‘Albemarle woman’ Karon addresses festival crowd

By Brian McNeill

Published: March 27, 2008

Best-selling novelist Jan Karon offered a bit of advice to all the aspiring writers in a sold-out crowd Thursday at the Virginia Festival of the Book.
“If you wish to succeed as a writer, here is all you need to know — and Kurt Vonnegut said it — ‘You got to be a good date for the reader,’” she said. “Brilliant.”
Of course, she added, if a reader is looking for a “hot date,” they should probably turn elsewhere than her genteel and faith-infused novels about the fictional town of Mitford and a diabetic small-town priest named Father Tim, as well as her acclaimed children’s books about a bookseller named Alice and her cat Violet.
Karon told the audience that her love of storytelling came from listening to her grandmother read aloud the Old Testament and other books and tales. Her grandmother’s stories, she said, taught her that ordinary lives are deep, compelling and fascinating.
“We are all quite extraordinary,” she said.
Hence her knack for stories that focus on the lives of everyday Southern characters, such as the “wicked” Edith Mallory, the jokester Uncle Billy and the schizophrenic Miss Rose.
“I have no greater joy in life than making the jump into the skins of my characters,” Karon said, adding that she falls in love with her literary creations. One night, she said, she even found herself praying for one of her characters.
“I never know what they’re going to do,” she said. “They just walk in and take over.”
Karon, one of the Charlottesville area’s best-known and most popular writers, was one of the biggest draws of the 14th annual book festival. She spoke over lunch at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel before hundreds of elegantly attired women mostly of a certain age, with just a few husbands in tow.
Lee Catlin, Albemarle County’s spokeswoman, introduced Karon to the crowd. She called the novelist a true Albemarle woman.
Catlin quoted one of Karon’s characters, Mitford Mayor Esther Cunningham. “’We are interested in having people coming to visit, but we’re not real interested in having them stay around,’” she said. “Does that sound familiar?”
In her speech, Karon answered the most common questions about her writing. One such question, she said, was why she decided to end the Mitford novels and immediately start a new series about Father Tim.
“This is like having a baby Sunday night and waking up pregnant Monday morning,” she quipped. “I got that line from a preacher.”
In seriousness, Karon said she closed the book on Mitford because she finished telling the story.
“People ask, do I miss Mitford? No,” she said. “I told the story and I told all I knew and it was finished.”
Karon’s new book on Father Tim is called “Home for Holly Springs.”
When asked how she writes, Karon outlined her philosophy for life in general. “Pray in the hard times, pray in the good times,” she said. “Never look back. And absolutely never give up. When I do this, I find that I’ve written a novel.”