Dear 🎧 Listener and Friend,
Those eight weeks of podcasts flew by!
Today is the last one — grab them wherever you listen to podcasts as they will come down in January when they will be combined with two bonus episodes (with surprise guests!) as an audiobook. This audiobook will also include cut scenes, poetry and extra material!
For today, welcome to SURPRISED BY LOVE, episodes six and seven will focus on Joy’s love poetry and Jack’s final shattering to love.
All 💕JOY, Patti
Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Episode Seven
(Seven of a Seven-Part Series)
Episode 7
November 12, 2019
SURPRISED BY LOVE
—How love found C.S. Lewis with Scholar Andrew Lazo
A once-proclaimed “confirmed bachelor,” C.S. Lewis found himself contradicted when he fell in love with Joy Davidman. However, it is up for debate WHEN Lewis discovered this deep love for Joy. Scholar Andrew Lazo discusses how the letters and works of C.S. Lewis showcase his evolving self-awareness as he realized that he had helplessly fallen in love with the imperious Joy Davidman.
End Notes:
Andrew Lazo Website
Speaker, Scholar, Writer —and expert on Joy’s influence on Till We Have Faces.
Till We Have Faces
(book mentioned in the podcast)
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis
Diane Pavlac Gleyer Website
Author, Speaker, and Teacher—whose work centers on C. S. Lewis.
Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings
(book mentioned in the podcast) by Diane Gleyer and Michael Ward.
Michael Ward Website
Michael Ward is Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. He is the author of the award-winning Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis.
The Narnia Code: C. S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens
(book mentioned in the podcast)
Studio Website
Calvin Venus, owner/operator of Tonecrafters
Houston Christian High School Website
Joy Davidman's Poetry: A Naked Tree: Love Sonnets to C.S. Lewis and other poems by Joy Davidman and edited by Don W. King. Sonnet XIV
The Author and Host:
York Times Bestselling Author Patti Callahan Henry Writing as Patti Callahan. Website (The Novel) Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis. (The Podcast) Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series.
"Sonnet XIV"
“When I have said all the words, what shall I do?
When all the rhymes are paired and I have sung
Whatever tunes are nested in my tongue,
And have made all the promises, false and true –
When the sonnets are written and the night
Burns black to moonset and bright to sunrise,
And dawn strikes like murder at my aching eyes
With its intolerable bruise of light –
Always, after the praying and the poor gabble
Of sobs, and the twisting in the lonely bed,
And the clever spiderwebs I weave in my head
To catch you with, I sit down at my table.
And stare at nothing, neither god nor you;
Sir, at the end of words, what shall I do?”
— Joy Davidman
A Naked Tree: Love Sonnets Sonnet XIV
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Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series
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Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Audiobook
Coming Jan 7, 2020!
This edition collects all the interviews from Patti Callahan's Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis podcast, as well as extensive bonus material not previously released. Including two additional episodes not released on the original podcast. Two hours of additional bonus content!
Perfect for fans of the best-selling Becoming Mrs. Lewis as well as anyone interested in the story behind the story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis. Includes additional podcast episodes, bonus chapters from Becoming Mrs. Lewis, and a special letter from author Patti Callahan to Joy Davidman.
"Binge-Listen" to the entire podcast while
traveling ✈🧳 🚗 for the holidays!
Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast
IN THE NEWS
Noteworthy New Podcast Shows in
Q3 Include: Behind the Scenes of
Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast
From Harper Collins, hosted by best-selling author, Patti Callahan
"New Podcast Shows Continue to Fuel Opportunities to Expand Audience" — Reported by: Barrons, Nasdaq, Benzinga, DigitalJournal, Bloomberg, and Libsyn, View Blog Post
Publishers Weekly PW LitCast
PW LitCast speaks with 'New York Times' bestselling author Patti Callahan about her seven-part original podcast that explores the improbable and beautiful love story between C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman. Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a brief excerpt of the podcast featuring Douglas Gresham, and find more info about 'Becoming Mrs. Lewis' here. View Blog Post
2019 The Christy Award®
"Book of the Year" Winner!
Becoming Mrs. Lewis
and Winner (tie) Historical Romance Category by Patti Callahan
(Thomas Nelson)
Award Gala Nov 2019
Congratulations to the 2019 Winners
and Finalists!
Episode List Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast
September 12, 2019
Introduction
TRAILER Teaser
Episode 1
October 1, 2019
WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN PART 1
— With Douglas Gresham (before Joy's cancer)
As Joy Davidman’s son and C.S. Lewis’s stepson, Douglas Gresham has a distinctly unique perspective on the love story that transpired between the two writers. Gresham shares with Patti his first years of knowing and meeting Lewis and explains how Joy and Lewis’s correspondence, romance, and marriage affected the entire Gresham family.
Episode 2
October 8, 2019
WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN PART II
—With Douglas Gresham (after Joy's cancer)
When Douglas Gresham first learned of his mother’s cancer diagnosis, he very clearly heard the Lord say, “If you can’t make it, if you really can’t make it without your mother, I can fix it. All you have to do is ask.” Joy Davidman’s cancer later went miraculously into remission and gave her, her two children, and Lewis four more blissful years before fatally returning. In this episode, Douglas takes Patti through the years following his mother’s death and shares how her cancer diagnosis not only changed him but also changed the people whom he learned to call family.
Episode 3
October 15, 2019 LOSING FAITH
—Did Lewis lose his faith after Joy’s death?
With Dr. David Downing
“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear,” C.S. Lewis writes in his raw and beautiful book, A Grief Observed, which chronicled his heartbreak after losing his wife, Joy Davidman, to cancer in 1960. Many have read this text and have interpreted that Lewis might have lost his Christian faith after losing Joy. Patti joins Dr. David and Crystal Downing in Wheaton College’s Marion E. Wade Center to discuss how this grief impacted Lewis, his future writing, and ultimately, his Christianity. She discusses the fascinating essay “A Grief Obscured” by Dr. David Downing.
Episode 4
October 22, 2019
WHY JOY?
—Why did Lewis choose Joy Davidman? Dr. Crystal Hurd and Dr. Crystal Downing
One of the questions that Patti asked while writing Becoming Mrs. Lewis was: Why Joy? Why was Joy Davidman the woman who finally ended Lewis’s long run as a bachelor? Patti speaks with Dr. Crystal Downing about how Dorothy Sayers introduced Lewis to an appreciation of brilliant, fiery women who bristled against cultural gender expectations. In another conversation, Dr. Crystal Hurd gives insight on how Lewis’s mother, Flora Lewis, also paved the way to Lewis finding his soul mate in the feisty Joy Davidman.
Episode 5
October 29, 2019
MUSE AND CO-AUTHOR
—Joy as Lewis’s muse and co-Author with Andrew Lazo
Till We Have Faces, a retelling of the ancient story of Cupid and Psyche, is often hailed as one of C.S. Lewis’s most mature and sophisticated novels. In fact, Lewis himself credits the title as being one of his best books. Patti speaks with scholar Andrew Lazo about how Till We Have Faces was heavily influenced—and arguably cowritten—by wife Joy Davidman and how Lewis’s other works show Davidman’s literary fingerprint.
Episode 6
November 5, 2019
THE LOST LOVE SONNETS
—Joy’s poetry to C.S. Lewis with Dr. Don W. King
Over 300 poems by Joy Davidman were never published during her lifetime and were, in fact, lost until quite recently. Dr. Don King has edited, analyzed, and published them in his book Yet One More Spring: A Critical Study of the Works of Joy Davidman. During their compelling conversation in this episode, Patti and Don discuss how Joy’s poetry reveals her desires, persistence, and even her pain. Together, they also ask: Did Joy give Lewis these poems? And how do these poems reflect their love story? Quite racy in parts, Joy’s desire and love for Lewis is palpable in these lost sonnets.
Episode 7
November 12, 2019
SURPRISED BY LOVE
—How love found C.S. Lewis with Andrew Lazo
A once-proclaimed “confirmed bachelor,” C.S. Lewis found himself contradicted when he fell in love with Joy Davidman. However, it is up for debate WHEN Lewis discovered this deep love for Joy. Scholar Andrew Lazo discusses how the letters and works of C.S. Lewis showcase his evolving self-awareness as he realized that he had helplessly fallen in love with the imperious Joy Davidman.
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Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Novel
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Available in Hardcover, e-book, audiobook, and MP3CD formats.
Coming in Paperback March 2020 pre order now!
The Novel
View an extensive collection of videos from Oxford, England, interviews, podcasts, articles, accolades, reviews, inspiration, maps, timeline, a letter to Joy, book club kit, photo galleries, additional reading materials, and more to enhance your overall reading/listening experience.
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About the Author
Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times best-selling author of fifteen novels, including the historical fiction, BECOMING MRS. LEWIS—The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis. The author is also the host of the seven-part original "Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast Series" —launched October 1, 2019.
THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER, (Southern Contemporary Fiction) was released June 4, 2019 and her holiday Christmas novella THE PERFECT LOVE SONG released October 8, 2019, and both are available now.
A full-time author and mother of three children, she now resides in both Mountain Brook, Alabama and Bluffton, South Carolina with her husband.
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Nov 12, 2019: Newsletter: Episode Seven SURPRISED BY 💕 LOVE—How love found C.S. Lewis with Scholar Andrew Lazo.