Goodreads asked Melissa A. I. Murray:

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

Melissa A. I. Murray I got the idea for the book I am currently working on, Hidden (Circle, book 2), back in high school when I first started planning the Circle series. I can't remember what prompted the initial concept since it was so long ago, but the version I am working on currently is quite different from my high-school self's original vision (and, I would like to think, significantly better). The inspiration for the Circle series in general dates back even further; I first started developing the world of Aorea when I was about 12. I even started trying to write a draft of a book for it, which I had called The Spinner's Journey, back when I was 14. That draft, as you may imagine, was complete garbage. After writing about 120 pages of it, I wrote my characters jumping off a cliff, scrapped the whole thing, and started back over at the drawing board.

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