The ideas for my books come from all sorts of things that I see or experience in the world around me. For example, I have a big imagination and when I was younger I would daydream a lot (and often got in trouble for it). Now I get paid for my daydreaming!
The point of the Alcatraz series is that the silly things we do that sometimes we think are major personality flaws are often also the sources of some of our individuality. In fact, some of the coolest things we can accomplish are directly related to what we might think of as our flaws. If you take the things you think you do poorly and just turn them on their head, you might be able to see the virtue in them and the ways they can be your super powers.