Goodreads asked Robin Antalek:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Robin Antalek I had just shelved a novel I had been working on for two years. I was sort of aimless, a little down that all that work had been for nothing. I just couldn't make it work. I was in the used book shop of my local library, sitting on the floor, surrounded by books I was planning to purchase and also eavesdropping on the conversation between the two elderly volunteers in my defense it's a really small space) when one of the women said to the other 'It was the summer all the children in the neighborhood caught a virus.' There was something about that sentence that made me write it down on the inside of one of the books. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Before long I had a neighborhood, a group of kids, a family very publicly imploding, a box of provocative photographs and two friends sharing a first kiss. The Grown Ups was born.

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