CJ Duggan on Inspiration

Inspiration can strike in the least likely of places.

I was travelling on a London bus in the summer of 2015 when I first thought of the Heart of the City series. I had gone from simply admiring all the beautifully bold street names to thinking about what it would be like to write about a character that was experiencing the wonders of a city for the very first time – a real fish-out-of-water story.

The voices were loud, the story was clear: Paris – New York – London would be the beginning. I instantly retrieved my notebook from my bag and much like a mad scientist started scribbling some character notes, feeling a new excitement in having realised this was actually going to be something.

When you know – you know.

A year on and three books later, it made me realise what was probably the most valuable lesson of all: Never miss your bus, because you never know where it might take you.