Goodreads asked Keith Bullock:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Keith Bullock The question would be easier to apply to most, if not all, of my short stories where I usually begin with a single idea - a "What if..." that I then set out to answer through the narrative. I'm not sure that I go about writing a novel in the same way.
On the face of it, 'Winning Ticket' is a novel about a Dudley-born Sikh shopkeeper who steals the winning lottery ticket of a drunken, down-and- out customer. There was of course a trigger that set off my thoughts: it was the personal experience of being told by a rather shady-looking shopkeeper that my ticket was a none-winner, before he appeared to put it quickly behind the counter... it left me forever wondering! That was the catalyst that prompted me to sharpen my pencil, but I can't say that it was really the idea for the novel, or my principal reason for writing it.
In writing a novel, there is usually an underlying theme that I want to give expression to and therefore the "What ifs..." of the narrative are there as artefacts to realise the theme.
To be more specific - the underlying theme of 'Winning Ticket' is the question of Identity: Rakesh Singh is a second-generation Brit' with family roots in Idi Amin's Uganda, rather than India. He knows little of his Indian ancestry, culture and religion... Who is he? How does he address the puzzle of his identity in his adulthood in the English Black Country? Thus, the narrative ideas for the novel that set me writing - and their unfolding - are less about my motive for writing the book and more about expediting and illuminating the underlying theme of Identity.

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