Paksworld

Drawing fantasy maps always brings up the question of how far is it really from here to there…from, say, Halveric Steading to Chaya, or Fiveway to  Valdaire?  Eager readers may try to figure out the scale of a fantasy map and thus determine what the real travel distances and times “should” be.

For some of you, what I’m going to talk about is familiar–you yourselves have done long hikes, ridden long distances, and so you know what goes into “a day’s travel.”  But for those who haven’t, here’s why the map is only a rough guide.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am mastering “layers” (finally) and this has let me make an antiqued version of  the current map which contains most of the information that will be on the book version, plus some that won’t.  (Color helps!)  this is probably (certainly?) not the final map, as I was playing with the border feature, and haven’t yet figured out how to do wiggly lettering to go along rivers, or lettering at an angle to go with non-horizontal mountain ranges and the like.  But….

Read the rest of this entry »

You know you’re in trouble with Book when you return to it after an absence which it seemed to accept, and it plunges you into a snowstorm, then gallops off, bit in teeth.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, I started playing with my map image in the computer.  What would happen if…???   Well…first of all…I got it to black on white and not black on gray.  Then…how about a nice, aged-cream background so it looks old?  And wait, wouldn’t it be nice to have it kind of smudgy, like a map that’s been used a long time?   A little airbrushing with two different colors, using a tool that let me control density and opacity brought that out nicely.  I thought of trying to add, say, a blood-stain, or a blotchy mark from spilled wine or ale, but that would take more skill than I have with the mouse as a drawing tool.  It occurred to me (but I haven’t take the time yet for this, which will require going back to pen & ink, as I would have to for the “liquid-stain” effect)  that I could “distress” the edges of this strip map, too, as if it were torn or cut from a larger map for the convenience of someone who needed only that much.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve mostly-inked the “strip” of territory that’s in Oath of Fealty.   For those familiar with the Paks books, that includes the part of Aarenis from Andressat north–east boundary roughly Cortes Cilwan, west to the Westmounts…then north over the pass at Valdaire to include Tsaia from just west of Vérella east to include Lyonya to just east of Chaya.   Because Tsaia extends  north of the Honnorgat River and Lyonya doesn’t, this means part of Pargun is also showing.

Read the rest of this entry »

So…the kitchen table is now covered with drafting stuff.  Three sheets of drafting vellum for a smoother surface, taped down for security.   Scanned printouts of the earlier maps in the books (one enlarged by the person who gave it to me in New Zealand last year, and whose identifying info went *poof* somewhere along the line–it’s *almost* the same scale as the Gird map) are taped to the top layer of the padding in the correct (nearly) orientation, and the working sheet is over that.  Aarenis and Fintha are now traced on.   Bits of the north coastline of Old Aare are on, tentatively.  The coastline of the north (Prealíth from the mountains to the Honnorgat, and Dzordanya north of the Honnorgat) is on (with fingers crossed that it’s not *too* different.)   Certain necessary points have been marked (Chaya, Vérella, Valdaire, Cortes Vonja (which presents the usual problem for me…which side of the river is it on???) and I’m now working on the roads.  Sort of.  Actually I’m in here posting this.

Read the rest of this entry »

The book has now moved from my editor to Production.   This means all substantive changes have been made, but not that everything is in it, even yet.  There’s the map, and there’s the list of characters the editor wants to include up front (I argued for at the back, but lost.   Those of you who don’t like character lists up front–it’s not my fault.   The acknowledgments are at the back.)

I worked on the map today, roughing in “the north” in pencil, then showing it to Richard, who’s one of the few people to have seen the (now lost) original.   His memory of the original is similar to mine…the new one is the right shape but wrong size.    I changed the size deliberately–the north was never detailed,  just a coastline and river.  Extrapolating from travel times between Kieri’s stronghold and Vérella, and Vérella and Valdaire, and pretending that A to B equals other similar looking distances…is not perfectly accurate.

If I put in all the detail that *could* be there, the text on the map will cover it…if I put too little, someone will have conniptions about that, too.

But whatever, I have to get the character list and map to my editor by the end of the month.  Which isn’t that far away.

The next step is that I get the copy-edited manuscript.  Writers have horror stories about what copy editors have done (tried to do, succeeded in doing) to their stories.    And did I get the style-sheet written?   Er…when would I have had time?

So it’s going to be an interesting copy-edit, all 800+ pages of it.

But after the to-ing and fro-ing that go with the copy-edit, the next stage is page proofs…and as the page proofs come to me, someone’s putting up the uncorrected proofs as ARCs, reviewer copies.   Things get exciting.

Right now, though, my attention’s on that map.    The missing-in-action background notebooks had detailed information on the geology, which I sortakinda remember, but not as clearly as I’d like.    Tomorrow, I hope to get to the good mapping-supply place in Austin and pick up larger sheets of vellum to work with.   And some new pens.    It’s going to take multiple drafts before I’m happy with it.   I’d love to do a wall-size one, but there’s not time.

But I’m telling you anyway.   One of the ways you get multi-sensory accuracy into a work is to get it into your life.   Back when I was first writing for publication, I was immersed in a busy life that included regular doses of excitement and gore: I was a volunteer with the county EMS, and our station lay between a military base in a dry county and the nearest bars.   Car wrecks (lots), fires, explosions, fights,  death by violence and death that came as quietly as a sigh.   If it’s part of a human and it breaks, bleeds, or leaks–I’ve seen it.  I also had a rideable horse then, and rode almost daily.

Read the rest of this entry »

My editor sent me the Oath of Fealty ms., with Track Changes on it (her changes to my work on her revision request…) and I’m almost through working on it, after having my usual battle with Track Changes.  (Not a fan, though I can see the utility of it for editors.)    No progress on the maps this weekend, through trying to do too many things at once…the Track Changes thing, an e-interview, an article for a writing magazine, the map, enough work on the new new book to keep it awake and talking to me.

Read the rest of this entry »

The ideas continued into the evening (naturally, because I have house guests arriving.    Probably in less than two hours, now, and I’m still glued to the book.)

ANYway.   I’ve had to start re-writing because there are tricky things to convey.    This shouldn’t be too spoilerish, but if you’re highly concerned about spoilers, you might want to turn away.

Read the rest of this entry »