Thought I'd take the opportunity to say hi. My name is Michael Hiebert and I'm here... well, I find maps fascinating. I used to play RPGs a lot and the best part for me was making the maps, whether it was for outside terrain or interiors; I really only showed up for the maps. And I was Game Master, so you can probably guess who productive our campaigns were--"Let's just start all over again with THIS map!" as he laughs maniacally to himself.

I am not great at making maps, but I think this is possibly a product of not knowing how to do it properly.

In real life, I am a professional author, and I have a line of Southern gothic mysteries that take place in this mythical town I've developed called Alvin, Alabama. Now, of course, I DO have maps of Alvin (including one I did on canvas) and every book I am finding the town has to grow somewhat, so every book adds more roads and all sorts of other things.

Now, I am on the verge of polish drafting book four (and possibly five--may be cutting this one into two pieces, it's pretty long. Waiting for my editor to make a call on it), I have decided to make all my information--stuff I use to store in what I called my Story Bible--into a Wiki. It will be called AlvinWiki once I'm done, but right now it's just HiebertWiki (after my last name... this way I can make wikis for all sorts of different things). One of my aspirations for this project is to make a semi-professional, zoomable map of my small town. And I have no idea how to even start.]

That's where me signing up here comes in. I'm hoping that somewhere in the collective there's someone or some posts that might be able to help me get going in at least the right direction.

Anyway, glad to be hear! If you're at all interested in checking out my wiki--it's terribly unfinished... I have a LOT more to go on it... you can reach it at http://www.hiebertwiki. com

Otherwise, I will scrounge around and see what I can find

Cheers!

Michael Hiebert