Goodreads asked Rob Osler:

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

Rob Osler Two ideas merged. The first was that I wanted to create a story in the vein of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City--something gay and good-hearted, with a mystery. The second is Martin Scorsese's film After Hours, in which a character encounters a series of bizarre mishaps in a single night. The initial drafts of Devil's Chew Toy had the action occurring in a 24 hour period. Eventually the timeline expanded to over a week. But the general concept did help with pacing!

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