Goodreads asked Michael J. Sullivan:

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

Michael J. Sullivan The tricky part of answering this question is figuring out which is intended to be "my most recent book"? Hollow World is the most recent book I published, but I've written three manuscript drafts since then. In reality it doesn't matter.

I don't get "an idea" for any novel. For me novels are too complex to be based on a single idea. Book are more of a container where a lot of ideas are thrown and left to grow into something interesting. Most books I write are the result of years and often decades of ideas that I have played with in my head.

Hollow World was filled with all sorts of ideas, as anyone reading it can easily tell. The series I am presently in the middle of, is an idea I began formulating in 2004 as part of the ancient history of the Riyria Revelations, and I'm still throwing ideas into it.

I know that all sounds like I am sidestepping your question. So here's the real answer...a guy named Bob.

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