Friday, February 29, 2008

Dead To Me

 

DeadToMe

 

I just started reading a cool book by Anton Strout, a member of the Writer's Symposium. Dead To Me is a novel about a paranormal investigator with the power of psychometry: being able to touch an object and divine information about its history. Sounds great, but  for the main character, Simon Canderous, it's not that cool. Touching your girlfriend's belongings by accident can show you things you really didn't want to see.

 

Check out Dead To Me on Amazon.com where it's on sale for only $7.99. 

 

Happy reading!

 

Paul Genesse, Editor of the Writer's Symposium Ezine

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Gen Con Writer's Symposium

 

Hello,

Here's the promo flyer for the 2008 Gen Con Writer's Symposium. It's going to be so much fun.

Please visit http://www.jeanrabe.com/page3.html for a description of the many panels.

Paul Genesse, Editor of the Writer's Symposium Ezine

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Saturday, February 16, 2008

World Building, Geography and Maps

World Building: Geography & Maps
By Paul Genesse
www.paulgenesse.com


The world you create is an important character in your fiction.
Develop the personality of the place where your story is set.

●Write a biography on your setting from the land’s point of view. Here’s a sample from a bio I wrote for my fantasy novel, Medusa’s Daughter.

“I am Kastaros, the island of the cursed. Once I was the home of a great people, but they have gone now, killed or scared away when the fire and vapors within me boiled forth. Only those cursed by the gods live upon me now.
The sea tries to cool my shoulders, but it will never tame me. Storms and rain may come and slowly erode my slopes, but I will rise again if need be. Perhaps someday I will tire of this existence in the windswept sea and explode until there is nothing left of me. I will spread out across the world, hide the sun and choke the world with my ash.”

● Keep in mind the most important geographic and other features that influence the people who live where you story is set. Please read Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond to learn more. Decide if the land has:

Stable agriculture?
Navigable rivers?
Mountains, deserts, or bodies of water that close it off from other areas?
Plants that are easily domesticated?
Animals that are easily domesticated?
A mild or harsh climate?
Deadly diseases that are endemic to the area?
A population that has been there a long or short period of time?
Natural resources that benefit the local population?

●Resources to help you draw maps of your world.
Fractal Mapper www.nbos.com
Campaign Cartographer by ProFantasy Software Ltd. www.Profantasy.com
Autorealm www.autorealm.sourceforge.net/index.php (free)
Or hand draw it, scan it, put it in Power Point and type on it, or use a drawing program.

Great places to study maps:
National Geographic Atlas of the World and www.nationalgeographic.com
Google Earth at earth.google.com or Google Mars at google.com/mars/
Study maps in novels and games at the bookstore or library