Joshua La Rue asked Steven A. Roman:

what was your inspiration for your Final Destination Story? Where did your ideas for your book in that "universe" come from?

Steven A. Roman Hi, Joshua! Thanks for the question. The plot for Final Destination: Dead Man's Hand started out with me remembering a trip I'd made to Las Vegas in the 1990s, and a visit to the Stratosphere, which was the tallest hotel/casino structure in the city (probably still is); it had a roller coaster on its roof. For the book, I thought, what if that roller coaster broke free and fell off the roof? I changed the name of the hotel but pitched the roller coaster idea to the Black Library editor; it was soon approved by him and New Line Cinema.

However, just as I'm half-finished writing the manuscript, New Line announces Final Destination 3—which will be about a roller coaster breaking loose. (Hmm...) I contacted the editor and asked if this meant I now had to rewrite the manuscript and change out my roller coaster so it didn't conflict with the movie. He said yes; I cursed a lot. And then settled on the idea of a glass elevator along the wall of the casino tearing free from its moorings. And that became the final version of the death-trap for the book. The rest was just a matter of coming up with characters I'd be interested in writing about—and then putting them through hell. Hope you found all of this helpful!

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