Goodreads asked C.K. Johnson:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

C.K. Johnson I was listening to music while waiting for an appointment. As I listened, I found my mood lighten and thought how amazing it is that music can shape how we feel. I thought wouldn’t it be sort of cool if there was someone out there that could use the music we listen to in our cars, ipods, phones, homes, movie, etc to control us. And then I thought—there already is a story out there—the Pied Piper. My grandmother used to tell me the old German fairy tale. When I researched a little more I found out there was a small town in Germany where the children really did disappear.
The second thought that came to mind was a study my mom had told me about years ago. Paraphrased a lot, a doctor did a study on water. One sample he played soft calming music and the other he played harsh discordant music—then froze each sample. The sample that received the ‘nice’ music produced beautiful crystals. The other one: murky and broken. Wow, and we’re each made up of how much water?

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