At the time that I wrote this story, I lived in a very wealthy town where I felt like I really did not belong. I was also unfortunately realizing many of my friendships at the time were merely just professional connections, and were not as strong as I initially thought. I used these uncomfortable experiences and created the world that Birthday Bash takes place in. I attempted to get these feelings/themes across by having the story take place in the dog-eat-dog era of the 1980's.