Recent content by ThinkerX

Congrats!

I went with multiple naps for the big picture, which covers about a third of the northern hemisphere.

With 'Empire,' I started with the setting - the heartland of a tottering empire in the wake of a devastating war. From there, I moved to the plot (which changed several times)...and then the characters took over, each providing a different perspective of the chaos. Subsequent stories in that...

I made a *lot* of maps for my books. 'Big Picture' maps. Regional maps. City maps. Most of what is on those maps is directly relevant to the stories, or at least the series. However, I always toss in extras- locations that might feature in future stories...or never be mentioned elsewhere.

Many of the names I use in my stories come from lists in the old TSR 'Historical Earth' series, mythology, or country-specific baby name sites. Most of those names 'fit the region.' But there are always some that are common in the US. My rule of thumb with fantasy names is to keep them short...

Find a thread that interests you. At the bottom, below the posts, is a list of 'similar threads.' I have used keywords to find threads, but this can be a pain.

Welcome aboard! Several of my published novels were NaNo projects. I have occasionally provided structural story advice to other authors here.

Some parts of the site allow media uploads. Others return error messages or fail.

Elves/Satyrs: Mostly from lists of mythological names for those beings, plus some that are made up or borrowed from humans. Other Fey: Mostly descriptive. True names are confidential, as knowing them grants control. Fey and certain other races are spiritual beings from one of the Etheric...

Pretty much

Deity's name followed by an obscene body part mention.

Must be a small warehouse, as a very rough calculation puts your print run on the order of 3-4 pallets.

More than I got

Well, at least you seem to miss out on most or all of the marketing stuff...

I am the guy who took multiple stabs at trying to solve the first six or eight steps of a modified version of the 'Drake Equation' using the best available data. Verdict: within 50 parsecs (roughly 165 light-years), there might be 4-6 Earth-like worlds and maybe triple that number of marginally...