Goodreads asked Maura Jortner:

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

Maura Jortner I began writing THE LIFE GROUP in mid-February 2015. I finished the first draft within three and a half weeks. It turned out that the dates within the story (mid-February, when Leah and Mason break up, to the beginning of March, when Rachel goes searching) are the same dates of my writing. Of course I am in no way suggesting the manuscript was finished at that point. That was merely the first draft. Since then, the book has gone through a number of edits–characters were tweaked, details were altered, props changed (within the magic that is writing, a necklace became a teddy bear), even the title has varied. But the story, its bones, has remained the same.

I was inspired to write THE LIFE GROUP from two events. First, one of my students mentioned being part of a life group. He said something about why he hadn’t done his homework, some kind of thing with his group–and it was completely innocent–but it struck me as odd that people his own age had so much control over him, had the ability to perhaps encourage him to make a bad decision. The second event was of greater significance: one of my colleagues went missing. She wasn’t gone long; after searching all over town and realizing how little I really knew about the people I called my close friends, I found her. She was fine–if by fine I mean not abducted, murdered, or seriously hurt. The start of mental illness’s debilitating and destructive iteration simply had a hold of her.

Later that semester, as I drove to the local daycare to pick up my children, thoughts of my colleague swirled through my mind. I remembered the gnawing feeling I had–my stomach alternating between tight clenches and high-up flips–as I worried about her safety. I recalled my heart thumping as I walked down sketchy streets in the bad part of town. In my mind’s eye I again saw her office key sitting on the small side table as if she’d left it there–a simple gesture, something we do everyday–not knowing she would be abducted in the next moment. The daycare in sight, I gripped the steering wheel tighter, and then it came to me–the entire plot.

So I did what I suppose most writers would do in that scenario: I pulled over and took a bunch of notes on the post-it-note stack I have stowed in my car.

THE LIFE GROUP was clear in my mind from that moment on. After that, I just needed to write it. Word by word by word over the next three and a half weeks the story emerged onto the computer screen. Mid-February to the beginning March. Three and a half weeks . . . and then years of redrafting. Finally, about two years after that start, it will be published.

I can’t wait to see come to life.

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