Chicago

Having a family history that spans pretty much one state (I’m looking at you, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania!) and the Eastern Seaboard, I never really thought much about the city of Chicago.

I read about it for my history classes. I learned facts that seemed to go in one ear and then out the other about the city. But I wasn’t fascinated by the culture there as I was Philadelphia or even Pittsburgh, since family members of mine had lived in those cities since they practically began.

But then…… I met a guy who grew up in Chicago. I married that guy who grew up in Chicago. And I started learning about the city he lived in and his ancestral lines and how they came over. Then I started to visit the city, looking at it with the same kind of lens I was giving my own cities of origin.

Then, in August of 2022, the other half and I made a trip to Chicago that inspired me to write a story that takes place in a fictionalized fantastical version of the windy city.

In my serial novel, The Magician, Vanessa Rankin’s family helped to found Allium, the city in which most of the story takes place. I lifted Allium from the genus name allium, which is the genus that onions are in. Why onion? Because Chicago comes from shikaakwa, a Miami-Illinois word that means wild onion or garlic. If one were to read the serial novel (hint hint if you haven’t, you probably should!), one would find many little gems in there about Chicago that I found unique. The Piggy Whistle nightclub was based on the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. The Tamberlane safehouse is a graystone townhouse with an old street number carved into it since most street numbers changed in Chicago in 1909. The theater that Vanessa meets Ignace in is based on the Lyric Opera House, and the bridge Ignace tries to escape over is this one:

In March of 2016 and again in 2017, the other half and I spent part of a week in Chicago visiting family members. We also took a day each time to ride the elevated trains, known as the El, around Chicago and act as tourists for the day, visiting places such as Adler Planetarium and Navy Pier and just randomly wandering around downtown. Memories of these places and the ride on the loop were captured in some chapters, as Vanessa prefers public transportation to driving herself.

Here’s some of those photos randomly and without context:

In August 2022, my other half and I had the opportunity to take a riverboat architectural tour of Chicago along the rivers. Our tour was a history teacher who did the riverboat tour as a summer gig and was amazing at giving history and facts along the tour. I took over one hundred photographs with my digital camera and a few with my phone that I referenced while writing my story. The tour was awesome and I tell anyone who asks me about it that it was definitely worth the price we paid.

Here’s a few of the photos I took, with no context:

In the future, we’re definitely going to be going to Chicago again. There’s a pirate ship tour of Lake Michigan we want to try, as well as other places we would love to see. And who knows, maybe we will see a magician or two on the streets.

Stay magical, friends.

Write your own story.

Who knows, maybe what you experience will end up in a fictional story.

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