077 - J.T. Evans, The City Planner's Committee, Pt 1 [Worlds Asunder]

Our latest guest is J.T. Evans, fantasy, science fiction, and horror author and former president of Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group and Pikes Peak Writers. Today he brings his expertise and experience in both writing and gaming to help us dig into the nitty gritty of fantasy city building. 

When not writing, he keeps computers secure at the Day Job, spends time with his family, and plays way too many tabletop games. J.T. joined the Gnome Stew Crew in March of 2016. Since that time, he has written dozens of articles for the site and has earned three Gold ENnie awards (2016, 2017, and 2018) as part of the team at Gnome Stew. He is the author of the Modern Mythology and Flashing Blades series and is hastily working on more right now.

 

In Part One, We Discuss: 

• Writing fictional vs real-world cities and landmarks 
• Establishing “anchor locations” and set points in your city 

• Keeping it all straight - numbering and listing locations 
• Map building 
• Treating cities and setting as character 
• Using history and real-world examples as inspiration 
• Creating realism and giving fictional cities a soul 
• Influences of economics, geography, and politics 

 

Resources and Guest Links: 

• https://jtevans.net/ 
• The Flashing Blades series: https://jtevans.net/publications/flashing-blades/ 
• Modern Mythology series: https://jtevans.net/publications/modern-mythology/ 
• Newsletter subscription: https://jtevans.net/about/contact/ 
• Gnome Stew: https://gnomestew.com/ 

 

Join us in thanking JT! We’re fortunate to claim him as a writing colleague and a friend. We’re seriously grateful he lent us his expertise for this episode and loved digging into the nitty-gritty of city building with him. 

 

Host Links: 

• H.Y. Gregor: https://hygregor.com/
• David Shadoin: https://www.davidshadoin.com/ 

 

Credits: (all assets licensed through the sites listed)

• Intro: Music- Cinematic Epic Trailer by PaulYudin on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user- kazim hussian; from pixabay users-davidfoxx, DavidGallie, olenchic, stefaniejockschat, AiVreaSaStii, RuneSnow, duyen-nguyen, EnchantedStudios, 

• Outro: Music- Good Night by FASSounds on Pixabay

• Animation and Image- From Vecteezy user-onlydesignz; from pixabay users-olenchic, Placidplace, Evgeniy_Z, Dantegrafico, Shayea_Kim