The Kindness of Strangers.
In an increasingly volatile world, I’ve been thinking about kindness. What does it mean? And why is it important. My new novel, Two Kinds of Stranger, was nearly called “The Kindness of Strangers,” which is a line from the Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire. My agent and editors were quick to point out that a title about strangers being kind was not exactly a good title for a crime thriller, and of course they are right. In my book, a young social media influencer named Elly Parker carries out random acts of kindness every day. For it to be truly worthy of course, she has to help people that she does not know. This could be giving money to someone without anywhere to sleep, or donating personal hygiene supplies to a shelter, or just helping someone carry their shopping.
I did mention this was a crime thriller, and the character’s acts of kindness expose her to a stranger with an agenda. Not the kind of stranger who needs help, the other kind. The kind of stranger that you never want to meet. This leads Elly into the kind of danger that only trial attorney and former con-artist Eddie Flynn can handle.
When I was thinking about kindness, I did have course to think on the book world, and specifically Dubray booksellers and readers. I am immensely thankful for every reader that I have, and I can think of no kinder community. If you read a good book, what’s the first thing you want to do? You want to share it with somebody, you want your friend, or followers on social media, or your family, to have the exact same pleasure you enjoyed from that book. So to all the Dubray booksellers and you – the readers, thank you for spreading the kindness about my books. I really appreciate it.
