What does it mean to create a world that doesn’t exist yet feels authentically inhabitable? How do we build spaces that contain both the familiar and the strange, the recognizable and the impossible?
I’m delighted to invite you to a special evening discussion where I’ll be exploring the art and craft of constructing fictional universes like Tarveran from my novel “Shattered Horizons.” Join me on May 4th (Sunday) at 6 pm at Royal Festival Hall Foyers, Southbank Centre in London, where we’ll venture into the nebulous territory between imagination and world-building.
During this session, I’ll share the behind-the-scenes process of how Tarveran evolved from vague concept to detailed reality—complete with its fracturing physics, corporate power structures, and the mysterious rifts that reshape both physical space and human perception. We’ll explore how seemingly abstract elements like geography, economics, social hierarchies, and belief systems must work together to create a cohesive fictional environment that readers can mentally inhabit.
This event isn’t just for aspiring writers. Whether you’re a reader curious about how fictional worlds come to life, a gamer interested in the architecture of imaginary spaces, or simply someone fascinated by the construction of alternate realities, you’ll find something to engage with. I’ll be discussing:
- How to balance the familiar and the fantastic to create believable impossible places
- The relationship between physical landscapes and the societies that inhabit them
- Ways to develop consistent internal logic while allowing for mystery and uncertainty
- Techniques for embedding philosophical questions within physical settings
- How real-world experiences (from corporate offices to architectural exhibitions) can transform into speculative environments
I’ll also be sharing material that didn’t make it into the final version of “Shattered Horizons”—early maps, discarded character histories, and abandoned plot threads that nevertheless helped shape the finished work. There’s an entire archaeology beneath every fictional world, layers of decisions and revisions that remain invisible in the published text but crucial to its development.
The evening will conclude with an open Q&A session where I hope to engage with your questions about specific aspects of world-building or broader thoughts on the relationship between reality and imagination. After all, the most interesting fictional universes are collaborative in nature—spaces where author and reader meet to co-create something neither could fully envision alone.
I look forward to sharing this exploration with you—to discussing how we might navigate the frontiers between what exists and what might exist, between the maps we inherit and the territories we imagine.
