Hello....

I'm starting two massive projects today. Creating my first Blog and building a map for the world of the novel I am working on. I've never attempted either with any seriousness before. Yes I've made maps before, but never any that were detailed or planned out enough to actually be understandable as anything other than lines for roads, rivers, or mountains. I suppose I should start out with who I am and why I'm writing this....

My name is Sandra, and I live in Alaska. My website is Phantascene.com and I have been working on it for several years without actually settling on a design I really like. Phantascene is a combination of two other words; phantasm and scene. It was selected to bring together the phantasms created by the mind and the scene that is a setting in a story, signifying a scene within the mind. Phantascene.com is intended to be a helpful resource for all writers regardless of genera, experience, or skill. I hope that something can be found there to help anyone and encourage everyone to offer suggestions or ideas for improving the site.

This Blog is one of my latest efforts to make Phantascene.com a better tool for myself and other writers. I will use this Blog to record my experiences, thoughts, discoveries, and even just small peeks into my daily activities. I hope that it will help me to remain focused in my work and would like to think that should it ever be read by another it will either provide ideas, insight, or even a kind of support depending upon their needs and whatever I am rambling about at the time they discover my Blog.

My other project, which I mentioned above, is a map of my new world. The world does not have a name, only an idea for how it looks, what the people are like, and a story that I want to tell across its sweeping landscape. Before I tell the story I need to know what directions that landscape sweeps in however, so I am making a map. My map project started out as a search for a website where I could find good maps of the world, however I have failed again and again to locate the kinds of maps I desire so I have taken what little artistic talent I posses and I am channeling it into the creation of a map of the area on my new world where the main action of my story shall take place. It is progressing fairly well so far. I have a range of mountains, the start of an ocean, and a large rift valley that marks the Northern edge of the Kingdom I am creating. All have been drawn out with a fountain pen on paper that I believe was meant for printing newspapers then colored in with a thinned craft paint. There is even a scattering of forests around the mountain ranges. The map is going well so far, but it is only just begun and no telling if it will make it through the day or if I will tear it up and trash it. I'm too much a perfectionist. :::sigh:::

I have rambled more than enough for a first Blog post, so I will close this down now and get back to work on my map.