Derek Milman
I had long been a fan of Hitchcock and 'North by Northwest' in particular. I kept seeing, in my head, some sort of updated 21st century version of this idea, with Hitchcockian parallels and locales: a guy who's in the wrong place at the wrong time, who gets caught up in a case of mistaken identity.
I wanted a queer kid to be the hero, but not some muscled toned jock superstar, but an ordinary kid, somewhat self-destructive, with a real broken past, who has a lot to overcome. There were many elements in my head that had to sort of coalesce, which they did, on the page, slowly, driven by the individual characterizations. Also, I've always been interested in the underbelly of American suburbia - what's really going on behind those well-trimmed hedges??
I liked the idea of moral gray areas, where hero and villain meet in a misty interzone of shady ethics and questionable practices. The original film is so influential, and such a genre bender, and I wanted the book to be fun, but also filled with humor, and have lots of layers that get unexpectedly stripped away revealing a tender and palpable emotional core. It started as a single sentence of an idea, in my head, like all my books do. My agent loved my idea and convinced me to write the book.
I wanted a queer kid to be the hero, but not some muscled toned jock superstar, but an ordinary kid, somewhat self-destructive, with a real broken past, who has a lot to overcome. There were many elements in my head that had to sort of coalesce, which they did, on the page, slowly, driven by the individual characterizations. Also, I've always been interested in the underbelly of American suburbia - what's really going on behind those well-trimmed hedges??
I liked the idea of moral gray areas, where hero and villain meet in a misty interzone of shady ethics and questionable practices. The original film is so influential, and such a genre bender, and I wanted the book to be fun, but also filled with humor, and have lots of layers that get unexpectedly stripped away revealing a tender and palpable emotional core. It started as a single sentence of an idea, in my head, like all my books do. My agent loved my idea and convinced me to write the book.
More Answered Questions
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more