HAVE READERS MAP OUT REAL WORLD LOCATIONS FROM YOUR BOOKS & COMICS!
AMBER LOVE 09-MAR-2017 Besides purchasing my books, you can show your financial support at my monthly tip jar and share the links.
I discovered Squirl through – of all things – an Instagram ad. Unfortunately, this is only on Apple so I can’t even use it fully, but it’s called Squirl and it’s really interesting.
It’s for authors and readers to map out locations around the world that appear in their books. I’ve run into trouble trying to enter some of mine, but I was able to identify the Native American reservation that’s in the Protectors short story I wrote, “Moon over the Midwest”. I also tested it out on my friend Tom’s book, Bad Boy Boogie and was able to find the park in Nutley, NJ and specifically the waterfall that’s mentioned on one page. That book is coming out very soon so keep an eye out!
You can enter locations for OGNs, comics, and novels. I tried to select “anthology” or “short story” and they didn’t exist. So for example in the Farrah Wethers series, I picked categories Mystery, Novel, Suspense – because that’s what came up. They didn’t have “noir” either and had “crime” but not “crime fiction”. Play around and see what you can come up with.
The town of Riverside in my books is fictional and supposed to be set in the real Hunterdon County. There’s a real town named Riverside in some other part of the state (but hey, we have 7 Washingtons too). I sent in a help support email and will see what they have to say about why I couldn’t add anything from Hunterdon.
You can also add multiple authors which is helpful. Like all databases – as a former DBA – I will stress that it is important to try and spell the name correctly as it appears on the book or the author’s Amazon Author Profile just to avoid confusion. Then there won’t be mistakes like “Elizabeth” vs “Elisabeth”. Start typing and see if the author is already in there (first name first).
Let me know what you think of it. I’m curious if people are interested in this sort of scavenger hunt but instead of Pokémon, you just get to be a nerdy book fan.
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Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.