A couple of weeks ago we hosted a great guy in our Airstream through Airbnb. He stayed a week and unbeknownst to me downloaded Airstreaming to his Kindle. He left this note for me the night before he left and it was wonderful to receive. Again, this is why I write – to give amazing experiences to others and to quell my own demons. Here’s the text of the letter and I redacted a line that gives away the ending so I wouldn’t offer any spoilers up. Take a look and I’ll hope you’ll download Airstreaming as well!
September 18th, 2015
Dear Tom,
I want to let you know how much I enjoyed your novel Airstreaming. It is a literary accomplishment that deserves much recognition. Meeting Linda, Clare, her father, the Millers and Jack and Martha took me on an emotional rollercoaster I am still very much contemplating. The way in which you introduced and intertwined these characters while slowly peeling back the onion of their inner secrets and demons was masterful. Linda’s father’s prophetic guidance about looking for the meanings behind a person’s façade and recognizing the darkness (different from sinister) really describes the empathetic 3-diminsional way you brought me into these people’s lives. The weight of this was powerful enough that by the end of “Winter” I was emotionally exhausted by all of these wounded women! “Silver” brought some welcome relief in the form of the Airstream and the prospects it represented. I didn’t fully exhale until I got to work the door with the epic Barkis. Being a huge music fan and having worked the door at a popular nightclub it brought back a lot of great memories as did the term “Up North” and the summer home – lake culture- seasonality that it represents. This was a big part of my own childhood in Northern Michigan and it felt good to relive it a little.
We all knew the Airstream would heal somebody (removed as to not give away the ending). The way in which the seriousness of Martha’s mental health issues slowly unfolded was an accurate representation of how these things often enter our lives only to leave and return. The genuine sadness I felt for Martha was commensurate with the pride I felt in Jack’s example of choosing to nurture and protect her over escaping with his own demons of work and alcohol. As men, we know these are ever present.
I could go on, but yhou don’t need a recitation of your own story. Thank you for writing this and for the experience you gave me reading it.
Warm Regards,
Michael
