New York is one of those places that every American should go and visit. It’s different from the city near you. I grew up in Boston which is super New England and the base of Massachusetts. There ‘the city’ meant Boston, but the true city of the US is New York.
I have never lived in New York. I have no loyalty to the place and I root for New York to lose in all sports. But when my husband told me he had never visited New York, when I was planning my RWA trip there last year,
it was a sign. I had to go twice.
With my husband we stayed in Midtown and planned all the touristy things we 
could. With RWA, I visited with friends and we had less time to see anything, though we managed to get out to places like Grand Central Park. (To the left is USA today best selling author Kristin Wallace and myself.)
New York has Broadway, it has the Empire State building, it has history like the Statute of Liberty. It has a very metropolitan feel and I loved visiting museums.
Then there is Wall Street, the media empires, the Gilded Age history and so much to see. Every time I have 
ever visited, there has been more to see. The Today show is where I can wave to my dad who is watching the show in Florida. He didn’t see me, but I tried to surprise him.
With the Empire State building they had an exhibit where it showed immigration patterns from every country in the world and where the people migrated from and to. So the Dutch moving to Nebraska was a real thing and very obvious on the map.
This made my own husband who was an immigrant who came to the country legally feel better about 
himself. He also asked me if my relatives came through Ellis Island and my answer is no. The Irish relatives of the past came to Boston, but my mom’s French Canadian roots means her people came to the New World in 1607 and settled in places where the United States eventually took over. I can trace ancestry.com on her side to people like Richard Nixon who was apparently a very distant cousin as we had a relative in common in the 1700s. I am generally the exception to Americans though and that exhibit really hit home for him that I wasn’t lying. Americans are diverse.
Next to talk about is the Empire State. No it’s not just the building that King Kong climbed, though that’s a 
pretty fun movie. Newer buildings go higher, but the Empire State has that old world ‘humanity is truly conquering nature’ feel to it that comes from the whole Gilded Age.
Then when I went with RWA romance people we spent most of our time in Times Square. The conference was right in the heart of the theater district.
One night we ate dinner at a diner where the staff all sang. It was a lot of fun.
If you needed to get out of the crowd though, the only time of day for that is the early morning. So often I’d head out in search of Starbucks and coffee. It was my quiet time though this city quiet is nothing like the beach where I live in Florida.
Quiet in New York is still a crowd. It’s a different lifestyle. It’s something to experience.
Overall I say New York is a place I need to take my future daughter to at least see for herself. The United States is nothing like it is shown in the movies and it’s not just the corner of the map that we reside. There 
are tons of people, many adventures, and more to see than you think.
This is our home and all the people in it are all looking for a better life, better opportunities and we are more alike than we are different.
One day perhaps I’ll set a romance here in New York. I don’t know those characters in my head yet to truly have that as a concrete spoiler, but one day I might. Right now I’m working on my Miami series that I’ll be launching soon, right after Electing Love in August.
