-{Click on the map to go to the map page, click on the flag to see a listing of relevant places.}-

What is Trumanverse?

Trumanverse is the fictitious map in which most of Hit Coffee takes place. The state lines are redrawn and the cities mentioned are placed within the map.

Why is Trumanverse?

The concept got started when I initially started blogging and was extremely paranoid about people discovering who I am. The peculiarities of my history made it such that I couldn’t just be vague and say “Somewhere in California” or whatever. So I had to come up with a pseudononymous state in addition to cities. I decided to do this over my past, as well, to further kick dirt over my path. How much good does it do? I’m not sure. But honestly, I’ve kind of had fun doing it. Even if I were to “unmask” myself, I’d probably keep doing it.

How is Trumanverse?

You cannot look at a map and say “Oh, Colosse is located right where Mobile is. It must be Mobile!”

Colosse is not Mobile. I chose Mobile because the layout was convenient for the layout of the city itself. Or cities, as Colosse could be a combination of two cities. Instead of being by the Gulf of Mexico, it could be by the Atlantic or the Mississippi River. The longer you read Hit Coffee, if you’re reading closely, the more you will be able to isolate it down to fewer than a handful of places. Most regular readers know where Colosse is by now. The same applies to the other locations. Some veils are thicker than others (I left little room for doubt about Cascadia).

The methodology is… let’s say that I am moving to Des Moines. I look at the things that make Des Moines what it is and work from there. It’s the largest city in a not-large state that is associated with ruralism. It’s the state capital, though I may use that or may just present it as the large city and I will refer to whatever pseudonym I come up with for Iowa City as the state capital. I also typically choose a “red herring” city or two. When giving background that is not essential to the city, I’ll take details from somewhere like Sioux Falls or Fargo. I similarly change details of the state (say, switching from there being one flagship university to instead a flagship and a landgrant, or vice-versa).

It’s all in good fun. If you’re a regular and you’re dying to know, chances are I will tell you.

Where is Trumanverse?

Or, put another way, when will I use Trumanverse and when will I use real states? Well, if I am talking about current events, I will talk about real states. If I am talking about my life, I will talk about Trumanverse. If I am talking about my impressions of a place, or the culture of a place independent of my experiences there, I will usually talk about real places, even if they are places I’ve talked about pseudonymically. So, for instance, “When I lived in Deseret…” vs. “Former Utah Governor John Huntsman” vs. “People in Utah tend to marry young” vs. “Back in Deseret, most people married before I did…” (None of this is to confirm or deny that Deseret is, in fact, Utah.)

Should I refer to where I live under its Trumanverse moniker or its real one?

Up to you. I would probably go with the real one. If you want to know where I would place you in Trumanverse, email me and I’ll let you know. Just as Colosse isn’t Mobile, you can’t necessarily be able to look at a map and know. Though, honestly, if you think I am wrong, I’ll update my perceptions and maybe even my map accordingly.

Why does the map keep changing?

It’s become more involved as time had progressed. I originally made the first map just so that I would have a map. I decided at some point that I wanted to shift away from mostly-real states to almost entirely fictitious ones. Alaska and Hawaii are intact, California is there but under a different name in deference to my coblogger, Texas, Tennessee, and Florida have had their spellings alternated to be able to more easily distinguish between real states and their fictitious counterparts.

So I went back to the drawing board. Instead of simply renaming states, though, I started researching areas and decided that I wanted more geographically-based states rather than rectangular ones. So I started using mountains and rivers to split states up wherever I could. I also took much more care in naming the states. I became so fixated on it that I never actually finished the second map. States went unnamed. When going back to complete my work for the 2.1 map, I decided to change some of the other state names and modify a few borders.

The map is subject to change in the future if I relocate to a new place and find that the map doesn’t adequately compensate for it. Or, alternately, I may want to switch the western states over using the John Wesley Powell watershed map. With a newborn in tow, however, I don’t know if I’ll find the time.

Where is Deltona and why does its name keep changing?

Deltona is a “state” in the south though I will be upfront in saying that what I describe as Deltona is not strictly a single state. It’s a part of a state (like the Florida panhandle, or western Tennessee) or parts from multiple states (Coastal Carolina). The important factor is that it’s a place that has a fair amount of cultural cross-pollination and strong economic ties.

Deltona started out as Dixona. That was changed due to a bogus copyright complaint. Having to change it quickly, I went with Delosa even though the name didn’t mean anything of significance. Afterwards, I came up with Deltona. I decided to use the opportunity of the third map to change the name.