Author Ethan Michaels Shares his Mysterious Inspiration for Sound of Heaven
- Ethan Michaels
- Sep 19
- 3 min read
Editor's Note: One of the most frequently asked questions we receive, is where Michaels got his idea for his intriguing speculative fiction novel The Sound of Heaven: A Mysterious Stranger's Quest. The author's response is filled with the suspenseful inspiration of a real-life shop visit by another mysterious visitor.
The Mysterious Inspiration
"I love how The Sound of Heaven: A Mysterious Stranger's Quest came to me.
There used to be this ‘nobody-ever-heard-of-it’ and ‘way-outta-the-way’ piano repair shop, that also sold a few used pianos, in a neglected industrial/manufacturing/commerce city type area near me.
The shop was in part of a much run-down metal Quonset hut-type building being run by an elderly gentleman who bore something of a resemblance to the look of his shop.
He greeted me, began showing me what he was working on, introduced me to the pianos he had for sale, all without asking me what I was there for.
He was a cantankerous character, a little onery, the type that doesn’t mince words, doesn’t care what you think.
Anyway, we got to talking and I asked how he got into the business.
He told me he was occasioned by a man he didn’t know who offered him $20 to help move a piano.
He did that, and apparently this guy was a magnanimous fellow who, he could see, had something to offer about living one’s life. They became friends, he learned about both the trade and about honor from this fellow.
Apparently, one day, the fellow didn’t show up at the shop, but my guy found a note from the fellow saying he had to leave, and the shop was his.
Driving home, I couldn’t get the idea of some total stranger suddenly entering your life and changing both it and you forever, from the simplest and humblest of origins. I kept tossing it around in my mind, embellishing it; what if there was some mystery to him, what if he didn’t come from here, was he running from something or misunderstood or both? Maybe all he ever wanted to do was just help people to better themselves, because that’s what’s he’s best at- that’s what he does.
As I parked the car, the concept was more than disconnected strands of thought. It wouldn’t leave me. It kept evolving; almost by itself.
I was working crafting {others might work on their books, I craft mine.) my first novel at the time, but this concept was never far from me. N-E-V-E-R; as in I’m thinking about it eating dinner, in the shower, brushing my teeth, while on the phone with someone, the last thing I think about before falling asleep, the first thing I think about before waking.
A complete outline was in my mind within three days. I stopped crafting my first story and started writing The Sound of Heaven: A Mysterious Strangers Quest."
—Ethan Michaels, Author
Read the Book
Daniel’s sudden appearance in an idyllic, New England apple orchard introduces a mysterious stranger who immediately captures the intrigue of the townspeople. His shop becomes an enigmatic means of changing the lives of several locals. However, change is not the only thing that visits the shop.“ Daniel saw a hooded man approaching from the other side of the road and then observed another dressed the same as the first man. Alarm rose in Daniel as he saw that the man behind him had the same face as the man in front of him. He also looked at Daniel for longer than he should have. Daniel considered running, but he had no distance; the man in front was suddenly upon him. “The Gatherers are here. They know.”
Can Daniel escape them or will they collect him before he has time to complete his quest for vindication? Will the townspeople, who have come to love him, discover why he has been running and his real identity? Follow Daniel’s epic journey, beginning in a dramatic battleground beyond our world to time travels on earth. Discover how a day of murderous assault in 14th-century Flanders changed the trajectory of his path forever and how his quest led to 1940s New England into the heart of a withdrawn boy, and an ominous gathering in a strange dominion.
