Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis

In this bonus episode of Behind of Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti sits down with author, film and television producer, and prolific screenwriter, Todd Komarnicki. Patti and Todd discuss their backgrounds in studying stories, and how their love of storytelling has translated into collaborating on the upcoming TV-series adaptation for Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Todd has penned several novels and has worked on numerous blockbuster films, such as Elf and Sully. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com.

Author Patti Callahan extends a “thank you” to all the listeners of the Behind the Scenes of Becoming Mrs. Lewis Podcast and offers a sneak peek at the bonus content that can be found on the upcoming audiobook edition, including a clip from the bonus episode with Max McLean, the founder and artistic director of Fellowship for Performing Arts. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com.

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. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com

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. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com

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. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com

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. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com.

“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 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. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com.

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. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com.

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. For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com.

Join New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan for a seven-part original podcast that explores in depth the improbable and beautiful love story between C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman. While writing her bestselling novel Becoming Mrs. Lewis, Patti Callahan was inspired by numerous experts with scholarly, literary, and personal connections to Lewis and Davidman. Join her as she talks with these influencers, who include: Joy Davidman’s son and C.S. Lewis’s step-son, Douglas Gresham David and Crystal Downing, codirectors of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College Crystal Hurd, author and editor for Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal Scholar, speaker and author, Dr. Andrew Lazo, who specializes on works from C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman Montreat College Professor and author of Yet One More Spring: A Critical Study of the Words of Joy Davidman, Dr. Don W. King For more information about the podcast and Becoming Mrs. Lewis, please visit: www.becomingmrslewispodcast.com