Original cover art by Luther E. Vann With excerpts and snippets from the book Christmas When Music Almost Killed the World having been posted around the Internet for several years, award-winning U.S. author and poet Aberjhani announced the novel’s publication November 12, 2007 , Veteran’s Day. The author, whose previous books include Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, cautioned that despite the use of the word “Christmas” in the title, readers should not expect a typical Christmas story novel. “This is actually the very novel I’ve always said I was writing but it wasn’t until we were preparing to go to publication that I realized how big a role the holiday, especially Christmas Eve, plays in it,” said Aberjhani. “That made the new title very appropriate and even more accurate in some ways.” Early on the book stirred controversy because of a plot scenario that links mass suicides to music by a fictional character. The author has declined to state whe