Locales: Map making is harder than drawing plants.

 Dear Reader,

I had this mad idea that I was going to draw a few maps of the cities and towns that I have described here. It was a glorious failure. I will confess, the attempts were consigned to the burn bag. They'll see the light of day before a match is put to them and they're sent to the great beyond. As I delve into the prospect of making things like maps and other artwork surrounding my books, I am realizing that I have tons of ideas but my execution is wanting. I can fully appreciate the artists who go at it full time working this stuff up for other authors.

I, however, can't afford an artist for this sort of work so I am occasionally taking shots at doing it myself. This experiment was a failure. Perhaps my problem was I was using grid ruled paper. Perhaps my problem is I didn't have a t-square and a compass. I have a minimal amount of art supplies because my crafting hobbies focused over the last decade on the fiber arts. I want to channel my inner dungeon master and make maps that could be used for a session of D&D but it is not working very well.

So, I think I'm going to stick to giving you detailed descriptions until I get enough experience under my belt that I can make a simple map. My old notebook from way back at the beginning of attempting to write up all my ideas for this series (The Umbrel Chronicles) has a map in it. It's cartoonish and badly drawn. I tried to go back to it and clean it up. The results were just ugly. Perhaps when I have a bit more cash flow, I'll find an artist who can make me a couple of maps. I don't know. 

I do know, these books would be a lot more interactive and interesting with a map of the major journeys the main characters have taken on the flyleaf pages and some flavor images of cities in the midst of the sections detailing adventures in them. That, however, is beyond my ability right now and that makes me a bit sad. So, I'm going to go back to drawing plants (hopefully in bigger scale and quantity) over the next few months. As I get pictures done, I will share them. And, when I next attempt to draw a map, I will post my badly done work to give you a vague idea of what these places look like when mapped out.

I knew I should have taken a technical drawing class at college. Too bad I ran out of time for that. I guess I just learn it the old fashioned way, through a lot of trial and error.