Guest post written by The Vanishing Station author Ana Ellickson
Ana Ellickson writes about fierce girls, family curses, and everyday magic. The Vanishing Station is her debut novel, inspired by daydreams about jumping portals in the San Francisco subway. Roman the Renegade—her graphic novel script about street art and Filipino monsters—was awarded the 2021 New Visions Honor by Lee & Low Books. She lives in sunny Santa Barbara.
My novel The Vanishing Station is a love letter to San Francisco. More than that–it’s a love letter to train travel and wanderlust and all the things that molded my young adult self, whether I knew it or not. My heart still races every time I feel the jolt of a train surging forward.
Wanderlust hit me hard in college. I traveled to over 30 countries before I’d even turned 30 years old. Europe, Southeast Asia, Scandinavia, Latin America, South America. All on a shoestring budget. Wearing a backpack that made me look like I’d grown a turtle shell. Sleeping on saggy hostel bunk beds. Living on baguettes and peanut butter. It was fortuitous that a friend gave me Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere to read on a long train ride through France. Gaiman’s fictional world beneath the London Tube made me crave writing my own underworld. Set beneath the streets of San Francisco with knife fights, codenames and a secret romance that would cross oceans and fuel fierce rivalries. That was the spark for The Vanishing Station.
What if you could “jump” anywhere in the world connected by a train track–in an instant? No delayed flights, no rollerbags lost in space, no elbows jutting into what’s clearly your personal bubble (thank you very much). One magical “jump.” If only. But we can daydream.
I had so much fun creating the settings that my heroine Ruby Santos jumps to–whether she was escaping enemies as part of her job as a magical courier, being dragged to an abandoned train station to fight for her life, or swept away on a romantic rendezvous through waterfalls and fjords. Most of the worldwide locations in my novel were inspired by real-life places. I have not personally traveled to all the places I chose for my chapters, but it’s amazing what procrastination on a deadline can do for your imagination. No matter how fun it was flinging Ruby to a new locale, each jump had to build on her character arc in a meaningful way too.
Here are five locations that helped inspire scenes from my novel… and might inspire your next summer adventure!
SAN FRANCISCO: Embarcadero Station
THEME: Family
It all starts at Embarcadero. The name itself derives from the Spanish verb embarcar, meaning “to embark.” So here we go: the Embarcadero is one of my favorite neighborhoods to visit in San Francisco. With its unmistakable clock tower, the Ferry Building is a gourmet foodie haven, especially on Saturdays when the local Farmer’s Market rolls out tables of fresh grapes and dahlias like a red carpet invitation. Beautiful views of the ocean and the Bay Bridge stretch into the distance. It’s a real ferry terminal with boats criss-crossing between nearby cities. I love to stand below the ferry flip board, letters and numbers whirling, before announcing the next boat arrival. It feels like magic, like an adventure awaiting. Find your next travel guide at Book Passage, grab an artisan baguette from Acme, and snag a bench overlooking the Bay (beware: you might have to fend off seagulls making lovey eyes at your bread).
The Embarcadero is where my fictional crime family (the Bartholomews) rule the BART system from their skyscraper fortress. All the jumpers in my crime network take on code names. Embarcadero–i.e. Madame Em–is my villain. She’s ruthless, clever, and will do anything to keep her rein over the magical BART lines. She’s also a protective mother. Her hawk eyes follow the simmering romance between her son Montgomery and my fierce heroine Ruby. Let’s just say they better watch their backs when they’re in the Embarcadero.
NORWAY: Flåm Railway
THEME: Romance
Speaking of romance, what could be more romantic than a stunning train ride through Norway’s waterfalls and fjords? The racecar green Flåm Railway journeys from Myrdal station in the high mountains to the Aurlandsfjord. In operation since the 1940s, it cuts through Norway’s steep mountains and fjords between Oslo and Bergen. Passengers get cozy in red velvet seats and gaze out giant windows as the train twists through misty waterfalls and gorges, where somehow mountain farms still survive. The landscape glides past like a dream.
Ruby feels five thousand miles away from all her worries–and this opens her up to something more. I won’t give away any romantic secrets, but let’s just say there’s a fire between Ruby and Montgomery that catches flame without the oppressive BART cameras watching their every move. It’s just the two of them floating between ethereal waterfalls and jagged mountains, toying with new Norwegian words on the tip of their tongues. And who could blame them? In 2014, Lonely Planet declared the Flåm Railway “the world’s most beautiful train journey.” As a young traveler, even though my Lonely Planet was about the size of a small brick, it definitely earned its place in my backpack. I traveled to Norway in 2015, taking the train between Flam, Bergen, and Oslo, and I savored every second. If you’re looking for a remarkable train ride, look no further.
BUENOS AIRES: El Ateneo Grand Splendid and Callao Station
THEME: Longing
Am I the kind of girl who would travel halfway across the world for a bookstore? Yes, m’aim, I am. In 2007, I’d actually traveled all the way to Argentina to explore the beautiful cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires with my love of art and tango, as well as the breathtaking Iguazu Falls (on the border of Argentina and Brazil), which somehow made Niagra Falls look quaint. Alas, at the time, I didn’t know that the stunning opera house turned bookstore (El Ateneo Grand Splendid) existed. Otherwise, I could have spent a whole week exploring its theatre box reading nooks, stage-top cafe, and ornate ceiling frescoes painted by the Italian artist Nazareno Orlandi. The theater was built in 1919 to host tango performances and cinema, until it was eventually transformed into a bookstore in the 2000s. Still, it has kept its ornate gold edging and crimson theater curtains, making the experience of browsing books all the more special.
This location in The Vanishing Station represents the longing bubbling up inside of Ruby. All she wants to do is take a peek aboveground; she’s jumped all this way to the Southern Hemisphere, and yet even that simple desire is crushed under the crime network’s demands. What can she do to live her dreams? This one-of-a-kind bookstore represents all that she’s aching for. Even stepping foot in the nearby Callao Station subway, Ruby is amazed by the beautiful tile murals lining the tunnels. All the tiny mosaic pieces come together into one glittering image of a woman with ivy woven into her hair. I’ve always been mesmerized by cities that turn their subways into art galleries. Ruby is not me, and I am not Ruby; but, this is definitely one instance where my love of street art seeps into my pages.
Next time you’re in Buenos Aires, take Line D to Callao Station and follow your longing for a good book and a theatre nook.
MEXICO CITY: La Raza Station and El Túnel de la Ciencia
THEME: Truth
Real talk: Ruby has to learn some hard truths as she discovers more about the crime network. During my internet research, I was looking for unique train stations to stage my action scenes. I stumbled upon La Raza Station with its El Túnel de la Ciencia (The Tunnel of Science) in Mexico City. Within the train station, there’s a glowing cobalt-purple hallway with constellations spread across the ceiling. The words ‘casquete estelar sur’ are scrawled across the night sky, depicting the southern constellations. Carina. Centaurus. Crux. It’s an art and education piece installed by the University of Mexico.
I love when cities use public transportation as a means to spread truth, art, and science into everyday life. Museums are wonderful things, but having the chance to learn about our wondrous world while you’re bored and waiting for a train–that’s genius!
I won’t reveal any spoilers about the hard truths that Ruby Santos has to learn about the magical crime network, but I will ask that you mention any other unique train station art installations in the comments below.
AUSTRALIA: Helensburgh Glow Worm Tunnel
THEME: Danger & Strength
I’ll let you in on a fun fact: the cover design for The Vanishing Station was inspired by the Helensburgh Glow Worm Tunnel. The Abrams team brought on illustrator Tim O’Brien to capture a wonderful sense of mystery and magic. Some of O’Brien’s past YA cover illustrations include The Hunger Games and Gilded. How cool is that?!
Helensburgh Station is a real place in New South Wales, Australia. My prologue and later chapters in the book are set in this overgrown forest, where Ruby fights to find a way home. I’d stumbled upon Helensburgh Station while I was researching abandoned trains (i.e. procrastinating from actual writing), but when I saw the images—they stuck. And apparently, the scenes stuck in my editor’s mind as well. The design team worked their magic to create the feeling of a mysterious portal opening. The real station was abandoned in 1915 for a new route, but over many years lush flora grew over the tunnel as it filled with dark, dank waters. Luminous glow worms made a home in this forgotten place, until it was rediscovered by historians, environmentalists, locals and tourists. It’s on my bucket list to travel to Australia one day, and maybe I’ll make it as far as Helensburgh Station.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my “jumps” to the places that inspired scenes in my upcoming YA contemporary fantasy. It’s a thrill finding inspiration in the curious details of a real place, and then transforming them into a backdrop for magic and adventure. There are plenty more locales in my book that take Ruby and Montgomery around the world. Jump into The Vanishing Station, and I hope it sparks your wanderlust!
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