What I find fascinating...

are stories like this one:

Northern Ireland's first minister has revealed that his wife and fellow member of parliament had an affair with a 19 year old family friend which then led to her lending him a large sum of money in order to start a business.  After the affair, she tried to kill herself, but her husband helped her survive this.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/06/peter-robinson-iris-robinson-affair

I find stories about characters who are so blind to their own faults that they go down the path of destruction fascinating.  I'm not sure why.  One pretty close theory I have about why I am drawn to these stories is perhaps because my own life is the result of blind destruction.  I'm also fascinated by why people end up the way they do, what choices they must have made in order to get there.  It's only just occurred to me, after repeatedly interrogating my friends as to why we have turned out so differently, that I'm probably interested in these questions because I'm a writer.  Or maybe it's the other way round - I'm interested in why we are the way we are, and that's why I write.

With regards to this particular story, I think it's quite an interesting idea for a novel.  Not particularly original, but then again, no story is.  I'm not sure I know how to make it accessible for me (the political stuff is interesting but I'm not sure I'd be that keen to dedicate several years of my life to it), so it might just be a starting point, but it's definitely interesting.  Something to think about, in any case...