Hi friend, I wanted to take you on a little walk through the Austin of Between the Lines and Blueprints — not through the story itself, because I am keeping that spoiler-free here, but through the places that hold it.
If you have explored the Book 1 map on the site, you have already seen the shape of it: thirteen places, all in the Austin I imagined for Maeve and her friends. I have never actually lived in Austin, as I told you in the Welcome post, but I have visited a couple of times and loved it, and it gave me plenty to dream with. Let me show you a few of my favorite stops, just as they appear on the map.
A market morning
One of my favorite places to picture is the Oak Leaf Artisan and Makers’ Market. I love imagining it on a weekend morning, full of makers and neighbors, with Maeve, Elise, and Ophelia wandering through it together. It is the kind of place where you go slowly, where you stop and look, and where friendship feels easy. No big moment has to happen there for it to matter. Sometimes a place matters simply because it is where friends are together, and that is exactly how I wanted the market to feel.
A favorite cafe
Then there is the East Austin Cafe, a favorite cafe in Maeve’s world. I picture it warm and unhurried, the kind of place where you order something cozy, find a good spot, and stay a little longer than you planned. Austin has so many places like that in real life, and I borrowed that feeling for the book. If you have a favorite cafe of your own, you probably know exactly what I mean — a place that feels like a pause in the middle of a busy day.
Home, in a few different forms
Home looks different in a few places on the map, and I love that about Book 1. There is the girls’ East Austin apartment, where so much of the everyday friendship lives. There is a historic West Austin home, with all the character that comes with an older house. There is a downtown penthouse, high above the city, and there is Ayana’s East Austin Bungalow, tucked into its own quiet corner. I will not tell you what happens in any of those places, but I will tell you that home, in this series, is rarely just a building. It is the people you share it with, and the life you build inside it.
There are other stops on the map, too: Inkwell and Thistle Press, where Maeve works, the independent bookstore on 6th Street, the Luminary Gallery, the East Austin Community Project, a downtown diner, and a few more I will let you discover for yourself. You can explore all thirteen places on the Book 1 map page, and I hope you enjoy wandering through them as much as I enjoyed imagining them.
Thank you for taking this little walk with me. Austin, in these books, is not just a backdrop. It is a place where friends meet, where work happens, where coffee gets cold because conversation gets good, and where home is built, one ordinary, lovely day at a time.
With all my thanks, Gabriella
