Goodreads asked T.L. Haddix:

How do you get inspired to write?

T.L. Haddix Life! Literally everything around me can serve as inspiration, and so can dreams. Or I'll see something on TV and say "I would have done it differently," which leads to the "what-if" train.

One of the latest things to spark some interest was getting behind my father-in-law on the road. We happened to be behind him, going up the same road, and while he turned off at one restaurant (it was lunchtime) and we went to another, I wondered "what if…" The place we went to was across from a somewhat seedy motel, and as I waited in the car for hubby to get our order (it was take-out, of course), I thought "Wow, what if he'd been going there?" Now, my FIL would NEVER do such a thing. But what if that situation did happen? What if a child did end up accidentally following a parent and discovered that parent was having an affair?

I immediately started thinking "How can I use that?" and I came up with something that, I think at least, will be utterly hilarious if I can pull it off. Things aren't always as they appear. And in this case, how I intend to use it, it is but it isn't, and there are going to be some very embarrassed adult children by the time it all comes unraveled.

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