I love maps. Whenever I start reading a new fantasy series, the first thing I do is a Google image search looking for maps. I removed the large fold out map from the back of my red leather bound copy of The Lord of the Rings and laminated it. I have a folder on my computer with every map I could find from The Malazan Book of the Fallen (sooo many maps). So, naturally, when I decided to try my hand at writing my own fantasy series, I started by drawing maps. Lots of maps.