Local authors Bruce Worden and Clare Cross have published a children’s bedtime book for adults, "Goodnight Keith Moon."

"Goodnight Keith Moon," which is a parody of Margaret Wise Brown’s classic, "Goodnight Moon," has already received a lot of positive feedback. It is the story of "Goodnight Moon" told in the perspective of the late drummer of the band The Who.

In an email interview, the authors explained that the idea for the book — which goes on sale Friday — came up when Worden was reading "Goodnight Moon" to his son one night, after having listened to The Who earlier in the day.

“And it suddenly struck me that the phrase 'goodnight moon' was kind of a nice metaphorical eulogy for Keith Moon. Then the idea of combining something so morbid with such a colorful children's book was completely lodged in my head,” Worden said.

When Worden introduced this idea to Cross the next morning, Cross was immediately sold and the two started pitching lines together.

The authors explained that their children had a large influence on the book. Worden said he is usually motivated to produce something when he sees gaps in the "kinds of media that are out there" for his son's age group and feels that he should fill in these gaps.

On the other hand, Cross explained that she writes to leave something for her children. “I like to think of my work as a part of me that my kids can hang onto after I'm gone,” she said, expressing regrets that the stories her father told her as a child were never written down or recorded.

“I remember after he died, my brother and I talked about how we couldn’t do justice to any of them… So I definitely think of my kids and grandkids, especially when I'm working on memoirs and poetry based on real events,” Cross added.

Worden and Cross also expressed how grateful they were about the amount of success they experienced already with the book. “I was thrilled that the New Yorker and the Huffington Post wrote us up before we even had a publisher. And it’s been very gratifying just to see the positive comments people have posted about the book,” Cross said.

Both authors have big plans for the future regarding their writing career — Worden has written a graphic novel on Eric Clapton and the legend of Robert Johnson and has started on a few other children’s book projects. More information on Worden can be found on his website.

Meanwhile, Cross is working on a World War I novel and gathering poetry, fiction and short memoir pieces to place in a literary journal. She is also currently putting together a website, which will show her published works and future plans.

"Goodnight Keith Moon" goes on sale Friday at most booksellers.

Christine Chun is an intern for AnnArbor.com. Reach her by email at chunchr@umich.edu.