I feel like it's not really a high fantasy novel unless there is a map. Not that I'm one to ever look at it while I'm reading--I'm not much of a visual person. But I did want to have one as I was writing the Hexborn Chronicles. They say to write what you know, so I based the geography on the region where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I did a rough pencil sketch then hired designer Taran Lopez to make my vision beautiful.
I put the capital city where San Francisco would be located, naturally. My own town I placed in the Flats, as we are in a valley here. The San Joachin Valley became the Range. Napa and Sonoma, naturally, became the Vine. The Sierras became the Teeth. You get the idea.
You see in the map shaded areas labeled with skulls. Those are the Deadlands, places damaged by dark magic during the recent Sibling's War. Just as the war's curses marked Shiloh's body, so too did they mark the land where large battles took place, leaving them blackened and barren. In Hexborn, Shiloh discovers a way to heal portions of those lands. In Unclean, you'll see how she takes it further.
Do you look at the maps in books you are reading? Why or why not?
I put the capital city where San Francisco would be located, naturally. My own town I placed in the Flats, as we are in a valley here. The San Joachin Valley became the Range. Napa and Sonoma, naturally, became the Vine. The Sierras became the Teeth. You get the idea.
You see in the map shaded areas labeled with skulls. Those are the Deadlands, places damaged by dark magic during the recent Sibling's War. Just as the war's curses marked Shiloh's body, so too did they mark the land where large battles took place, leaving them blackened and barren. In Hexborn, Shiloh discovers a way to heal portions of those lands. In Unclean, you'll see how she takes it further.
Do you look at the maps in books you are reading? Why or why not?
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