Why the handle Kartographer

[kartographer]

I've been asked about my name kartographer and it comes from a hobby of mine drawing maps from various Sword and Sorcery novels, I drew a number of maps from various authors including Dennis McKiernan and Fred Saberhagen. My map of Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age from his Conan stories hangs in the Kitchen of his old house turned museum in Cross Plains Texas.



 

[Frank Cannon]

I always thought you were a surveyor because of the name.

BTW, my handle was the guy who shot Archduke Ferdinand.

[kartographer]

My Middle Earth Map

[bolobaby]

Holy crap.

I actually approached several artists to attempt to commission them for a map for a fantasy book I wrote. I hired a fantasy artist named Thomas Manning at one point, then he died! (No kidding. I didn't have the heart to ask his widow to refund the money I sent him.) Jim Pavelec attempted to connect me with a couple other artists who could do maps, but nothing ever came of it.

Several years later, I tried again at Dragon*Con to commission some of the artists from the showroom there. Again, I had interest, but artists seemed to be pretty poor at following up. I eventually gave up.

As for the book - I wrote it a while back. I even had EE Knight provide some very encouraging feedback, but he also said one thing which put me to a grinding halt: "Where's book two?"

You see, the book was part one of a trilogy, a la Lord of the Rings. He pointed out that no agent/publisher was really going to be interested in book one, no matter how well-written, if you hadn't shown any progress on book two. Preferably, they'd want all three books of the series written.

Given the fact that I've had a busy, busy career as an IT executive, I've never really had time to work on book two, so the whole thing basically got shelved. I am, however, currently out of work and liking it that way. I've been giving some serious thought to working on book two, or one of the other books I have rattling around in my head (most of them are sci-fi).

I always go back to getting the fantasy map as a way to "inspire" me to actually start writing again.

[EC]

@bolobaby - hit me up if you still need an artist. I know a few still who take commissions sometimes.

@kartographer I always assumed it was a play on words, given your interest in prepping. You map out the shoals in the future. 

The truth is, as always, far more fascinating.

[Polly Ticks]

Very cool!

I love my Kindle, but the fact that you can't easily stick a finger in your page and flip to to the front of the book to look at the map again as you read is definitely a drawback.