What I’ve been up to | Audio recording and mapmaking

Lots and lots of audio recording for book six! My goal is to finish the recording phase by the end of the month, but that's … gonna be tight, ha. 😅 I'm going to have to do an average of two segments a day to make it, and that's counting my admin day (Monday) and outreach day (Friday). Wish me luck! But the good news is that I'm 55% of the way through! That's 30 segments and 1037 minutes (17+ hours), btw. 🫢

I made a thing! 🗺️

Or, er, rather, I'm making a thing, but I wanted to show you guys the progress! (The goal was to finish today to give you guys a completed version, but weeeeell—audio recording takes precedence, and like I said, I've been working hard at that.😅)

In case you have ever tried turning your mind into a pretzel to picture just what the Moontouched hold looks like (or at least, how it's oriented), then you're in luck.

At first, while I was writing the series, I sketched out a version in OneNote using my Microsoft Surface. That was enough for me to keep things straight for continuity's sake, but it was far too messy and perhaps even too unintelligible for me to share with anyone else (except, of course, Mom, whose spacial-oriented brain demanded clarification several times).

But now, since you guys might be curious, and for the sake of posterity, this is the Moontouched hold map 1.0.

The Moontouched hold 1.0 (the version I used while writing)

See how I couldn't possibly share this as the official version? Let alone put it in the front-matter of the book? So, I finally decided I could do better. And the result…

Behold! The hold! (Did I intentionally rhyme there? Yes, yes, I did.)

The Moontouched hold 2.0, in progress. (Please pardon my dust.)

Yes, indeed, I've been playing around with Inkarnate to learn how to create my own fantasy maps. I feel so…fantasy official. Do I get a fantasy-map author merit badge now? 🏅

At first, this started out of necessity (i.e., budget), and I was pretty reluctant, having worked with professional cartographers before and thinking I could never measure up. I still have a deep respect for a professional cartographer's skill, but as with Midjourney art, if I don't do it, then who will?

So I finally convinced myself to give it a go. What gave me the final push was when I realized I was going to have to create a map for my next series, since, ahem, the geography is…well, for the sake of not giving away too much too soon, let's just say for now that it is complex. (There are many reasons I waited to write that series next, and the geography is definitely one of them.)

Yes, I could hire someone to do that one, but I have a feeling I'm going to want to make a lot of changes as I go, and if I do the same sketch method that I did with the Moontouched hold, I have a feeling it's going to become an unintelligible mess very, very quickly (unintelligible to even me, that is). And while I'm learning to create a map that's clear enough for my world-building…why not learn to create one that's good enough to put in the actual book?

And so, I turned to Inkarnate, a few tutorials, and a lot of trial and error, and finally, after months, I have what you see above. (Granted, most of those months were an initial attempt, an initial giving up, procrastinating, and a burst of progress yesterday when I finally gave myself the deadline of today. Still didn't make it, but hey, that's what gave me my breakthrough!)

Now, fantasy maps aren't a big deal to everyone. Honestly, I'm in that camp myself. (Why do you think it took me so long to start the nicer one above?)

I am one of those readers who…(gasp) almost always skips the maps at the beginnings of books and almost never refers to them later. That's…just not how I think, ya know? If I'm reading for pleasure, I honestly don't care where things are in relation to each other. Seriously, I don't want to have to think about it. I'm just along for the ride. The only reason I ever created a map is because, for my own books, I'm in the driver's seat.

My mother, however, is the complete opposite. She pores over those maps, and if something she reads later doesn't match how things are oriented in her mind, it drives her crazy. (Hence why she needed to see my sketch, no matter how messy.)

So if this isn't a big deal to you, great! Or if it is, and you're thrilled with what I've got so far, great! If it's a big deal to you and you think I've done horribly so far, well, please be patient. It's a first draft, after all!