Hi, tilt, ravells and arsheesh, thanks for the kind words.
However, I'm on Linux Ubuntu and I've worked with the GIMP and Inkscape for a few years now. Just haven't had the time to thoroughly learn the progs beyond what I needed at the moment.
Further, I'm mainly a writer, though I think the presentation, layout, typography and of course the maps are very important too. The poor excuses for maps I have now on my website (e.g. the one in this chapter link) were thrown together with Inkscape and some free svg's.
As soon as my next chapter is finished I'm going to start uploading the rough map I have now and start trying out some tutorials...
In the mean time I'll be drooling once in a while over the other maps here...