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Monday, June 17, 2013

Today's Hot Links: Fictional Maps

by Kris Kahrs

     Are you ready to take a fantasy vacation?  The kind you can only get from a good book?  Good, because we here at The Pen and Ink Blog have your map.  

   
  Feel like fighting some crime with the likes of Batman, then a trip to Gotham city might be right up your alley.  
 Or get your geek on and visit the LOTR project for an interactive experience with a map of Middle Earth.  It has a timeline and statistics of Middle Earth and a continuously updating genealogy.

A trip back in time will get you to Sherlock Holmes London and his rooms at 221B Baker St.  Bigthink.com has a delightful recreation of the layout of Sherlock Holmes' rooms, but if you want to go further and travel in his footsteps, then check out mapchannels.com which uses Google maps to map out the London locations mentioned in Conan Doyle's novels.





For your trip to Oz, Hungry Tiger Press has a wonderful map of Oz wallpaper for your computer desktop.  As the website says, "this map of the marvelous land of Oz was drawn by Professor H.M. Wogglebug, T.E. back in 1914. The most curious aspect of this map is the little known fact that East and West are reversed in Oz."



We hope our links have given you some ideas for your summer vacation as well as a good tip for your manuscript. If you're having trouble with the timeline in your story, it can sometimes help to map it out. Try it. It works.

Keep on writing!

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the summer fun suggestions. I may have to check out the LOTR one.

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    1. Hi Natalie--

      Yes, that was a clever one. Looks like someone had fun thinking it up. Thanks for stopping by!

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  2. Well since Metropolis is pretty destroyed in Man of Steel, I think I'll head on over to Oz. I wonder if there is a cottage for rent in the Quadling country near Glinda's Palace?

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    1. Hi Sue--

      You have to love the names that Frank Baum thought of for his peoples and their countries. Quite imaginative.

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  3. Thanks for the links to these map sites. I think I will go and check out Sherlock Homles... I love his stories and as I'm from England.. Yeah

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    1. Hi Raven--

      On your next London visit, you can tour all the locations with the books in hand or take the group tour. It too, is very fun. Thanks for reading.

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  4. What fun! While I've been known to draw room layouts so Stephanie (my writing partner) and I turn our characters in the same direction or clip photos out of catalogs to "see" what our characters might look like, we haven't made such detailed maps. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. Hi Judy--

    When I think of the energy these authors put into these maps! But on the other hand, they are obviously, labors of love. I agree, it looks like a ton of fun. Thanks for stopping by Judy!

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  6. I totally love maps of all kinds. I love fantasy worlds and even though I can picture them in my mind, having a map or diagram adds so much to the story. Thanks for sharing.

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