“The Incredible Kindness of Paper” by Redwood City author Evelyn Skye is out Aug. 12. Courtesy Atria Books/Simon & Schuster.
Redwood City author Evelyn Skye believes “if there’s something good you want to say, you should just say it,” as she put it in a recent interview. When she was a child, her mother instilled in her an appreciation for the way something as simple as a friendly smile could make someone’s day a bit brighter.
Skye still believes in the power of small moments of goodness making a positive difference in the world, and that idea shines through in her new novel, “The Incredible Kindness of Paper,” out Aug. 12, with a release party at Books Inc. Palo Alto Aug. 13.
The idea for the heartwarming story was sparked when Skye took an Uber ride and realized after that she hadn’t made any effort to talk to the driver.
“Later I felt so guilty about that, because how much does it really cost me to say, ‘Hey, how are you today?’” she said. “I just feel like we’re a little bit lonely these days; that technology purports to connect us to each other but actually allows us to isolate ourselves, and we don’t realize it because we think that we’re still involved in the world. And what I’ve noticed is that because of that, we tend not to see people as much.”
The book’s protagonist is Chloe, a recently laid-off New York guidance counselor with a penchant for writing inspirational messages on yellow origami roses. To her surprise, the paper flowers and their encouraging words end up starting a kindness-spreading movement that changes her life and others’ lives for the better.
When Skye began work on the new novel, “I was actually scared to write it because I wasn’t sure that I could do that concept justice,” she said. “In our society, we tend to discount these little small happinesses that we can share with people. I wanted to write a book that captured the importance of that spirit while also making it seem not just naive.”
Evelyn Skye’s new novel “The Incredible Kindness of Paper” celebrates connection and the power of small acts of kindness. Courtesy Atria Books/Simon & Schuster.
And although there are plenty of elements of romantic comedy in the intertwining stories of Chloe and her long-lost former pen pal and childhood bestie Oliver, Skye’s goal was to get at something bigger.
“I wanted to make everyone pause and think a little bit about how they’re carrying on their everyday lives,” she said.
The inspiration for Chloe’s origami roses came from Skye’s own grandmother, who grew up in Taiwan. When she would come to the U.S. to visit each year, she’d bring her origami creations, made with beautiful Japanese paper, with her as gifts.
“It was always such a treasure to get this paper art that was crafted with so much love and carried across an ocean for me and my brother,” Skye recalled.
Skye grew up in Southern California, headed up to Stanford University to study Russian literature, then went on to Harvard Law School. Upon returning to California, she worked as an attorney for several years – and hated it. When she went on maternity leave after having her daughter, she finally had some time to read for pleasure again and, recalling her own childhood love of writing, decided she was ready to try a new path.
Eight rejected manuscripts later, her ninth was sold and became her first published book. And now, a decade or so on, she’s a bestselling author. Her other books for adults include “The Hundred Loves of Juliet” and “One Year Ago in Spain,” but she started off writing for young adult readers, in part because “YA had this really addictive pacing that I liked,” she said (Skye has also published books for middle-grade readers.)
Now, she aims to weave that quick pace into her stories dealing with adult experiences. She’s also enjoyed getting to share her writing with her now-teenage daughter and her friends over the years as they’ve grown up.
“Writing each kind of age group requires a slight shift in focus,” she said. “If I master something, I get bored and want a new challenge.”
Next up for Skye is a novel due out next summer that may be especially of interest to local readers — a Palo Alto-set tale about the founder of an AI neuroscience startup who discovers she has the ability to turn back time for 24 hours.
“It’s very Silicon Valley,” Skye said of the story, which explores the cultural emphasis on finding “life hacks” and “optimizing” every aspect of existence, along with the pros and cons of technology as well as of living in the moment.
Redwood City author Evelyn Skye’s other books for adults include “One Year Ago in Spain” and “The Hundred Loves of Juliet.” Courtesy Penguin Random House.
Skye is also the creator of the Substack Creative.Inspired.Happy, which evolved from her desire to create “a space where people who feel like they’re so busy with their lives could come and have permission to give themselves a few minutes for creativity,” she said. “It’s so easy to put yourself aside and not give yourself that moment and to feel like, ‘Oh, creativity has to be this huge undertaking.’”
With her Creative.Inspired.Happy community, she shares creativity prompts, author diaries, a podcast, a book club and more. Her podcast offers listeners behind the scenes looks at authors’ lives through discussions with fellow writers.
“It’s just been fascinating to see people’s different journeys,” Skye said. “No matter how successful you are in a publishing career, your life is still pretty normal.”
Access to the book club costs $30 annually to keep the group small and allow for safe and private conversations, but the rest of the content is available for free, and Skye intends to keep it that way.
“Once you change the creative pursuits into a money-making part of your life, I feel like it changes the tenor of it and you have to start thinking about the monetization, you have to look at the metrics, and sometimes that takes away the pure joy of it,” she said.
The idea that everything should be exploited for material and/or professional gain is something Chloe struggles with in “The Incredible Kindness of Paper” as well, resisting others’ urging to turn her heartfelt origami roses into a “side hustle” or business prospect.
“Why can’t we just do things because we want to? Even if there’s nothing in it for us, other than being nice? When did we start being revenue-maximizing machines and stop being human?” the character laments.
That pressure “is so manifest in anyone who’s trying to have a creative career,” Skye said. “It seems like we’re not allowed to do things anymore just because we like it.” In Skye’s case, while she is a successful author, she is open about the fact that thanks to her spouse’s salaried, “normal” job, her family isn’t solely reliant on that success.
“I have made a conscious decision to not put all the financial pressure on my writing,” she said.
Creative.Inspired.Happy now has nearly 25,000 subscribers, so clearly it’s resonating with readers – an unexpected but welcome outcome for Skye.
“I think it’s a Silicon Valley attitude that I have – I just try things and if it fails, that’s fine, I’ll move on,” she said. “But apparently it’s kind of blown up, and that’s been a nice surprise.”
Join Evelyn Skye for a reading, discussion and book signing for “The Incredible Kindness of Paper” at 7 p.m. Aug. 13 at Books Inc. Palo Alto, 855 El Camino Real #74. Skye will be in conversation with fellow author and Stanford grad Alka Joshi. More information is available at evelynskye.com; Instagram: @evelyn_skye.
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