Show, Don’t Tell by Deb Joelle

I’m kind of a Google Queen, but I’m guessing you all know about Google already, so I wont’ bother posting about it here. One of my favourite online resources is one you may not know about. It’s called City Daily Photo. All around the world, photographers, both professional and amateur are taking a photo of their hometown every single day. They all have blogs where they post these daily photos, and City Daily Photo is how they are all linked together. As these photographers post their picture, it shows up as a thumbnail on CDP and you, the internet surfer, can go there and click on any pictures that look interesting and it will take you to the blog itself.

Now, I know what you’re thinking…”Boy, she’s perfected procrastination to a fine art, hasn’t she?” Yes, yes I have. But that’s another post entirely. Now I am going to tell you how this wonderful little resource can help you as a writer. At CDP, you can also search for specific places. So if you want to know what Gresham, Oregon (the setting for most of Restoring Harmony) looks like, well, click on this link. I used to live in Gresham so I’m pretty clear on what it looks like. However, if one of my descriptions needs a little boost, then I can go back and have a look at these photos. Always dreamed of going to Paris? Well, here’s your chance (you can also go to Paris, ME with that link).

Or let’s say you want to see something you’re reading about. Like…never been to Deep Valley, Minnesota where the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace are set? Well, no one has because she made up Deep Valley, but you can check out a bunch of photo blogs of Minneapolis where Betsy lives in the last book. You can go to Scotland or South Africa, to middle America, and you can even start your own photo blog if you’re so inclined. In fact, this photo blog is special to my heart because it is my husband’s and it’s of our island. Want to know what Molly’s world looks like? Well, I expect that even though my book is set in the future, her island will probably look a lot like this (the photo in this post is by my husband, Victor Anthony, for his blog).

I will leave you with a most amazing story that happened to me BECAUSE of CDP, two photographers, some lucky shots, a musician in the right place at the right time, and what can only be considered destiny. However, it’s a long-ish story, so in the spirit of this week’s topic, I give you this link.

Where are you going today?