River Jordan didn't mean to write her latest book. She only meant to keep one simple New Year's resolution.

In late 2008, with her two sons headed off to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, an idea popped into her head—instead of focusing on her own worries, she'd spend a few minutes each day praying for a total stranger.

But when she told her husband about that day's person—a woman whose son recently died, another wondering if anyone in the world cared about her, an old man so content with his life he whistled all the time, even at the gas pump—he insisted she start writing down the stories.

The result is Praying for Strangers: An Adventure of the Human Spirit (Berkley), Jordan's first foray into memoir. The author of five acclaimed novels (The Miracle of Mercy Land) and multiple plays, she is no stranger to creating literary landscapes. But putting herself on the page was something entirely new.

"I had to be true to the integrity of the people and their stories," she tells PW. "I am a storyteller, and part of that training is I knew how to capture the nuances of the conversation and tell the truth about it. But I felt exposed, and that was uncomfortable for me. I remain an introvert."

Then she realized this book was about more than just her reactions to the people she bumped into at the grocery, the bus station, a red light.

"There was a responsibility to a larger story here," she says. "The depth of feeling I have for the person I am praying for, someone I don't even know, it is pure magic. If we felt that way every day for the people we pass, I would like to see what that looks like."

Berkley, a division of Penguin, has scheduled a number of radio appearances for Jordan, including one on NPR, and secured reviews in several magazines, including PW (a PW Web Exclusive) and Southern Lady. Berkley has produced a video about the book and scheduled readings through October, mostly in the South and Northwest. A Web site gives readers instructions on incorporating this practice into their own lives—something Jordan continues to do.

"A few days into 2010 I was looking for strangers to pray for," she says. "It has become a spiritual discipline. Now it is just integrated into the fabric of my life."