Why I Wrote POSSESSION

So I've had people in my real life asking me this question: "What's your book about?" or "Why did you write this book?"

So okay, I thought I'd expound a little.

First, some facts:
1. POSSESSION used to be titled CONTROL ISSUES. If you've heard me talk about that before, it's the same book.
2. POSSESSION was the third novel I completed. The first two are terrible with a capital T.
3. I wrote POSSESSION in 17 days in April 2008. It was 90,000 words. This upcoming published version is about 77K.
4. I edited POSSESSION at least 20 billion times, some lightly, some heavy, some in between. This is the life of a pantser.

So there's all that.

But why did I write it? Where did the idea come from?

I can't pinpoint the time and day when I thought about the overall idea for POSSESSION. I wanted to write a dystopian novel, because I'd just read UGLIES by Scott Westerfeld (go, now. read. love). I'd never written a dystopian novel before--in fact I'd never considered writing science fiction before.

That's what geeks did, right? Um...don't answer that.

I'd been thinking a lot about my life, and the choices I'd made that had led me to where I was, and that led to the question: What would life be like if we couldn't make our own choices?

And bam! Instant brainwashing society. Just add words. So I did. I added more and more words. And a generous helping of cute boy. A pinch of angst. A teaspoon of betrayal. A handful of snark.

And POSSESSION was formed. It's not quite ready to be born yet, but I'm anxiously anticipating it's book birthday on June 7* 2011.

Favorite quote from POSSESSION: If I fell, I'd kill the stupid bad boy for making me climb up here.

So why are you writing your current WiP? Where do your ideas come from? And most important: are you a science fiction geek?

*date subject to change