --- lived to be 100. And she was a fabulous model for me. In today's world, the children are in California and the grandparents are back East. Families seldom have the privilege of seeing a loved one grow old. So I'm giving Miss Fannie to my readers as a family member they can call their own.

BRC: How do you manage to relate the life of a priest so well? Do you have "family connections" --- father, brother, husband?

JK: None at all. It's all a mystery to me --- I mean, I don't have a clue how I do this. But I think men and women aren't so different.

BRC: I'm thrilled to see your comments about hope. What do you think makes the bleak and depressing novels, which so often have very little hope in them, receive the literary accolades? Why is hope out of fashion?

JK: Hope is never out of fashion. Charles Revson (the founder of Revlon) used to say, "At the cosmetics counter, we sell hope."

BRC: Why does the dog obey the scripture?

JK: I can't answer that. I don't know. He just does. That behavior simply revealed itself to me, and I was amused by it.

BRC: Do you feel a hand over yours --- guiding you --- as you write?

JK: Absolutely. These books are bathed in prayer. If I cannot give my reader --- whom I love --- some gift of myself, why bother? If I had to write a hopeless book, I would never write a book! I'd take up stock car racing or bank-telling.

BRC: Why is there no mention of you or your fabulous books on your Viking's website (www.penguin.com)? They list the Viking imprints, but your books are not included.

JK: We'll look into that.

BRC: Tell us about the newsletter, MORE FROM MITFORD.

JK: As I say, I love my readers. I want to connect with them more often than my books allow. And so I do a newsletter --- which is free --- from Viking and which gives them my schedule, odd and random thoughts, occasional recipes from the books....and just general Mitford stuff.

BRC: What are they having in Mitford for dinner tonight? What will they read? And what's the new Spring fashion?

JK: Tonight, they're having a roast chicken with homemade tomato aspic and caper mayonaisse....roasted potatoes with rosemary...and a glass of Pinot Noir. In Mitford tonight, they are reading Dickens's Fur Coat and Charlotte's Unanswered Letters, by Daniel Pool. And the summer fashion is, as always, blue jeans and a T-shirt and a good leather belt. Mitford is NOT known for fashion.

BRC: What is the new threat to civic order and social harmony?

JK: There isn't one currently. But in the next book, Father Tim and Cynthia will be having an earth-shaking adventure. They will go to fill a pulpit on a small North Carolina island. And that is all I know about the next book. BRC: Jan, we cannot wait for you to find out more about the next book. And we thank you for writing about goodness without lapsing into treacle.

BRC: Please take care --- and come back.

JK: Thank you so sincerely.