Introducing A Realist's Guide to Fantastical Places.

Long Ago and Far Away was an old PBS show hosted by James Earl Jones. With a brief introduction, the show was a vehicle for children’s stories, oftentimes from foreign countries or based on old folk-tales.

I had an old VHS with several of the shows recorded on it, and I watched it regularly. One of the introductions had James Earl Jones reading an atlas, looking at maps of far-off lands including “The Cheese Palace of Pushka, capital of Brotzt,” “the Kingdom of Zeep,” and the “Outer Minor Mutaan Islands.”

Being old enough to know a bit of geography, I knew these were made up places; but as Mr. Jones said, after wondering why he had never heard of these places before: “but that doesn’t mean I can’t imagine what it would like to visit.”

That idea has stuck with me for over thirty years, and so here is my own atlas, which I flatter myself to think that one day might inspire someone else with places they’ve never been.

At first I wanted to focus on The Myriad Worlds, a setting inspired in part by the absurd worldbuilding of Troika! and the surreal beauty of Evan Dahm. After the places and people filled my head for years, and failing to exorcise them through The Poems of Madam Albithurst, I figured out — not as quickly as I’d have liked — that akin to Pratchett’s “You can’t map a sense of humor,” I couldn’t map a sense of surreal wonder.

So I grounded the project a bit more. This isn’t the Myriad Worlds, but a place just to the left of our own world. These aren’t aliens or monsters, they’re people just like you or me, though they may be taller or shorter or have a different tint to their skin or a different number of fingers. Is this guide ever going to be complete? Who knows, but that’s no reason not to let you in and see what’s been going on in the other strange places of the world.