Tracy Marie asked Mary Beth Keane:

As I was reading the book, you discussed tricks and ways that alcoholics and also people that drink too much do to cut down on their drinking. It really struck me, as I have dealt with alcoholics in my life. Did your own experience with alcoholics influence your writing about it? Or did you have to do research all of it?

Mary Beth Keane Both. I've been around drinking all my life, and what makes a person an alcoholic has always been interesting to me. Truthfully, I'm still not sure where the line is. My bar for too much might be different from yours, different from my neighbor's etc. And then I hear stories. The research I did was basically gathering anecdotes I've heard over the years. Just recently, I heard a story about a man who always has a few drinks on the Metro North train home from the city after work each day and his trick is he does three sets of twenty jumping jacks before he gets in his car to drive home from the train station. It's both hilarious and horrifying. I keep imagining commuters rushing to their cars, thinking about dinner, thinking about getting to a child's baseball game, and in the corner of the parking lot there's a lone man in a suit doing jumping jacks and believing he's smarter than everyone else.

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