​No matter where you need to go in New York City, you always have at least a handful of options for how to get there. It’s an obsession, frankly. Transportation is a constant consideration for anyone in NYC, whether you live there or are just visiting. How? How long? How much? These are all questions that get asked over and over again each day. Subway, train, bus, bicycle, pedicab, car service, taxi cab, taxi alternatives and your own two feet – take your pick.
 
When I was writing Inland, I tried to downplay the issue of transportation, as it was impossible to avoid it altogether. My characters lived in NYC, and they couldn’t just stay in one place for the whole book. They had to move around, get from place to place, and there was no shortage of options for doing so. So, I stuck to the basics: train, bus, cab and feet. I wanted the focus to be on the movement, rather than the mode of transportation (other than that fateful train in Grand Central Terminal, of course).
 
Even if you don’t need to go anywhere in NYC, you can’t avoid the transportation obsession. It’s on every street, at every corner, and under the streets as well. It also fills the air, that constant sound of horns blaring and sirens wailing. You can’t escape it, so don’t even try. Just weigh your options, pick one and be on your way. There’s no right or wrong answer – only time wasted by spending too long trying to decide. 

There is a whole world crammed onto the small island of Manhattan. It is a place of highs and lows, ups and downs, twists and turns – and those are just the directions you need to get from one place to another. Upper, Mid, Lower, Down, East, West, and so on – all in the same “town” housing millions of people. 
 
For me, one of the most confusing parts of the island is Lower Manhattan – Downtown and all the neighborhoods south of 23rd Street. This is an old part of NYC, quirky and engaging. You can feel it as you walk around. Many of the streets have names, rather than numbers. They bend and curve and connect at odd angles, unlike the straight lines and crisp corners of Midtown and the Upper East and West Sides. For me, Lower Manhattan is always confusing, never straightforward, even a little disorienting. 
 
In Inland, when I needed to write a particularly disruptive scene for the main character, Cat, I knew I would set it in Lower Manhattan. I choose the corner of 7th Avenue and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, a baffling intersection of several different streets that always left me consulting a map in order to navigate it. This area of NYC stands in stark contrast to the regular, predictable order of the Upper East Side, where Cat lives. If your main character is going to have her world turned upside down, you might as well set the scene in a place that won’t easily allow her to regain her bearings. Lower Manhattan has an abundance of such places to choose from. Take a stroll through these neighborhoods, get turned around, see for yourself – then break out a map.

One of the most charming aspects of the island of Manhattan is that it is freckled with parks. Some are world famous (such as Central Park), and others are tiny, hidden gems. I’m a big fan of Bryant Park, located right behind the Mid-Manhattan Library. It’s a little green oasis in the dense, high-rise landscape of Midtown.
 
Bryant Park is not very large, but it’s big enough for the necessities of any good city park: places to relax, flowers and trees, a large fountain and plenty of entertainment. I always like visiting Bryant Park, although it’s usually for just a short rest during a whirlwind tour through NYC. It’s a great venue for people watching and for catching your breath before launching yourself back into the fray.
 
In Inland, I used Bryant Park as the setting for a scene where some truths are revealed using stark contrasts, much like the park’s soft garden landscape set amongst towers of concrete, glass and steel. Bryant Park is a small port in the storm of NYC. It does not pretend to be an impenetrable sanctuary, nor would we want it to be.

Okay, maybe the New York Public Library (Mid-Manhattan Library on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, to be exact) is not exactly a hotspot, but it is one of my favorite buildings in New York City. I remember visiting the Mid-Manhattan Library on my very first trip to NYC (too many years ago to count). I was in awe: the lions, the columns, the grand staircases, the carved wood, the chandeliers, the frescos and, of course, all the books.
 
I knew one of the key scenes in my book, Inland, would be set in the Library. When my main character learns a big truth about the alternate universe called Inland, I wanted it to happen in the Library. It’s a familiar, comfortable place, as all libraries are, yet it is imposing and intimidating at the same time. She would feel at home there and yet be easily unsettled and overwhelmed. Thanks, Mid-Manhattan Library, for providing the perfect setting.