*** September 09 Challenge Voting - Passage of Time ***

[Ashenvale]

Ashenvale, Feeding Hills: Gorgeously rendered, easily the most aesthetically appealing map of the Challenge. It's just not, well, not very informative; besides the church, I have no idea what any other building in the village is, where the roads go, what have you; I feel no association with this village. It's almost so damn pretty I don't care, but it still doesn't quite have it for me.

Excellent point, Gilgamec! Great criticism. In its present form, the map could well leave one feeling somewhat disconnected, somewhat lost, which kinda defeats the whole purpose of a map. I won't blunder into that shortcoming again in another Challenge.

My friend (the adventure's author) and I (as cartographer and possibly, hopefully, the illustrator), have over two months until the publisher's likely deadline for this project. (Words like "Christmas" and "New Years" have been bantered about.) Accordingly, the adventure manuscript itself continues to evolve. Given the lengthy and somewhat fluid timeline, the author hasn't nailed down locales yet, compromising my ability to add a key or tags that designate areas, buildings, and the like.

I'd nonetheless flirted with inventing one of my own design for this Challenge, even though I'd have to chuck it for the real map in the end. But the most descriptive names -- the best locale ideas -- come from the manuscript. While I'm bold enough to thrust my work out there before the publisher locks things down with a Nondisclosure Agreement, I'm far too chicken to offer up the author's ideas without permission. Even so, I'd leaned towards fabricating my own place names and putting them into the map jsut for Challenge purposes (as I think I mentioned in my developing map thread -- or perhaps I just whined that I lacked time for tags, I'll have to go back and check). But I bit off more than I could chew trying to shoe-horn this commission into this Challenge's timeframe.

I flat ran out of time.

Not an excuse! What one offers for a Challenge is what one offers for a Challenge. Deadlines are the real world. Meet them or shut up. And I'm proud of what I submitted in its present form.

But your comments help me see my entry with keener insight. That’s why this site is splendid. With your help, I'll now make sure the final version to hit the publisher's desk fills the viewer with a profound and meaningful sense of place. My thanks! Have some rep, dude! ("THWACK!!")

You just made my work product better.

(An personal aside: I'm still holding my breath hoping that I get the greenlight to illustrate the cover and create some of the adventure's interior artwork. I've prepared a rockin' mock-up of the cover, which the author sent off to the publisher as an enticement. But no word back yet. Waiting—waiting—waiting . . . cross your fingers for me!)