No Money to Travel, No Problem

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For those of us that base our novels on real cities and locations, yet don't have the money to travel there's a couple of invaluable websites for us to use.

I thought I'd share a couple I came across.

Google Earth - This allows you to pretty much be where ever you want in the world.

City-Data.com - This site gives you stats such as population, the economic state, denominations, age median, etc.

Of course if you can contact a local citizen, all the power to you as you may get insights into the region you might not gleam from the net.  If you are on a network such as Twitter, Facebook, Crimespace or AbsoluteWrite, you have the ability to reach out to people from all over.  Who knows one or more or them may be from the place(s) in your novel.

What about you?  What sites have you found to be of tremendous help?

Comments

  1. Tara TylerJuly 22, 2011 at 9:55 AM

    facebook, then you can see vacation spots, hear highlights and see friends and family in the best light!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ken Hoss July 22, 2011 at 10:42 AM

    I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I have a technical advisor who is a former NYPD Detective and he fills me in on locations around the city. A good example is a little pizza place on Broadway call Koronet Pizza. I'm using it in my current WIP and he's actually eaten there. It's just a few blocks from his old Precinct!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJuly 22, 2011 at 11:34 AM

    This is a great idea, I'd never thought to do that before! I've lived all over, but I tend to only stick to places that I've been or lived.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carolyn ArnoldJuly 23, 2011 at 10:42 AM

    you guys have this down :)

    Ken, you are a lucky one. An extra bonus to have that insider knowledge.

    A friend on FB mentioned he sent away for the chamber of commerce listings. And, for example if you're wanting police questions answered about that area, a lot of times you can email direct from their websites.

    ReplyDelete

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