Eldverold, Maps, and other Adolescents with precious metals blurring their vision

After a last bash this weekend, I completed my round of proofreading for Jewels, which means that, after 3 years, 6 months, 5 long drafts and extensive rewrites and edits, the manuscript is finally finished!

I've already donned my diver's boots and begun the long wade through the custard that is the literary agency submissions process. Rather than twiddling my thumbs and waiting for responses that might never come, I'm busying myself with creating more content with which to supplement the novel.

One of the things I love about fantasy is the excuse to indulge in maps and cartography as a requirement to underpin and further explain one's created world. I've been sketching my maps out extremely roughly in accordance with narrative continuity and timelines, but they will need much refinement. I bought a book of medieval cartography from a second hand bookshop in Göttingen last year, and have been waiting for this moment to open it and study it in earnest!

Anyway, here are three of my very roughly sketched maps of Eldverold. I'm focusing on northwestern Eldverold, where the majority of Jewels takes place. The maps below depict: Noravia & Northern Kirna; eastern Greenacre and Akerlan; and Rukjana & northern Akerlan. I'm hoping to blow these up into A2 (each) to create a type of Atlas of Eldverold.

Golden Balls

I've tried to be quite busy on Twitter this week - it really is invaluable. This week I discovered that a lady named Marjorie Young in California has written a series of YA fantasy entitled The Boy With the Golden Eyes - luckily the instillation of precious metals and gems into our protagonist's eyes seems to be the only similarity between the two series. We've been in touch and have seen the funny side. I'll be downloading the first TBWGE book soon and giving it a proper read quite soon.