Goodreads asked GiGi Huntley:

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

GiGi Huntley In the Margins, the novel I'm currently finishing, was inspired by an interview I heard on the radio in 2010 or 2011.

I don't remember the name of the person, but she was a playwright or screenwriter who inherited scripts with notes in the margins from a family member.

Those notes were work-related, but I started thinking about what the story could be like if a teen found out her late great-grandfather, a famous author, wrote journal entries in the margins of books he owned.

I was also reading about Hemingway's life at the time. Creating William Keller, a peer and rival of his, was a fun way to put that knowledge to use. (And his name came from the real estate company Keller Williams. I was a marketing director for a real estate group there at the time.)

flag