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While there’s no actual Mamie’s Bake Shop in New York City, a number of Manhattan bakeries, like Magnolia and Buttercup Bake Shop, served as inspiration for Denton and Josie’s favorite hang-out spot.
New York Dolls wasn’t the original title. I gave an early draft the very unoriginal moniker, One Starry Night.
My main character’s name, Denton Hodges, was inspired by my grandmother’s maiden name (Denton). Her family lived in the Denton, Texas, area.
The novel went through more than four rounds of edits and revisions, getting it into tip-top shape for publication.
While living in New York, I interned at US Weekly magazine.
In addition to the paperback version, New York Dolls is available in four different e-book formats: Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Kobo.
Paperbacks of the novel are currently available online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million, as well as my publisher’s website (www.48fourteen.com).
New York Dolls is a work of fiction, though a number of passages were drawn from life, such as this one about Denton navigating the big city: “There would be lots to see—the Gallagher buildings where I’d gone for orientation, and the library, and oh there’s a Kmart! On 9th and Broadway! A Kmart in Manhattan seemed…noteworthy. And the Strand Bookstore near Gerry’s Diner, and a nice little church with an equally nice gate all around. I would have missed all these places had I taken the subway, so it’s a good thing I couldn’t decipher the subway map in all of its curvy red and orange and yellow and blue and green and gray lines and black dots. Is it in Herald Square? Or Times Square? The subway eluded me for months, until I had to figure out all of its tunnels because a forty-block walk to and from my new internship was simply unreasonable.”