How I decide on the subject matter for my books and research for the breakdown
I have ideas for new stories every day. Someone might be telling me something and I’ll think ‘that would make a good story’ and I’ll file it away somewhere in my brain to use later. The problem is that there are so many in there that I can no longer remember them all! Most of the ideas for my stories, however, come from situations that I find myself in. This is certainly true of both The Breakdown and the book I’m writing at the moment. In both cases, I found myself in a situation and I thought ‘what if?’
The idea for The Breakdown came as I was driving home through some woods one afternoon. The skies suddenly darkened and before I realised what was happening, I found myself in the middle of a huge storm, complete with flash flooding, and no way of getting onto a main road. There was no-one around and I kept hoping that I wouldn’t break down, because there were dips in the road where the rain had accumulated and I was worried that my car would stall as I drove through them. It was quite terrifying and I began to think how much worse it would be if it was the middle of the night. And then I began to wonder what I would do if I saw someone who had broken down at the side of the road. Would I stop or would I just drive on? I thought it was an interesting dilemma and The Breakdown was born.
I was also interested in exploring dementia and how it must feel to experience gradual memory loss. In The Breakdown, Cass not only has to deal with the guilt she feels in relation to her actions the night she sees a woman broken down in her car, she also has to cope with the fear that she is suffering from early onset dementia like her mother, who died a couple of years previously. I don’t have first-hand experience of dementia but there is plenty of information about this devastating condition on the internet. However, the examples I’ve used in The Breakdown came from friends’ experiences with their loved ones, which they kindly allowed me to use in my story to illustrate Cass’ disintegrating memory.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us B.A. Paris, reading your post has brought back just how I was feeling as I was reading the opening of the book.
I have ideas for new stories every day. Someone might be telling me something and I’ll think ‘that would make a good story’ and I’ll file it away somewhere in my brain to use later. The problem is that there are so many in there that I can no longer remember them all! Most of the ideas for my stories, however, come from situations that I find myself in. This is certainly true of both The Breakdown and the book I’m writing at the moment. In both cases, I found myself in a situation and I thought ‘what if?’
The idea for The Breakdown came as I was driving home through some woods one afternoon. The skies suddenly darkened and before I realised what was happening, I found myself in the middle of a huge storm, complete with flash flooding, and no way of getting onto a main road. There was no-one around and I kept hoping that I wouldn’t break down, because there were dips in the road where the rain had accumulated and I was worried that my car would stall as I drove through them. It was quite terrifying and I began to think how much worse it would be if it was the middle of the night. And then I began to wonder what I would do if I saw someone who had broken down at the side of the road. Would I stop or would I just drive on? I thought it was an interesting dilemma and The Breakdown was born.
I was also interested in exploring dementia and how it must feel to experience gradual memory loss. In The Breakdown, Cass not only has to deal with the guilt she feels in relation to her actions the night she sees a woman broken down in her car, she also has to cope with the fear that she is suffering from early onset dementia like her mother, who died a couple of years previously. I don’t have first-hand experience of dementia but there is plenty of information about this devastating condition on the internet. However, the examples I’ve used in The Breakdown came from friends’ experiences with their loved ones, which they kindly allowed me to use in my story to illustrate Cass’ disintegrating memory.
Thank you so much for sharing that with us B.A. Paris, reading your post has brought back just how I was feeling as I was reading the opening of the book.
If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?
It all started that night in the woods.
Cass Anderson didn’t stop to help the woman in the car, and now she’s dead.
Ever since, silent calls have been plaguing Cass and she’s sure someone is watching her.
Consumed by guilt, she’s also starting to forget things. Whether she took her pills, what her house alarm code is – and if the knife in the kitchen really had blood on it.
Bestselling author B A Paris is back with a brand new psychological thriller full of twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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