When I was growing up, we used to drive by an old Victorian hotel called the Mountain View. For most of my childhood, the Mountain View was closed. But I still loved it. Because even boarded up and overgrown, the hotel was beautiful. And I could feel the history, the century worth of stories hidden away inside its walls. I liked to imagine what might have happened there, and who could still be hiding out inside the abandoned buildings. In my childhood imagination, the hotel was often inhabited by spies and treasure seekers.
But when the time came to write a grand old Victorian hotel into one of my stories, there was no espionage or bandits. Instead a regal old hotel called the Ballentine served as Caroline’s home and the backdrop for some of Life and Other Complications, most important scenes. It’s at the Ballentine that Aly paints her mural, and also at the Ballentine that she has to face her greatest mistakes.
I have a feeling that this will not be the hotel’s only appearance. One, because I love it. And two, because the Ballentine has more stories to tell.