Hi all

I've just joined the site after silently scouring your forums for help on my project!

My project is to write a fantasy novel set in a world I'm building, however at the moment I have no idea what my world will look like or how it is all going to fit together! My plan is to begin mapping out some of the smaller villages and towns using the tutorials I can find and work my way up to the large cities once I get some experience.

I currently have Adobe CS3, I'm willing to download any free software etc that you think will help, what are peoples favourite packages for this?

I don't plan on making polished, beautiful maps just yet as I have very little experience on Photoshop or any kind of graphics design. The maps are mainly going to be used for my reference purposes but once I am a lot better I'll be printing out my masterpieces! My favourites that I have seen here are:

Cruzamento De Rio - by Coyotemax - http://www.cartographersguild.com/ca...coyotemax.html
The Bridge District - by Dain - http://www.cartographersguild.com/fi...-district.html

As this work is going to be tied into my novel, where do I stand in terms of ownership once it has been uploaded to the internet?

All help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Jim