Settings for Damsel Under Stress

Researching this book required a special trip to New York because of all the times I’d been there, I’d never gone during the holiday season. I finally got to see all the department store windows, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and other seasonal highlights. The weather even obliged me by providing snow! Because there are no actual magical enclaves in New York (that I know of), Owen’s hometown is loosely based on the village of Irvington, NY, on the Hudson River just north of Manhattan (it’s about 50 minutes away by local train, but I don’t know how that translates into miles). Here are a few photos from that trip of things that inspired parts of the book. Click on the thumbnails to see bigger pictures and captions.