Goodreads asked Neil Ellis Orts:

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

Neil Ellis Orts The germ of Cary & John came to me decades ago, probably before I was even out to myself as a gay man. One of the advice letters (Ann or Abby, I don't recall which or maybe if there was even another) ran a letter from an older man who was writing just to express his secret grief. It seems many years earlier, he'd been on a business trip with a co-worker. During that trip, sharing hotel rooms and whatnot, they fell in love. I don't recall the details, exactly, but I believe they were both married and kept their love affair a secret for a long time. One of them had died and the other didn't have a way to grieve in a public way. I was probably morally appalled at the affair, but the image of this sad, lonely man, writing an advice column just to so someone knew of his grief touched me.

Then a few years ago, something or other spurred an image of a conservative woman learning of her deceased father's homosexuality. It came to me as a very strong image and I knew it was the start of a story. It took me a while to find the details (how did she find out? what would a dead man would leave behind to reveal this?), but eventually, I just started writing letters between these men.

There's always more to the start of a story than what I described above, but that's the broad strokes of its genesis.

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