My Beloved Author Q&A With Jan Karon

Jan Karon is the author of the bestselling series of fifteen Mitford novels featuring Father Timothy Kavanagh, an Episcopal priest, and the fictional village of Mitford, which is set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

FF: What inspired the story in My Beloved? What brought you back to Mitford?

I was inspired by a short story I had struggled to write. It just wouldn’t work, and then one day, it did. Start with a private letter, a love letter, and put it before other eyes, and what happens? The answer demanded to be more than a short story and became a novel.

FF: Where did your inspiration for Father Tim come from?

Historically, clergy has rarely fared well in fiction. Sinclair Lewis’s Elmer Gantry in 1927 was a set-up for decades of deviant fictional clergy. I wondered what a genuinely devoted believer would look like as a bona fide man of God? He would have to have a few warts, like the rest of us. At two a.m. one morning, Timothy Kavanagh came to me, wearing a collar.

FF: Which character surprised you the most in My Beloved?

My characters surprise me all the time, which is one reason I keep writing—I am as curious as the reader about what comes next. I was surprised to learn the full details of Cynthia’s near-miss, and how characters other than Tim were inspired to write letters of love and affection.

FF: Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful way to share truth?

Actual truth can be scary; fictional truth allows you to examine it up close without being burned.

FF: How do you get into the right frame of mind to write for your Mitford fans?

I’m pretty much in a Mitford frame of mind all the time. I don’t have to ‘shift gears,’ I’m already there when I sit down to write. 

FF: Did you have to do any specific research for My Beloved?

I researched the behavior of mules and their food preferences; I did research on the Ragdoll cat. By the time I hit the fifteenth novel, I had already done the truly pertinent research which, over time, was pretty massive and included exploring a wild cave that I entered through a hole in the ground. As I’m claustrophobic since childhood, this was no casual piece of research. Being uncomfortable around anything maritime, and caring nothing about fishing, I went on a deep-sea fishing expedition—in rough waters—for A New Song. It gave me Chapter 13, one of the funniest chapters I ever wrote if I do say so myself.

FF: What do you want readers to take away after reading My Beloved?

That telling people you love them is good—if you mean it. That it’s good to like or love someone without fear—if they deserve it. That God is real and living and we are more often than not in a state of grace. 

FF: What are the biggest writing challenges for you?

My everyday life is my greatest challenge—it is fiercely jealous of my writing life and does whatever it can to distract or even deceive me. 

FF: What authors or books have inspired you as an author?

Impossible to answer but I can try. CS Lewis, John Steinbeck, Frederick Beuckner, Walt Whitman, James Agee, Johanna Spyri, Knut Hamsun…we could be at this for days! To all the authors divinely put before me for influence and inspiration, I give thanks.

FF: How has your faith or world view impacted the way you tell stories?

My faith completely impacts the way I tell stories, even when I’m not writing about or even referencing my faith. 

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