Twisted stalker Joe put me back on road to happiness

Caroline Kepnes’ debut novel You – a thrilling tale of seduction and stalking – was a huge success and described as “hypnotic and scary” by Stephen King. It’s now a major Netflix series with a second season confirmed. Lisa Gray caught up with Los Angeles-

Back in 2013, I was in mourning. My father was gone and my mother was devastated but so encouraging. “You need to write something.” She was right.

Joe Goldberg started with a what-makes-you-happy-as-awriter moment because that’s my favourite writing advice from Stephen King’s On Writing – that you write to “get happy, okay?”.

So many things were out of my control. I was like, okay, here’s this guy who does everything he can to control everything and it’s all gonna blow up in his pretty little face. Annie Wilkes. Patrick Bateman. Nothing gets my blood pumping like compelling people going for broke with zero regard for boundaries. I always wanted to make my version of that character, someone who watches Fatal Attraction and feels like Glenn Close got a raw deal. Did writing You impact on your own life? I did not have a passcode on my phone while I was writing You. Let’s just say that I do now. What was your reaction to You being adapted for Netflix? I was jumping up and down. I am crazy happy for everyone who gave their all to that first season. First time I watched the pilot, I screamed out loud. That ending. I knew it was coming, I wrote the book. But that’s effective storytelling, when it doesn’t matter how much you know, you just feel.

They brought me in to write an episode in season one and it was wonderful to be in the writers’ room where all these brilliant people are fluent in the language of Joe Goldberg. What can you tell us about season two? It’s similar to Hidden Bodies. Joe comes to LA, meets Love Quinn and her brother Forty Quinn and... okay, just read Hidden Bodies. What are you looking forward to about Bloody Scotland? It’s my first time in Scotland and there are so many writers I’m dying to meet who will be there. And I’m a huge Paolo Nutini fan and I’ll be in Stirling, which is 45 minutes away from Paisley, so this is geographically fun for me. Like that’s where Growing Up Beside You comes from. I listened to that song a zillion times while I was writing Providence.

l Caroline Kepnes will appear at Bloody Scotland (£9) in Stirling at 6.30pm tonight. Tickets and info 01786 473544.