Thalia Cutler, in The Glass Magician, is a professional stage magician on the vaudeville circuit. Onstage she plays the Lady of the Lake, who produces doves from thin air — actually the pigeon-squeezer corset beneath her costume. Offstage she deals with rival magic acts and cynical theater managers. She travels from the theater district to the splendors of Riverside Park and the Hudson River via a Hell’s Kitchen boarding house.
I had a wonderful time doing research for The Glass Magician. Although I am at a far remove from New York City in 1905 in both time and space, it wasn’t hard to imagine how people might react to the advent of new technology or new knowledge about themselves.
