Fourteen year old Susan Ferguson is freaked out when a time machine somehow deposits her in the Manhattan of 1872. She thinks people would be paranoid about it, or worse, so she explains her strange clothes, odd use of words, and the fact she doesn’t know how to do anything by telling them she’s a visitor from Australia. She figures people rarely sailed all the way to Australia, so no one is apt to catch her out for wrong details or not having the right accent. She hopes. But her hair is bobbed, and the strange clothes are jeans and a button down shirt, so people keep mistaking her for a boy. She goes along with it for safety.

At home Susan liked to try out fake identities, maybe because they annoyed her controlling mother. But now she’s playing in the big leagues. Her health, her safety, staying clear of the police, and even her return home will depend on her skill—and some help from a couple of new friends.

I’ll tell you more, but my purpose in writing this blog isn’t just to stir your interest, but to give you some background. Each post will focus on one aspect of the world in which Susan finds herself: New York City in the 1870s