Why did I write The Shyness Guide?

Why did I write another book about shyness when there are over 600 books about it published already? How could there be anything left to say?

Well, because shyness is almost never understood the way I understand it. From the day I entered kindergarten I was acutely aware of how different I was. In my novel  The Birdcatcher,  Chris Stone explains it this way:

I remembered my own first day at school, that morning in September, 1953, when I crouched in a corner of the school’s old brick walls, already instinctively protecting my back, waiting for the doors of the school to open. I remembered the yard full of children, the pushing, teasing, shouting and hitting that were going on all around me. Though I couldn’t have put it into words then, I felt like an alien child, an orphan from some far away star, inexplicably left behind on a strange and unfriendly planet. Only five years old, I was already contemplating what would be the central problem of my life.

Stone goes on to explain how, through life experience and reading, he developed a better understanding of other people and his shyness. I did too, especially when I was writing his story.

The deeper I got into understanding shyness, the more convinced I became that it’s natural in most shy people.

But, if it’s natural, then you shouldn’t be trying to get rid of it. If shyness is an intrinsic part of you, then you need to understand it, not escape it.

The Shyness Guide isn’t only about shyness though. It’s a new way of looking at the world, one that I will help you to see that this world is your world as much as anyone else’s.