This week in my ecourse, A Writing Year, we are writing photo captions. What a missed opportunity this has been since cameras were invented! I have a friend who writes the wackiest photo captions on Facebook. He talks about the photo, but also mentions his life at the time… looking for cheap dental implants in Bangkok… eating a dodgy chicken and having a seizure on the side of the road as Indonesians wait for me to die. Crazy glorious writing! He’s the kind of guy who makes social media wonderful. Sure we all have issues with our screen time and the mangled fusions it is creating in our brains, but then I see his posts and am reminded that social media is also a wonderful forum for creativity.
By the way, you can still join A Writing Year ecourse. It is turning into a memoir-infused think tank of creativity. We share gems of our writing and are buoying each other along as we partake a gentle consistent writing practice for a year. Join here. (If you’ve already joined, login here.)
Here’s a few of my wonky photo captions. They aren’t all true. They only have a few bits of truth. Mostly poetic. And they aren’t the photos that end up getting printed or shared. They are photos in between, taken to remind me of a moment. And I’m certainly glad for that these days.
“Flipping through the new MUJI catalogue at a restaurant outside the Pantheon in Rome. British Airways lost my luggage and I had nothing but the clothes on my back. Came across a MUJI store, found a suitable frock for a few days and a catalogue of pens. Sitting outside the Pantheon, gazing at the new pen collection, wearing the dress still creased with folds, and a cold wine after a hot and bothered walk. I made it back to Rome and I knew I would be fine, able to turn it all around by going back to basics: comfortable dress, colourful pens, a bustling eatery. That was all I had to do. That was enough.”
“The entrance to Thunder Road was on Yonge and Eglinton in Toronto. New boyfriend. Old song. Screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves, like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays…” That was all it took to make me want to hitch up to this ride. Thunder Road took a sharp turn to the 405 between Long Beach and Irvine, California. So much driving, but the musical education was worth it. Thunder Road forked outside a doctor’s office in Calgary as I caught my breath to get the results. It meandered through the mountains, over ski hills, through Prague, and finally down to the beach with the garden… and a porch of my own.”
“Didn’t make me crazy like it said it would.”
“The geraniums reminded me of the dream that I was once a 1950s housewife in Rome, wishing for an artsy life in California. It would never happen so I had to make it happen in the next life. The California dreamin’ life took me back to Rome where, if I let it, it could glue me in place at a kitchen sink and have me wash dishes all day long as I looked at the window at the geraniums. Rome is sticky. Need to wear shoes with soft tread.”
Posting photos isn’t even required to get a good paragraph:
“She just started dancing. Arms out, flailing. Head back, laughing. And I wondered when dancing went from flailing and laughing to controlled and self-conscious. I kicked out my leg. Then an arm. And in doing so, shed a few of those angry years and became young again.”
“Tom’s Liquor was ‘our place.’ The junction between his house and mind. ‘Tom’s?’ he would ask. And off we would trod toward each other. Years later, after life had us walking in different directions, he would occasionally send me a message. ‘Tom’s?’ and I would smile. Yes. We created a shorthand with each other. Just anticipating the meeting, and remembering the old, was enough.”
During these days of various forms of lockdown, it is nice to cruise through the travel photos and write little tidbits. Sometimes the captions are from alter egos. Sometimes fictional characters. Sometimes it’s the God’s honest truth but veiled in “fiction” to keep me brave.
RECENT NEWSWORTHIES:
Dear Paris is #1 in many categories on Amazon. Thank you for all this. If you haven’t picked up a copy for yourself and all your friends, please do. People have been posting the book with fun sidekicks:
Instagram: Andrews McMeel, my fantastic publisher. Macarons always make a good sidekick.
Instagram: juliejmacleod, who made me this delicious Pub Day cake. The day the book came out was quieter with our lockdown restrictions than other Pub Days, but this time there was time for napping so I didn’t mind.
Instagram: la_joie_de_livre, added the other books as sidekicks and has also been instrumental in taking great photos of all my books for years.
Instagram: Judy Cromier, because it’s not a true Paris book without a cat.
BOOKS
- Dear Paris: It is now available in the USA and Canada, April 7th in Australia and New Zealand, April 15th in Europe April 15th.
- A Paris Year: Named one of the Top 10 Most Beautiful Books by USA Today.
- Paris Letters: The book that started it all, now a New York Times best seller.
COURSES
- A Writing Year: An inspiring writing lesson each week for a year.
- Book Writing: Learn how to write that book that is burning in your soul.
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