I'm hoping you good people can help me find two series that I'm trying in vain to remember.

1. A girl (more like a young woman) is in an apartment in NYC and there is a mirror. She touches it (or maybe someone pulls her through). She is very shy etc in NYC but she is pulled into this other world where she is a Very Important Person-- or at least the others think she is.

2. This series takes place in Constantinople (part of it does at least) and I think the hero  might be an Elf but he is also a Christian and this causes major problems. I remember at the end of the series that the major people of the series are going off somewhere to another land.

I apologize that there isn't more to go on, but that is about all I can remember at this time.

1) Not a mirror but a locket in "The Family Trade" by Charlie Stross? Or not in New York Mirror by Marlys Millhiser? ( I actually thought of Alice in Wonderland first!)

2) A Monk who is an Elf -  The Hound and the Falcon by Judith Tarr?

For the mirror, I automatically thought of Rosemary Edghill.  But it doesn't quite fit her plots.  She did write alot about NYC and alternative realities.

Yes...yes...the Hound and the Falcon. I recognized the author name as soon as I saw it.

Still not sure of the other one--I'm going to have to check out both links for those. I'm sure if I see the description I'll know. I can't remember the young woman's name but when I see it, I'm pretty sure I'll know it.

I think you want Stephen R donaldson's Mordant's Need , The Mirror of her Dreams is the first one:

The daughter of rich but neglectful parents, Terisa Morgan lives alone in a New York City apartment, a young woman who has grown to doubt her own existence. Surrounded by the flat reassurance of mirrors, she leads an unfulfilled life—until the night a strange man named Geraden comes crashing through one of her mirrors, on a quest to find a champion to save his kingdom of Mordant from a pervasive evil that threatens the land. Terisa is no champion. She wields neither magic nor power. And yet, much to her own surprise, when Geraden begs her to come back with him, she agrees.

Now, in a culture where women are little more than the playthings of powerful men, in a castle honeycombed with secret passages and clever traps, in a kingdom threatened from without and within by enemies able to appear and vanish out of thin air, Terisa must become more than the pale reflection of a person. For the way back to Earth is closed to her. And the enemies of Mordant will stop at nothing to see her dead.

Cheers, Margaret

First that comes to mind is Stephen Donaldson's The Mirror of Her Dreams. I read it long ago. And can't remember what it was about but the description above looks like the right book.

Yes yes! As soon as I saw the name Terisa and the description, I knew this is the right series.

Thank everyone so much for helping on this!

I am a newbie.  so excited to find this site.  looking for a book by simon green.  Shadows Fall or Shadow Falls?  but its along that line. had it a  long time ago. loaned it out.  it has the SeaGoat character and a bear. anyone familiar with it? its pretty old. thanks!

Most of his books are listed under Simon R Green rather than Simon Green.  There are two different editions of Shadows Fall.  But none currently posted, you'll have to Wish List it.  It's from 1994. 

The PBS folks are slowly correcting the search problems with initials.  You can also update the listings under Edit Book Data on the bottom of every page.