Fantasy Maps & Your Imagination

The map at the beginning of a book is one of my favorite parts of fantasy and science fiction. I look at that map and create a story in my mind.

When I was young—think 1990—my family went to the mall to shop. (Who remembers shopping in a mall?) Our mall had a Waldenbooks. I spent my time and quarters in the bookstore or the arcade. While in the bookstore, I would open those beautiful fantasy genre covers—gently to avoid breaking the spine, but once I buy a book, I crack it open!—and look at the map. My favorite books back then were by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. I remember looking at the maps and even the sketch artwork at the head of the chapters and letting my imagination go free.

I told myself a lot of stories standing in those stacks. Regrettably, I could only buy a book about once every two weeks, so I would slide the book back into its place and go home.

Guess what, you don’t have to use a map in someone else’s book to tell stories! This is where the magic really happens, and you can do this right now. I would draw my own little map or character and start making up fresh stories to go with the map or sketch. I’m not an artist, but I could draw a river and some trees, and plop down a town’s name with a circle, or an arch for a cave, and the story was born.

Some elements in Nethernor were born decades ago from sketches of maps. I would love to show you a drawing of Nethernor in my notebook, but it has spoilers for the rest of the series. To create "Adi's Map" for Nethernor: The Seeker, I used Jared Blando's How to Draw Fantasy Art & RPG Maps for techniques, and I used Procreate so the drawing on the iPad would be ready to upload directly into the book. However, you can use any fantasy book for inspiration and draw with paper and pencil.

I hope you get a chance to read stories in my catalogue and see the maps first-hand. What stories will you create, and what adventures will you be a part of?