I was so happy when my editor told me I’d get to include some photographs in ASTOR PLACE VINTAGE. I immediately began to go through months and months of images I’d accumulated on my computer hard drive from the Library of Congress and other sources. These photos had been a huge source of inspiration throughout the writing of my novel. They’d also been a huge distraction that undoubtedly slowed down my progress. I was...

To celebrate the launch of ASTOR PLACE VINTAGE, I’m posting this photograph of opening day outside the Siegel-Cooper department store, which happens to be the store that’s central to the story in my novel. This was 1896, when the El train ran down Sixth Avenue. This photograph from 1897 is inside Siegel-Cooper in the grocery department. These days it’s hard to imagine what a happening place department stores were at the turn...

(21) He could not ride a bicycle, and…