Goodreads asked Mark Murphy:

How do you get inspired to write?

Mark Murphy Usually, I get an idea by what I call a "What if" moment, when something happens that makes me say,"Hey, that might make a good story!" My novel "The Shadow Man" starts with the protagonist being involved in a fender-bender with a mysterious SUV with tinted windows while coming back from the airport. That actually happened to me one day (or almost happened; we nearly collided, but I managed to slam on brakes). In the real-life incident, I almost honked my horn at the guy, but decided not to because the other guys' car looked a little ominous. I remember thinking, "This guy could be a lunatic." And then I thought, "What if you had a random encounter with a man who turned out to be a psychopath and he targeted you and your family as a result?" The novel grew from that.

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