Kandace Marugg is a licensed alcohol and drug counselor in Minnesota. As a child of alcoholic parents, along with her little brother, she lost her father to a drug overdose and was taken away from her mother, who was also an addict. She grew up with her grandparents, but later lost her mother to a heroin overdose. Kandace pledged to become an alcohol and drug counselor to help put families back together. Kandace started her counseling journey in Washington State and worked at an intensive outpatient treatment facility for two and a half years. When her fiancé's job required them to relocate, they traveled to Minnesota and she began counseling men at inpatient facilities in Waverly and Elk River, but later found her counseling home at a residential facility for women in St. Paul. The women she counseled were worried because their children were too young to understand what was going on and why their parent had gone into treatment. Then, driving home from work one day, a story idea came to her and Kandace was inspired to write this book. The main character is actually based on her real-life cat named Spooks.