Author Susan Clark wrote her novel "And the Violin Cried" with her hometown of Cedar Grove in mind, although she changed its name to Pinedale for the story. 

"I based this town on Verona and Cedar Grove," said Clark, 37, in a telephone interview. "It's where I grew up." 

Clark's story focuses on two Jewish teenagers.

"They're names are Annie and David Rosenberg," said Clark. "They share a close friendship with Samantha Andrews, a born again Christian."  

However, their friendship hits a bump. 

"I had Annie and Samantha's friendship come to an end over an incident at Samantha's house," said Clark. "It was a disagreement over religious differences." 

Clark said the incident was based on a situation that occurred at her house. 

"When I was in junior high, I had an event at my house and I invited my Catholic friend to it," said Clark. "Let me first say that I am Protestant in my beliefs. Most people know there are differences between the Protestant faith and Catholic doctrine.

"So during this event, one teenager brought up some doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants."

Clark explained that her youth leader and fellow club member were "unaware of my Catholic friend's beliefs and my friend was made very uncomfortable."

Clark explained, "I was made uncomfortable at their unintended insensitivity and that incident broke up the friendship." 

The Cedar Grove author said she was able to write "And the Violin Cried" as a catharsis.

"I was really hurt by the split and I wanted to write about a similar conflict that a Christian youth might have while attending public school and interacting with students of other faiths," said Clark. "So the book starts with Annie at Samantha's house and someone saying something about people of the Jewish faith that really upsets Annie."  

As their friendship crumbles, Clark centered the story around a violin.  

"When I first began writing the book," said Clark. "I had not set out to include a violin. I wanted to give each of the Rosenberg a talent, so I figured, 'Let Annie play the violin'."

Clark explained the violin became serendipitous.

"I had heard of the real life story of Raoul Wallenberg," said Clark. "During World War II, he was a Swedish diplomat to Hungary.

"When the Holocaust was raging, he would give protective passports to Jewish people to get them out of the Nazi-occupied Hungary. The passports would allow the Jews to escape to Sweden." 

She explained that at one point Wallenberg "jumped on top of cattle cars heading to concentration camps and handed the protective passports to the people inside. The German soldiers were so impressed by him, that as they were shooting at him, they deliberately aimed too high."

Clark said she had to include the incident in her book.

"I thought, 'Why not include this scene and weave my characters into together?'," said Clark. "In my book Wallenberg helps preserve the Rosenberg's ancestors and their violin."

However, Clark said she needed antogonists to her Jewish and Christian protagonists, so she created a grew of anti-Semitic punks called the Black Knights. 

"The Black Knights were based, somewhat, on boys from my old neighborhood," said Clark. "They were not as violent and not really a gang, but they were troubled kids in a somewhat organized group."

Clark said she had to understand some of the darker aspects of the human condition and she researched anti-Semitism to truly understand what pushes people towards such hatred.

"I did a lot of research on the subject, because I was raised to accept and embrace people," said Clark. "So I read everything I could and I even did some reading in Adolph Hitler's book "Mein Kampf", and what I found was just so sad."

Ultimately, she decided to portray an act of violence with the destruction of the violin. 

"As I wrote," she explained. "The violin gained much more significance, because at one plot point, I needed to have some sort of act of aggression against Annie and David, so I figured when the Black Knights destroyed the family's heirloom violin, it would escalate the story."

She added, "I didn't want young readers to be disturbed or have nightmares from what they were reading."

She further explained, "But at the same time, I wanted to present a realistic conflict because I wanted this to be believable on a junior high or high school level." 

On a lighter side, Clark admitted she based one of the characters on herself.

"I based Samantha on myself," she said. "But I based her on how I was in sixth grade."

But she added with a chuckle, "Though the big difference I made with her was that she was a blond. I am not." 

Clark explained she did not want to make this fully autobiographical, but instead, she wanted to combine her experiences with her love of books like "The Diary of Anne Frank" and Corrie Ten Boom's "The Hiding Place" into a story and thus, said Clark, came "And the Violin Cried", which has met with positive reviews.

"I have had people from both faiths read it," she said. "Each have responded positively. In fact, I had one reader tell me about how they would tear up in a couple of parts of the book.

"While I don't want to make anyone cry," said Clark. "It is nice to know something I wrote had that sort of response."