Goodreads asked C.G. Fewston:

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

C.G. Fewston When I began writing A Time to Love in Tehran, it had many names and many versions. The first time I became inspired by the idea that ultimately took the shape of this novel was in February, 2011. I had just enrolled in a distance course at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro called Current Problems in the Middle East: An Historical Perspective with Dr. Ann P. Saab as the principle professor. I spent the next year of my free time studying as much as I could about ancient Persia, modern Iran, and the history of the Middle and Near East. But all that research began with a dream.

I was living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam when one night in February, I had a vivid dream of a beautiful Iranian woman. I opened my eyes and on my lips was the name “Leila.” After months of research, probably sometime in June, I uncovered who that woman was. I was sitting at my desk and clicked on a link to the funeral of the Shah’s daughter that took place in London in June, 2001. And there was this same woman from my dream. Her name was Princess Leila Pahlavi, and when she passed away she was 31 years old, the same age as I was when I started writing this novel. I have often felt her guiding-hand over this story.

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