My inner-workings

I was recently sent a short questionnaire from Shelley at http://wickedlydivinecreations.blogspot.com/. It was kinda fun. My answers are below:

What is your dream job?
Owner of a horse ranch for disabled kids

Where would you like to live?
Just about anywhere in the mountains. It doesn't even have to be the Rocky Mountains, just somewhere suitable for a horse ranch.

What century would you like to live in?
Mine is a bit of and overlap - I would say the 1800s spanning the first few decades of the 1900s, probably ending 1920ish

What would be your last meal?
I LOVE seafood, so I would say sushi and snow crab legs with shrimps and scallops. No oysters!

Why did you start a blog?
To have an easy to manage forum to share my ideas and creations. I also like connecting with other people, but loathe facebook.

What is your favorite article of clothing?
I like my boots and almost any button up plaid shirt.

What is your favorite film?
It's hard to narrow it down to any specific title, so I'll say anything in the Adventure genre: Indiana Jones, Rambo, LOTR, etc. "Epics" are good.

What would you like to do before age 100?
Full circle back to starting a horse ranch. I would settle for building a cabin if I can't go for the full blown ranch/lodge/log home.

Vastmorlund with labels

Here's the new map with place names. They could change if the muses bless me with more creative names, but we'll just have to see what comes.

Vastmorlund

This awesomely incredible world is unexpectedly my new Vastmorlund! Hooray!! I wasn't satisfied with the other map(s) I kept trying to turn out for it.......so I bowed to the genius that is http://donjon.bin.sh/

This all encompassing generator is hands down the VERY BEST I have ever come across. It does EVERYTHING - worlds, weather, characters, ships, names....astounding!

Much, much more to come....

"Japan" Maps

Ryu'shima (Dragon Island)

Yamashi (Mountain Island)

(No name)

I spent the day making use of Google Translator to give the islands and towns actual Japanese names. Admittedly I fudged things a bit in places - and I'm sure I screwed up a few others since I don't have any idea how Japanese grammar and sentence structure work.

I haven't renamed the western island yet because I can't find anything that I feel suits it.

The key is as follows: RED dot = temple, BLACK dot = town/city, BLACK square = fortress/castle

Once I have the maps complete (or at least to minimal satisfaction/capabilities) I will add a few notes to the workings of the world. I still haven't decided if these landmasses will comprise the whole world or just be a portion. On the smaller scale I reckon them at a 1cm:10 miles ratio - that's printed on standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

Knick knack paddy whack, throw a geek a bone

I just stumbled across a veritable treasure trove of talent and inspiration! And by "just" I mean yesterday afternoon and I've been perusing it ever since. Check this out:

http://greywolf.critter.net/images/ad&d/clipart

I was Google-ing images of leather armor and came across this great pencil drawing...so I clicked it and was taken to the above site. The long list of clip art and other related links are jam packed with the incredible artistic talent of one Todd Jordan 'Greywolf' Peacock. What a fantastic resource!

I have spent hours and hours going through the site and viewing every pic I can find. I have already written a few pages of story based solely on the drawings of: scroll-eye.jpg and hat-floppy.jpg

I mucho highly recommend taking a peek, or really long gander at this wonderful site. I guaran-damn-tee that you'll find something you like, and next thing you know inspiration will strike like lightning and you'll be pounding the compie keys or scribbling furiously in your sketchpad. Kara, you may sling watercolor whilst Shelley sews maniacally :) Kara I'm sure you'll give it a much deserved "Zowie!" Shelley...um...you will be very sweet...and probably make some strange Aussie exclamation that I've never heard before :)

New Olympos

Here's the map of another story I've been batting around for a while. FYI This came about accidentally as I was trying to create Natalie's map(s). What can I say? Muses, like other supernatural beings, work in mysterious ways.



It took a long time to come up with the name of New Olympos for this world. I know it sounds very simple, and it is, but I couldn't decide for months if I was going to give this world and characters actual Greek names or just names that were very Greek sounding. In the end there will be a mixture of both.

A very big thanks to http://www.wjohnson.freeuk.com/names/greeka.htm for providing a great Greek name generator. Having studied Greek mythology for as long as I can remember I had a pretty good feel for what "sounded Greek" but this generator gives a really good mixture of composition that I never would have concocted myself.

As with The Six Kingdoms I will wait to see who wants to hear the story before I just go splattering it up here.

Natalie Maps

This is a map I did months ago for a Coalition mate and very good friend of mine, Natalie J Walsh. She's a fantastically gifted writer given she's just a pup.

She always tells me how envious she is of the names I come up with for places, but given that she is writing a remarkably originally fantasy story combining the names of Heaven's gates and tarot cards I would have to (and do) envy her!

If you like this check out her page at http://lil_bit_dizzy.elfwood.com/ and be sure to hound her with comments demanding more stories. I know for a fact that she has written several more chapters than what's posted and each is muy fabuloso.

This map is a modified version of what is above. This area is the southern desert region of Raqi'a, I just expanded it and shifted a couple of the islands. This positioning makes better sense based on the descriptions of climate and overall size that Natalie supplied. Again, she's an awesome writer! Totally check out her stuff and be sure to tell her the Zombie Gunslinger sent you.