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Great snips, great idea.

Just before the heroine meets the hero, who is also looking for her missing father.

It was a warren of roofless rooms and ruined courtyards. Sodden trash and pools of dirty water everywhere. Dark and deserted. The only light an eerie yellow glow from nearby street lamps. It smelled strongly of soot and wet newspapers. She was scared to death but she had to find the meeting place. 

No matter how much it frightened her, Gina had to do this. She could do this. What she couldn’t do was nothing. Not now, not when she’d finally started to reconcile with her father. If she lost him now she’d have to live with the fact that he thought she never loved him. And she had, she did. So much it hurt. A hurt she’d buried deep, pretending it didn’t exist. The hurt and the love. She’d been cold and numb for too long. This—standing in this ruin of a building at one o’clock in the morning—was nothing compared to that cold existence: the numbness of not feeling, but knowing he blamed her.

I've got my domain… the rest is around the corner.

I just had a thought. Do you think quietly dropping the URL at the bottom of a submission letter would off-put an editor? Being a visual artist first, I'm always wanting to illustrate everything.

Can't say I've noticed wry or wryly in a story. But I agree with you. I do get annoyed at the over use of adverbs, which is just what you were pointing out with wryly. Adverbs were used much more by the previous generation of writers, I think. 

I have a romance from the '70s that I bought used in the '90s. I never got past chapter one, but I've kept it all these years because of the obvious overuse of adverbs. And no one just says something in this story, they all cry, shout, or exclaim. Or they say it sternly, curtly, or shortly. 

I've been cutting out almost all dialog tags in my writing. I use it if there are more than two people conversing and even then I try to use description to denote who is talking. It's a style I've noticed in more recent reads and I enjoy the challenge.

Example: 

     She turned and looked at the man beside her. “You can let me out here.” 

     The light changed and he moved the car forward. “Sorry, can’t.” 

No dialog tags used but you know who is talking.

Or, instead of adverbs, like you mentioned, I try to describe the emotions. 

Example, instead of

     "Ha! Lot you know," she said shakily.

I used: 

     “Ha! Lot you know.” There was a slight tremor in her voice along side the bravado. It struck him unawares, unleashing protective instincts he’d though he’d buried deep, long ago.

That shows how both characters were experiencing the moment.  

IMHO

I looked up the London Eye when I was reading Natasha Oakley's story 'Accepting The Boss' Proposal'. It really gave me a feel for size and scope of of the Eye. 

Then, in a reversal, so to speak (as I blogged about last month) I was actually in the area of Linda Conrad's series Night Guardians and chose the books to enhance the trip. 

Sometimes I think I'll look something up but don't want to leave the story just then and never get around to looking it up. But, you're right, it can really enhance the story if you have some visuals and info like that, tho lots of times the stories take place in fictitious places.  

 "When" I get to be published, I will have a web site and I'll have photos of the story's locations, even the fictitious ones!

I remember hearing about something called ipecac, used to inducing you-know-what. So I Googled it, and it's still in use. 

I've been careful of fresh produce ever since I saw a farm worker piss in a strawberry field 25 years ago! 

My friend's father got very ill when he ate something at a restaurant that had salmonella in it. It took a few day for him to be diagnosed, too.  

Another friend got food poising from a fast food taco on the day of her wedding! She was able to make it through the ceremony. 

Thanks for the link. I'm more that willing to give suggestions for Amy's trip. In fact, I may have given her too much. She's stretching it trying to make it from LV to SF in two days. There's so much to see. If she takes my suggestion she'll be driving about 1/2 mile past my home! 

 My family tent camped from the time I was 5 until I was 14. It really impressed me. We usually camped in the Mammoth Lakes area but also took in the western national parks and visited cousins in Canada. I love it, I loved it as a kid but I probably complained a lot! Hope it all works out for you and your family.

I'm too old for tents now, my trailer suites me just fine.  

I've got about 9 book reviews to catch up on... 

she'd climb on peoples' laps and try to reach into their bag of chips or grab part of their sandwich! Some people just sat and waited to see how far she would go, others screeched and jumped up from their seats. Signs all over tell you not to feed the wildlife. It makes them too tame and they forget how to forage for themselves. But they're so cute, you want to feed them. This one is a nursing mother, you can hardly blame her for going for the easy mark. 

Sadhbh, I've finished Shadow Hunter and am now on Shadow Surrender. I'm really liking this series and glad I'm reading them all together. I've got to catch up on my reviews. I'm three behind