Yeah, I'm a nerd, nerding out on my own imaginary world. I need maps so I can understand the stories I'm telling. This is map of the fantasy world merging with Earth in my story. It's not done, I'm still filling stuff in, but I need to know what was going on in these territories, so I built a map for my reference.
Where's my house on the map?
I haven't gotten to that yet! 
I knew a guy named Om. Guess he got a new job, leading a republic. Bragger.
(Also, your map is cool!)
thanks man! Yeah, I wish I had my own republic too!
Aw, I love maps! I made one in High School for the fantasy story I wanted to tell with my DnD characters. I did a bunch of character profiles and descriptions of random fauna you might find in various regions of the map. I never got to writing the full story of it though.
yeah I am having a ball with map making. really good exercise for the imagination!
Are you using some online program for that?
I'm using photoshop. I downloaded the icons like mountains and trees and castles -- as brushes. People made them and distribute them for free for other people to make their maps and stuff. for the paper quality I just downloaded a jpeg of old paper and then drew on that. It's a lot simpler than it might seem, but it helps to know photoshop pretty well.
I could find the link for the brushes and stuff for you if you're interested in giving it a shot.
Not thinking of doing it at the moment, but good to know. Thanks.
Thats a cool way of keeping things sorted out and I would bet a lot of writers also do something similar.
yeah, It's very helpful. And fun!