Goodreads asked Jean Hoefling:

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

Jean Hoefling Toni Morrison is quoted as saying, "If there's a book you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." I wanted to read a larger account about Adam and Eve than we get from the Bible. I wanted to explore history mystery.

The older the story, the better. When I lived in Europe, I regularly hugged Medieval church pillars and other grab-able stone monuments dating from the Dark Age period. Old stuff gives me energy. So the early chapters of the book of Genesis, about which we know very little, are more interesting to me than any other portion of the Bible except the stories of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

Mystery is everything! I wrote Gold in Havilah to explore what life might have been like for the family of the world's first two human beings. I used the framework of the Bible narrative, and ideas from The Forgotten Books of Eden. I hope the result will be enjoyable for readers and satisfy the tastes of others like myself who love history mystery.

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