We Write Fantasy

Worldbuilding in Action (Part III)

In my previous posts, I’ve discussed how I’m building the world for Justice in the Shadows—a dark vigilante novel by my alter ego, Nadirah Foxx.

So far, I have created the Liberty City Police Department and City Center—located in the heart of the city. Other areas that I included on my map are:

• A Cemetery (West of City Center but south of the Warehouse District)
• Liberty Heights Mall (In the suburb of Liberty Heights headed west)
• Liberty Towers (an upscale apartment building south of Downtown)
• Liberty City Stadium (in the Southeast quadrant)
• Meadows Apartments (located in Shadeland aka Shady Corners)
• Liberty City High School (located in Shadeland closest to City Center)
• KLBC-TV & Radio (East of Downtown)
• Liberty City Bank & Trust (downtown and Liberty Heights)
• First Freedom Bank (Shadeland)
• Sentinel Cybersecurity (in the LCBD—Liberty City Business District)

Out of all of these, Sentinel Cybersecurity is the most important. It will become the home base for my main character, Kelsie King’s, operation.

Sentinel Cybersecurity

Liberty City is an interesting mix of older buildings undergoing renovations and sparkling new multi-story structures. Citizens have complained because the LCBD is filled with these modern buildings. Ordinances, in the past, have required that any business practice reuse—take current structures and adapt them for newer ones. But, as the city government becomes more corrupt the ordinances have been forgotten.

Sentinel Cybersecurity’s CEO, Ryan King, did his best to uphold the building codes. He moved his company into the former location for Liberty Pharmaceuticals (which moved out of the city). It’s a three-story brick building with a private parking lot in the rear. Ryan had his architects totally gut the interior and create high-tech offices along with a media theatre for delivering information to the news media.

In the basement of Sentinel Cybersecurity are Ryan’s private offices and tech lab. There he creates proprietary software and devices. He’s big on gadgets and is trying to find that one thing that everyone needs but doesn’t know it yet. Eventually, it will become the place Kelsie uses for her own purposes.

Liberty City Basics

In creating my town, I wanted to develop the look. When I visited San Francisco years ago, I loved the historic buildings that had been repurposed. There’s a lot of that in Liberty City (outside of the Business District). Because of its name, many government buildings and big businesses utilize the red, white, and blue in their logos and designs. Liberty City High’s school colors are red and white with the Eagle as the mascot.

What’s Next?

As needed, I’ll add to my map. Eventually, I’ll put a copy in Photoshop and add representative buildings to it. The map goes into my story bible for Justice.

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I hope this glimpse into my worldbuilding process helps you with yours. There are plenty more things that I’ll have to do (create the actual police squad, line up a cast for Sentinel Cybersecurity, and even build the private level of Ryan’s company). As I tackle these things, I’ll post about them too.