I don't know if it's just me, or are stories just born out of stories? I started writing Against the Wind and it began as a coping mechanism. A lot of Max's backstory in it is inspired by real life events. I know what the healthcare system is like, I know what hospital bureaucracy is like and I know how traumatising it can be when you get sucked into that hellhole.
Parts of that inspired The Things We Left Behind. And also, I find the idea of Max being a doctor really, really hot. I don't even know why. There's this scene where Max takes George's temperature and checks his blood pressure, and I found that more intimate than any sex scene I might have written. It's weird.
Working on that inspired a Landoscar AU, which I don't know when I'll work on, but definitely will because I have 5000 words of dialogue saved in my notepad. Oscar is a doctor and Lando is a pianist who develops a chronic hand injury.
And you know what they say, what's bad for the heart is good for the art, it sounds like a cliche, but I love writing about misery and illness and depression, these are the things I've known in life, and at times it's easier to romanticise them, than face, head on, how ugly they really are.












