Childhood fantasies come true

I’m a great fan of Alice and have been a loyal reader for over 10 years. I am nearing the end of my college career, and I received an internship to work for the Humane Society of the United States in D.C. this summer. When I found, out my excitement for the job was quickly supplanted by the knowledge that I will be so close to Silver Spring and Tacoma Park, where so much of my childhood fantasies took place while reading your books. My plan, silly as it may be, is to purchase the new Alice book, travel to Maryland, and read it somewhere in Silver Spring. I hope it is everything I have imagined it to be! Thank you for filling my childhood-and adulthood-with such joy and imagination.

 

Phyllis replied:

 

A writer mixes up the real with the imagined, you know, and everything has a different name.  But I think you will still find Dales Music Store on Georgia Avenue, which became the Melody Inn in my books; if you drive through Takoma Park, almost any of those big Victorian houses could be the one Lester roomed in for so long, and if you take East-West highway to Bethesda, you will find the Unitarian/Universalist church on Cedar Lane where Ben and Sylvia were married.  The Humane Society is dear to me because we had many connections after the publication of my book Shiloh.  So you are in familiar territory.  Best of luck with your internship!