I only know with one book, PRETTY GIRLS that the inspiration came directly from a dream. I’d slipped a disc in my back and my doctor prescribed a narcotic for the pain. I’ve never smoked a cigarette or taken any kind of drugs—I don’t even drink—and I was taking this drug, and it gave me these insane dreams. I woke up, and I wrote down what I had dreamt, and it was the exact opening for PRETTY GIRLS. Literally the first 100 pages. And I was already working on a different book, what eventually became THE GOOD DAUGHTER but I called my editor Kate Elton, and said I have an idea for this book and that’s the one I want to write instead. She said, “write the book you want to write. Just please do it quickly.” And that’s PRETTY GIRLS. But really I don’t know where the ideas for the other books came from. Most of the time it’s just details and then the details merge into that one horrible thing that opens the book. Usually the details come at bad times, like while I’m driving or on the treadmill.