Laughter, tears, and consolation

Jan Karon, 88, is author of the bestselling Mitford novels, a series highlighting the life of Father Tim Kavanagh, a fictional Episcopal rector in a North Carolina small town. Her 15th Mitford book, My Beloved, releases Oct. 7. We met at the Hub Station in Hudson, N.C., a building that formerly housed Karon’s childhood school. The Hub Station now has a wing dedicated to the Mitford Museum and recently broke ground for the Mitford Discovery Center, a learning space with educational programming for children and seniors. Here are excerpts of our interview, edited for brevity and clarity.

You didn’t publish your first book until you were in your 50s, but now have written 27 and founded a museum. How did you get here? Just by hook or crook, by stumbling around trying to figure it out for many years, before I asked God to show me how to stumble around better. I was in advertising for a number of years. Advertising really was a wonderful training ground for fiction in that it taught me to use white space, not to put too much of a jumble before the reader. But I knew that I could not remain in advertising forever, because I had more to say. I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior at the age of 42. Several years later, I moved to Blowing Rock, N.C., where, after a series of poor starts, I began writing the Mitford series.

Where did you get inspiration for Mitford? From my life. I’ve been in places where people really cared about each other, and where people actually knew each other. Mitford is not Blowing Rock. It is most certainly not Hudson. Mitford is a mashup of all my experiences in small-town living.

You didn’t have immediate success as a novelist, though? When I submitted my first manuscript, I didn’t have an agent. I received 11 rejections, but I did not feel rejected. I went around to bookstores, and I left them a copy. I was on the third novel before I actually had an agent. I eventually sold the books to Penguin. The market was completely devoid of anything like Mitford, which are Christian-themed novels, because my lead character is a priest. If you have a priest, you’re talking about the church business, the God business.

Did you always plan to write a series? I never dreamed I would write such a lengthy series. I didn’t intend to write the 15th installment. I was trying to write a different book, and the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let me do it. So I came across a short story that I’d written in 2008 or thereabouts. I just started actually doing something with it. And it took me by surprise, and I experienced some real joy in re-finding Mitford.

You prefer to call yourself not a Christian fiction writer but a fiction writer who is a Christian. Why that distinction? My work is essentially for a secular audience. Of course, it’s supported strongly by a Christian reading audience, but I’m out there for the person in the pew who’s still looking and who, like myself, was lost. In the Gospel of Mark, there are three verses devoted to this. Jesus was seen sitting down with “sinners and publicans.” I don’t even, by the way, know what a publican is. I’m just looking for the people who need that consolation. That’s the medication that a lot of people need today. It’s the medication that helped bring me into my faith.

Do readers write to you asking where they can find Mitford? All the time. But of course, it’s not a real place. People say, “Oh, I wish I could live in Mitford.” Well, I’m telling you, people, you do live in Mitford. If you’ll just wake up and see it, it’s everywhere. It’s in your next-door neighbor who would appreciate a pie when she’s sick. It’s in the grocery store. The real Mitford is in the human heart.

What does a typical day of writing look like for you? Well, I don’t have any schedule at all. I write when I can and sometimes when I can’t. If you put your fanny in the chair, something will happen. Sit there until it happens. And then, of course, there’s prayer. Without prayer, no schedule or lack of it means anything. I pray about a paragraph, sometimes, or a comma—honestly, yes, I’ve prayed about a comma. God is my navigator, my true editor, and so I keep in touch.

Do you get writer’s block? No, never, ever. I’ve always got something to say. But I’ve had writer’s exhaustion. I took a break this year by taking a monthlong trip to Italy.

When you start writing, do you have the plot worked out beforehand? Very seldom. I like to be surprised because, as someone said, “No surprise in the author, no surprise in the reader.” And you can carry that further: No laughter in the author, no tears in the author, none in the reader.

Do your novels require much research? Yes, and I love research. In one of my books, Father Tim goes deep-sea fishing and becomes violently seasick. I had to research that, because it’s not just that you get on a boat and you get seasick. When you’ve done your research, you can control your writing. You can control the movement of the characters. I get a letter or two with most every book. One time I put a constellation in the wrong part of the sky, and I got a letter from a scientist who knows this stuff.

You also hear from readers saying your books saved their marriage, or helped them endure a loss. Were you expecting that? I don’t know how to do the things that people give the books credit for. So one must assume these are God’s books. Lots of cancer survivors have been fed and consoled by these books. I think consolation is one of the things I want to give my reader. Actually, if I had to fly a banner over all of my work, the banner would say, “God really does love us.”

Which writers have influenced you the most? Steinbeck has had a great influence on me. I love Billy Collins, the poet. Flannery O’Connor scares my pants off. She’s always burning down the woods, shooting somebody in a ditch. But at the same time, she’s also a great writer, and she handles Southern dialect better than any of the so-called masters. Much better than Faulkner, way better than Twain. And my most recent favorite is Ernest Gaines. I have such a crush on his work.

You say you’d like to see more Christian fiction authors writing like C.S. Lewis? Yes—Lewis was not writing for Christians; he was writing for everybody. I’m writing for everybody. I’m not trying to draw a line between Christians and non-Christians, or finders and seekers. I value my readers, any color, any faith. I value their humanity. We’re all in this huge stew pot together. I’m just trying to do my job, which is small by comparison, just to be in the boat with everybody else.