Central Park – it’s my favorite place in all of New York City. Hands down. No contest. It is a refuge from the storm, a splash of green on a vast grey canvas, a moment of quiet in the unceasing symphony that is NYC. I am drawn to it – its trees, ponds, and open fields. And I’m not the only one. Visit Central Park on a nice day, and you’d swear all of Manhattan had the same idea. It is full of life, full of green things growing, full of locals and tourists alike. To me it represents the essence of NYC: it is vast, it is varied, it is always changing, and it is welcomes everyone.
 
My husband and I spent a lot of time in Central Park, and we visit it every time we are back in NYC. Regardless of the season, Central Park is lovely. It is both manicured and wild, both open and secluded. It is communal by its very essence, and yet you can’t help feel that it was put there just for you. Many of the story ideas in Inland were created during my visits to Central Park. It is the best place to think – and just to be – in the entire city, in my humble opinion.
 
Central Park plays a key role in Inland. It is a safe haven for the main character, Cat. When she is there, she feels free, at home, herself. It gives her courage when she needs it; it provides protection when she is in danger. She knows every inch of it. She belongs to it, and it to her. Central Park is an important part of Cat’s story, and it holds a special place in my heart.

New York City is a place of landmarks aplenty – famous buildings, monuments, facades and locations that people recognize at a glance, even if they’ve never visited in person. The landscape of NYC is familiar to us from decades of movies and television shows, whether filmed on location or on the sound stages of Hollywood. Some of these landmarks are as famous as NYC itself. They have become shrines, brand icons and institutional ambassadors (of sorts).
 
When writing Inland, I had to include at least a few of NYC’s well-known landmarks. Frankly, it was too hard not to. How do you write a story set in NYC and never discuss any famous aspects of NYC? I worked hard not to overload the book with references to such landmarks. Inland is not a travel guide, nor is it a sightseeing cheat sheet. I chose to feature only a few sites prominently (such as Grand Central), while others are mentioned merely in passing as points of reference (such as Rockefeller Center). The ones I did include are among my favorites. If I left out your favorite(s), I apologize. NYC has something famous for everyone, but there is way too much to include in any one story.

Everything and everyone in New York City has a location, and that location is in relation to everything and everyone else. By that, I mean, you describe where you are and where you are going in terms of corners, intersections, blocks, cross-streets, buildings and landmarks. You are at the corner of X Street and Y Avenue, or you are on X Street between Y and Z Avenues. You are across from, next to or three floors above…whatever. 
 
In a city where most of it is laid out in a neat and tidy grid, your bearings are easily obtained as soon as a point anywhere else in the city is mentioned. Upper, lower, mid; east and west; avenue and street – all of this is vital information when navigating NYC. As with anything, there are exceptions to some of these rules (such as Greenwich Village), but not all of them. Even if you encounter a road with a bend or a name or a five-point intersection, you are still somewhere that can be readily defined in NYC terms – south, west, corner of, etc. 
 
When writing Inland, I made a good faith effort to describe locations in NYC (and in the alternate universe, for that matter) with some degree of accuracy. For example, you can trace Cat’s exact route to Grand Central at the end of the book. The only conscious exception I made was with regards to the location of the government office. Because of the sensitive nature of its remit, I wanted the office’s location to be kept a secret from the reader. However, I do mention that it can be found in a rather unremarkable building in Midtown – and that certainly does not give much away.