For the record, I found GIS useful. I found castles and fortresses for my druids and witches last year. This year, I did a search for terrorist cell hideouts and found some fantastic apartment complexes and fake building facades.

Even more so, Google Earth is great. Last year, with GIS, I looked up pictures of valleys, but I could only get one angle. With Google Earth, I found the perfect valley, and I could zoom the cameras in and out and view it from different angles, which helped me understand what it would look like from the air, on dragonback. (FYI, if last year's novel is ever made into a movie, it will be filmed in Hawaii.)

Cheers,
Michelle