~ FRIDAY FICTION FEATURE ~
BLOG TOUR STOP FOR
-- 'BECOMING MRS. LEWIS' --
AUTHOR PATTI CALLAHAN
~Post Includes: Book Spotlight, Excerpt,
Author Bio, Unique Guest Post Shared
by the Author & Giveaway~
Welcome to the Blog Tour for Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan with JustRead Publicity Tours! We continue the Becoming Mrs. Lewis celebration on social media starting March 14.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: Becoming Mrs. Lewis
Author: Patti Callahan
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: October 2, 2018
From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.”
When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.
In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.
At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.
CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ AN EXCERPT: EXCERPT FROM 'BECOMING MRS. LEWIS'
PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository | Christian Book | iTunes
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patti Callahan (who also writes as Patti Callahan Henry) is a New York Times bestselling author. Patti was a finalist in the Townsend Prize for Fiction, has been an Indie Next Pick, twice an OKRA pick, and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year. Her work has also been included in short story collections, anthologies, magazines, and blogs. Patti attended Auburn University for her undergraduate work and Georgia State University for her graduate degree. Once a Pediatric Clinical Nurse Specialist, she now writes full time. The mother of three children, she lives in both Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Bluffton, South Carolina, with her husband.
GUEST POST SHARED BY THE AUTHOR:
TOPIC: What inspired you to write this book? Are you a
fan of C.S. Lewis's writings which caused you to seek more insight into his
marriage and relationship with Joy Davidman?
We all fall into our own kind of love with C. S. Lewis, and
I had fallen into mine at twelve years old when I read The Screwtape Letters and
then the Narnian Chronicles. But Lewis, known as Jack, only loved one woman
enough to marry, only one woman he called “the whole world (stars, water, air, And
field, and forest, as they were reflected in a single mind.” Her name was Joy
Davidman.
When she died, he wrote one of the most moving pieces of the
twentieth century on grief – A Grief Observed. What kind of love was this? That
is what I wanted to know as I began this novel. Who was this woman who so
enraptured Lewis that her death nearly destroyed him and his faith? I didn’t
want to know just the facts – most of those are disputed anyway as everyone has
their own opinion on who she was and how she lived – I wanted to know her
story, the narrative, even if I had to write it.
Joy was
not interesting merely because C. S. Lewis fell in love with her. Not even
close.
Joy was
a firecracker of a woman, a brilliant writer, a multi-award winning poet, a
novelist, a critic, a protégé of The MacDowell Colony and much more. She was
often called a child prodigy. She graduated graduate school at Columbia at nineteen-years-old.
She won the Yale Younger Poet’s award for her collection inspired by the
Spanish Civil War titled A Comrade in Arms. She was taken on by Brandt and
Brandt, a literary agency and then by MacMillan publishing where her first
novel, Anya was released. Yet even with this resume, she lived in an age when
women were often silenced and shamed for stepping outside the family for
professional or personal satisfaction.
Jack and
Joy’s Eros-story led to some of C. S. Lewis’s greatest works on love,
grief, the true self behind the veil, and of course faith, yet Joy is rarely acknowledged
for the muse, editor, best friend and beloved wife she was to this revered
author. Joy loved Jack fiercely, unabashedly and without reservation, as he did
her.
With
intense curiosity, I began to read Joy’s work. Her poetry, essays, books and
letters flamed with talent, pain and insight. Her words a force of beautiful
prose that many tried to squelch and inhibit.
Joy
often seemed not to care what others thought of her – but I did. Therefore,
I began a novel in what I call “the key of empathy” – I wrote her story from
her instead of about her. I wanted all the world to know
this enchanting, brilliant woman.
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CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR: website | facebook | twitter | instagram
TOUR GIVEAWAY
(2) winners will each win a hardcover release copy of Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
AND
Be sure to stop at the following tours for more chances to win!
*NOTE: This post contains affiliate links.
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Joy sounds like an amazing woman who I can't wait to get to know. Just WOW!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an amazing story!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post and the giveaway opportunity. Looking forward to reading it. Have heard wonderful things about Becoming Mrs. Lewis.
ReplyDeleteCarol Luciano
Lucky4750 at aol dot com