Looking Back #14: Book Scavenger Walking Tour

I’m counting down to the publication of The Unbreakable Code with highlights from the past two years since Book Scavenger was published. So much has happened in such a short time, and I’ve been so busy trying to keep up, that I’ve neglected to share many of the big and small moments. So here we go, in no particular order . . .

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My Colorado writing group flew out to San Francisco to help celebrate Book Scavenger when it was published, and while they were there we planned to do a walking tour of some of the sites featured in the book. These three women were instrumental in encouraging me to keep going with later drafts of Book Scavenger and helping me shape it into its final form, so it was very special being able to take them to these places.

This is the neighborhood I imagine Emily and James live in, Russian Hill, in buildings similar to these.

What their view might be like walking to school.

When I started writing Book Scavenger, I lived in that blue building hiding behind the tree. The top window was mine and I looked out across the street to see . . .

. . . the Russian Hill Bookstore, which is where I imagined Hollister’s store to be.

Pier 39

“Through a breezeway came the buzz of tourists, the carousel cranking out its song. At the end of the pier, a cluster of people looked down at the sea lions sunning themselves on floating platforms in the harbor, braying like a bunch of rowdy men arguing at the horse races.”

A dog we saw at Pier 39 that has nothing to do with Book Scavenger, but look at those tiny shoes!

The view from Lombard St. You can see the line of cars that Barry and Clyde would get stuck in.

Lombard view from the bottom.

“Their family took a bus down their hill to a neighborhood called North Beach. Emily wasn’t sure why because there wasn’t a speck of sand in sight. They got off the bus near Washington Square, a flat stretch of grass that sat in front of an old church.”