I am quite taken aback myself at the number of maps I have for the Wilderness and Waverly Place novels. Many of the Manhattan maps are old city maps, highly detailed, zone by zone, that I paid for. From this mountain of maps I reconstructed Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, Long Island and Staten Island in order to move my characters through a space they might have really recognized.
Manhattan has changed so much since the 1880s that even those born and raised there might have some trouble orienting themselves. No Ellis Island, Times Square, Public Library — the list is long and sometimes surprising. Some of the maps that show up in the novels were done by a professional graphic artist, and some by me. Most of the residences in the novels are fictional, but occur in spots where they would not be out of place.
The maps of upper New York state are few and will stay that way unless I am successful at finding their hiding places. The town of Paradise on the Sacandaga River is entirely fictional, but still a hundred years ago there was the remnants of an old settlement called White House on that spot. I have no detailed information about White House, and doubt there is much out there waiting to be discovered.
As I write Waverly Place 3, I may well be adding maps here. I’ll post on FaceBook when I add something here.
