I did a lot of research for Chosen Ones, often while drafting, such that the writing influenced the research and the research influenced the writing. The book is primarily set in Chicago, where I live — but with an alternate history. I was inspired by quite a few locations when building the world of the book, but some of the main ones are:

The Chicago Cultural Center, with its stained glass domes.

Credit: Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0

“Before” pictures of the now-renovated Old Main Post Office, a building that stretches above Congress Parkway and sat abandoned for 20 years.

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Chicago’s underground maze, aka the Pedway, a thing I didn’t know existed — despite living in this area most of my life — until I wrote this book.

Credit: Jaysin Trevino, CC BY 2.0,

I also read hundreds of declassified government documents, to get a sense of how they sounded and to get a sense of the structure of clandestine government operations. Most of the documents I read were from Project MK Ultra, the CIA’s mind control experiments (famously, the ones that made use of LSD), which you can get lost in here at The Black Vault:

Credit: Dr. Sidney Gottlieb/ Public domain

For my book’s alternate history, I developed an origin story for the proliferation of magic throughout the world involving the Mariana Trench. Listen to the “Western Pacific Biotwang,” a mysterious metallic noise recorded in the depths of the ocean.

Credit: 1840489pavan, Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

I always listen to music when I write, and my playlists tend to be quite long — but the songs I remember most are Radiohead’s “Burn the Witch,” Melanie Martinez’s “Pity Party,” and St. Vincent’s “Severed Crossed Fingers.”