Fantasist’s Scroll

I’m always looking for new twists on old themes.

And, frankly, the whole “alternate Earth” thing is a very old theme. But, I have to admit, it’s one that I can’t get away from in my own head. One of the alternate Earths that I contemplate on a regular basis is an inverted Earth. An Earth with its North and South poles swapped. I guess it’s an idea that grabbed me when my mother told me that people think at some point in the future, the magnetic core of Earth is going to, well, flip and send all our compasses out of whack, among other things.
Well, apparently, I’m not the only one who’s fascinated by this. Chris Wayan explores it all quite fully on a page titled Welcome to Turnovia.

Check it out.

Okay, here’s some real data for ProFantasy’s Fractal Terrains.

Been looking for Fractal Terrains Real World Data? Well, look no further!
I got tired of everyone asking for this on the Profantasy CC2-l list and thought I’d take a minute while I’m getting my chemotherapy to import the ETOPO2 data and save it as a Fractal Terrains file. Hope it comes through for everyone okay.
Enjoy!

My regular readers may not even know this…

But, I’ve had a long-time obsession with things like steam tunnels, bomb shelters and other abandoned, underground structures. Not to the point of risking my life to explore them, but they’ve always fascinated me.
Well, today’s Friday Fun Links are all brought to you via Boing Boing, and have an underground theme. First, there’s a giant, underground marijuana growing operation. Hey, if these guys can raise weed underground, maybe we can raise food crops and survive a nuclear war!
Next, we have the urban legend that the infamous Seymour Cray, of Cray supercomputer fame, was a secret, compulsive tunneler. Sadly, this turns out to not be anywhere close to the truth, but it sure made a great story!
The next link is to an actual, albiet less genius-like, tunneler in the UK. I mean, look at that guy in the picture. Doesn’t he look like the kind of guy who tunnel under the neighbors?
And, finally, there’s the infinitely more upbeat and fun, Tunnel-Digging as a Hobby. The peppy 1932 copy and clean illustrations sure make it seem appealing, don’t they?

Sadly, in Houston, if I were to tunnel, I’d probably be underwater before I got more than three or four feet. Besides, I have a lot of writing to catch up on if I’m going to even come close on this NaNoWriMo thing! Enjoy the Friday Fun links! (And, yes, this is recycled from my other blog, Diary of a Network Geek. So sue me, it’s been a busy week!)

Well, at least free PDFs for graph paper.
This really interesting company has released FREE PDFs of assorted, blank graph paper that you can use to print out your own in whatever quantity you desire. The company is Incompetech and you can find the PDFs at their Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs page. Not only do they have standard graph paper, but they also have hex-grid, assorted geometric shapes, musical notation paper, caligraphy practice paper, and assorted “dot” matrix paper in various geometric shapes.
Great if you’re a gamer, and cool even if you’re not.
And, all just in time for the weekend!

I know I’ve talked about this before, but not recently.
I love maps. I love looking at them. I love drawing them. Maps can make an otherwise confusing travel story clear or just spark my imagination to new ideas about how geography effects the world. As a result, I’m always looking for more ideas about making my own maps. I use a lot of different tools to make maps, but mainly I use Campaign Cartographer. Though, the tools don’t really matter as much as good technique. And, I know that my technique is pretty weak these days. So, when I saw Maldin’s Greyhawk – A Guide to Mapmaking, by Denis Tetreault, one of the main cartographers for Wizards of the Coast, publishers of Dungeons and Dragons, I got really excited.
Sure, much of the information is a rehash of things I’ve read elsewhere, but plenty of it is new stuff. And, what’s more, it gives a nice look into the mind of a professional fantasy cartographer. How often do you find that kind of information? Right, not very often. That’s why I linked to it and suggest that, if you have any interest in fantasy map making, you check it out.

Ever had the urge to create a fictional world?
Maybe even just a country? Well, over at Everything2, there’s an article on just that called, ironically enough, Designing a Fantasy World. The article takes you through the basics of what one needs to consider when putting together a fantasy world, if you want it to be believable. They touch on most of these subjects lightly, but there’s enough there to take you through the physical forms of your world, as well as the mythology behind that, and all the way on through the society that might develop in such a place. They’ve got plenty of links and Everything2 is sort of like Wikipedia, so there’s a lot of information there to browse through and digest. The article has lots of helpful suggestions in addition to those links, too!
But, for my money, the best thing in the article is:

The cardinal rule in all of this is to preserve mimesis – that is, the apparent reality of your world. You don’t need to have volumes of abstractions like language and geology if you don’t think you’ll use them. But a little care can give the reader the pleasing illusion that such things could exist, and that there are no glaring contradictions lurking just below the surface. A little thought about the points mentioned can lead to an altogether more pleasing experience for the player or reader.

Remember that, and you’ll do just fine creating your own fantasy world.

Now this is really cool!
Once again, science-fiction becomes reality with a GPS-enabled, real “Hitchhiker’s Guide”. A prototype traveler’s guide that is more than just GPS-synced maps, this little baby gives you historical information and other tidbits that might interest a tourist based on where it reads you via participating networks. The author tested this on the 850-acre parkland surrounding Ashton Court, which is somewhere in the UK, from what I gather. I’m not familiar with it myself, but it must be a popular tourist destination. In any case, this little bad boy, called an “Explorer”, sees where you are on the GPS grid and serves you multimedia content based on that location. As well as showing you those cool maps that we’ve all come to depend on so much. (You know, I think Gibson wrote about something like this, but more personable, in some of his work, too.)

Anyway, the future is now. At least in prototype-land. Hey, it’s the best I can do for a Friday Fun Link on the same day I’m getting divorced. Get over it!

This is cute!
While looking for water gardening resources, or an old t-shirt that I can only half remember, or something, I found a fifth grade class’ creative writing assignment called The Island Project. The project was for the kids to imagine themselves stranded on an island and to describe the island on which they found themselves. Many of them also drew maps of their island. The project is from 1995-96, but, somehow, is still up on the web. It’s fun, actually.
And, not a bad way to get some creative juices flowing for a story setting, either. I have often gotten ideas for things to write by drawing maps first. So do Orson Scott Card and Holly Lisle, both successful writers, so it’s not just a fluke or a gimmick. It’s also a bit of fun.
So, if you’re stuck for something to write about, why not draw a map? Or, heck, if you’re not too full of yourself, why not just do the same exercise that the fifth-graders did? You might just be surprised at the results!