Goodreads asked Stephen Burckhardt:

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

Stephen Burckhardt A lot of this serial comes from stories I have heard. An ex of mine used to tell me stories about their grandma who came to Kansas on the orphan train. She was not treated as family by the people who took her in. She was more of an indentured servant. That gave me the initial idea then my Mom and I visited the orphan train museum in Kansas and learned more of the facts behind the orphan train. I also used stories from my own family for the first book for when the children are in a foundling home. My father and his sisters spent a few years in a children's home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The way my characters are treated in the foundling's home comes straight from stories I heard from my family. Even the prayer I have Lizzy say before eating is the one my Dad was taught in the children's home. Most of my writing, even the horror stories I write, will have shreds of truth in them from my life.

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