Goodreads asked N.J. Simmonds:

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

N.J. Simmonds 'The Path Keeper' grew and grew from two initial little idea seeds.

One was a documentary I watched about a teenage girl who was so desperate to fall in love and be loved that she didn't realise the 'boy' that she was crazy about was actually her best friend dressed up...which made me remember just how consuming love was for me in my late teens. How I would ignore all the warning signs about someone not being right for me just to get swept up in the drama of it all. Which is what Ella is like with Zac - she knows there's something strange about him, dangerous even, but she pushes and pushes because after such a crappy time she needs to feel those extremes. She needs to feel alive again.

The second idea seed created the scene where Ella is in bed waiting for Zac to let himself in to her room. That feeling of excitement and dread was a really vivid dream I had which made me want to explore the scenario further.

The rest? That just came as I went along, slotting it all into place until it somehow came together in the end.

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