My mother, author Caroline Clemmons, is serving as your host today. This post talks about how she uses photos (and is illustrated with her photos) to help her write her fiction. Speaking of fiction, her new book, Out of the Blue, is out and you can win a copy in ebook form. Stay tuned for details.
A photo really is worth a thousand words to a writer. Odd, you say, that an adult fiction author would need photos to help write? Here are some examples:
(1)I wrote an as yet unpublished cozy mystery titled I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE. Yes, I copied the title from a Carole King song. Anyway, in this novel I had in my mind the house in which the heroine grew up and where her grandparents still lived. On a day trip to Jefferson, Texas my husband and I were driving along looking at the lovely homes when I asked him to stop. I had spotted the exact home of my imagination—right down to the paint colors. I took photos from several angles. I keep them in my writing photos to help jog my memory. This book is the first of a series—I hope—so I must be consistent in description of the home.
(2)Another example is sort of funny—now. My current release OUT OF THE BLUE is a time travel romance set at Possum Kingdom Lake. The heroine leaps from a cliff in 1845 Ireland and plops down beside the bass boat of a police detective. She lands near the base of a cliff formation called Hell’s Gate. My husband and I drove over to the lake, but we needed to get to the Boy Scout camp at Johnson Bend in order to set up the perfect shot. We wound around until we arrived at the camp and missed seeing the sign telling us to sign in. Yikes! We were almost arrested. After we explained, we were allowed to take the shots I needed for my research.
(3)A photo doesn’t have to be one I took to inspire me. A fellow author gave me an autographed photo of Gregory Peck in which he wears a cowboy hat. The photo had belonged to her mother, but my friend didn’t have a place for it in her home. He was so handsome in the photo. Since I sometimes writer western historical romances, she thought this would be inspiration for my cowboy heroes. What a nice friend, right?
(4)As a daily blogger, photos help illustrate my subject and provide visual interest. I can’t use photos in every blog—some are craft posts or book reviews—but I enjoy using them whenever possible. Because the heroine of OUT OF THE BLUE is from Ireland, I’ve used photos of a trip to Ireland in several blog posts.
To flavor many other posts, I’ve plugged in photos and the occasional cartoon character. In addition to adding to the impact of a post, I believe readers like photos. What’s your opinion?
And now back to your announcer, as they used to say. To win an ecopy of Caroline Clemmons’ newest book, Out of the Blue, leave a comment answering her question or posing one of your own. Contest ends 11:59 pm central time July 5, 2010. One comment will be randomly chosen at a decent hour on July 6th and you will win the ebook. I will send you an email to verify your address, so be sure you include it in the comment. If you do not respond within 48 hours, another winner will be chosen. Open to anyone 18 or older.
If you do not win, you can buy a copy of the book in paper or ebook from Amazon.com. This is an affiliate link to the paper version.
FCC Disclosure: This book author is my mother. She gave me a copy of the book.
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