Nope! But I’d love to live in a town named Willow Falls… wouldn’t you? Willows and waterfalls, two of my favorite things.
The town is intended to be in suburban New Jersey, and it’s certainly like many towns around where I live. I wanted it to have a certain urban proximity, and since New York City is the city I grew up around, I picked that one. And I also wanted it to be a place where people of abundant means and people like M.T.’s family might mix, and that happens in this part of the country. There is something about growing up without a lot of financial security, but seeing people with way more than you have, that I wanted to look at in THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY.
Plus, well, I’m a Jersey girl.
That said, there are people having the same struggle that M.T. is having near you, guaranteed. And you may not even know it.
