Building fictional worlds

From Middle Earth and Metropolis to Liberty City, there are some fictional worlds we know better than our own neighbourhoods. Nothing captures an audience's imagination or suspends their disbelief like an immersive, believable backdrop, with its own people, customs, geography and shared history. And few writers know as much about building and maintaining evocative worlds as Jeff Norton, author, producer and creator of the MetaWars, Princess Ponies and Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie series.