The new Foreigner book which I am finishing is going to need maps—because we refer to places and we move. There’s a lot of old history raked up. And more recent troubles.
So I am trying to work with the maps. One of the problems is scale. The maps have to be to be visible/legible on the scale of a hardbound, and a paperbound book. We are dealing with a monocontinent. Gondwana. Pangaea. It’s big, it’s wide, and I have to compress the map visually or just show areas, and putting names on the map that can be read in a 5″x7″ space means printing it sort of like putting Moscow in legible size on a map of Eurasia that can fit in a 5″x7″ window. If you can read it, it’s wiped out a thousand miles of surface features, rivers, etc.
But, that’s the job I’ve got. And worse, one of the maps, the one showing part of Mospheira and Dur in our Map Room on this site, the one that has the Marid due south of Ashidama Bay, when it’s about 1500 miles to the east—is the one that gives me headaches. I sketched it, they had a professional artist re-do it, [the map above] and, well, he put in names at the expense of accuracy and moved the whole Marid to the West Coast—1500 miles. It’s actually about 500 miles east and a mountainous 700 miles south of Shejidan. At best a 5×7 map gives you kind of a childlike perspective on the continent, which I assure you, is wider than that. And we haven’t even gotten to the continental divide and the clans west of Malguri’s eastern domains.
I am going to try again. I am asking Jane to take the time to try to render these, because my skills aren’t up to it, but heaven help us if we have somebody else take her map and start compressing things. Section it up and make two maps, maybe—this book is going to need at least 2, anyway. But graphics in any modern book are a pita. Shouldn’t be, but are.
Wish us luck.
I like the endpaper maps idea with east and west on front and back as an alternative.
I like the foldout idea. I like the “added benefit” website map link idea. Er, and of course, I like my idea of sectional pages — as Neco also suggested — or heck, a whole Guidebook (or whatever title suits it).
Additional sizing consideration: — A paperback’s pages are approximately 4.25 x 6.375 inches, or thereabouts, I’ve seen the sizes vary a bit over the years and between different publishing houses, and that’s the US size, not UK or EU or Australia and NZ. So what fits fine for a hardbound book’s larger page size is, sigh, reduced for a paperback. There’s also the “page creep” involving the spine and gutter and how pages are stitched or glued to the spine in folios or keys, to add to the brain-freeze. Adobe inDesign or Illustrator or any competing programs can account for that, or you could consult with the person doing the hb and pb page layouts. — However, about a 1/8th inch allowance in the gutters would likely do it as a rule of thumb.
I keep wondering what Ragi script looks like.
Alas, I’ll be lucky to talk DAW into 2 maps for one book, and we need them. Endpapers are kind of a thing of specialty publishers—paper publishers are generally struggling.
But I think we can do it. I can at least put the Marid in the right place!
Did I mention the Southern Island is NOT near the Marid coast—it’s not the English Channel we’re talking about here. It’s more like 400 miles south, and part of it is definitely chilly.
Don’t forget ebook readers (not that I can get any foreigner titles in ebook in the UK) – maps can be hard to display. Foldout just wouldn’t work. Maybe go for a deliberately sketch map for the book, just the key places. And then you can sell a pretty and accurate map via CC.
Big maps in hand-held books seems like quite a challenge, especially when there are so many details and orientations to express. Even a magazine-sized backroads map looks awfully crowded when so many features are detailed. I do wish you best of luck in this challenging endeavour.
As an aside, I’d been experiencing a bit of how technology affects sparsely-settle areas. A couple of years ago, I placed a geocache at each original station site of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad which was built somewhat diagonally across Saskatchewan. Very old maps were key to this geocache placement effort.
To support the stream locomotives, a station and siding was built every 7 to 10 miles along the track. Most stations grew into settlements, villages and towns as settlers ventured out to establish homesteads. The result was a sparse but lively necklace of communities with easy transportation between them anywhere along the line. As diesel locomotives came online, the communities became less vital to railroad service and many began to decline. As a highway system developed, many more communities simply died out completely, some without leaving any trace at all.
These days, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad has become the extremely busy main line of the Canadian National Railroad. Some communities continue to benefit from the railroad activity, but many have floundered or died.
I can certainly understand why Tabini-aiji doesn’t want a highway system developed. It can truly have a disruptive effect on a widely distributed population/society.
We had a choice, back-when. In the Cold War, there was a proposal for creating a modern, European-style train system and mounting missile response on rail, but it was argued it is easier to mess up a rail system with strikes than it is to stop roads. So we went for the superhighway system.
Now, in point of fact, the military suffered a bit from a syndrome I saw in my brief foray into party politics: I was on the military committee of a certain party, and we had two vets, bless ’em, one of whom kept diverting us into (I kid thee not—literal cavalry warfare: it was that long ago and he was that old)—and the other into the sinking of the Indianapolis. Both terrible events. But what was on the table was missile defense and space-based intelligence-gathering…
Anyway, not to digress into politics, but just say that our superhighway system had an alternative back at the beginning, which would have threaded transit through our cities and unified it with cross-country transit: we would have more cities, fewer small towns out in the boonies, and things would be different.
I seem to recall that they were going to have loops of track/highway for the missile carriers, because of course no one else can see those obvious features in satellite or aerial views.
(I was looking at aerial views for pipelines. It’s surprising how much is visible, even with grass over it. You get really good at spotting what we called “pipe scars”. And then with street-level photos, you can see the markings or the paving patches, or the actual pipe/valves, and know for sure what you have where.)
Off-Topic: Humor for the day.
Today, I searched Amazon for “junior legal pad turquoise,” since “teal” didn’t do much yesterday. I got back the one letter-size pad portfolio in teal / turquoise / cyan.
And then the funny part: Amazon quite helpfully returned four other results.
Two were for turquoise women’s sports bras or bandeaux. :wide-eyed: :rofl:
After some puzzlement, I thought it must have been the word, “junior” for juniors’ or misses’ sizes that did that, ’cause otherwise, I’m kinda mystified. Miss-tified? Misty-fied? Yeah. Let’s say it would not be the ideal look for me! Between the mustache and the knobby knees…. However, I’m sure the right young lady would look very stunning in that; kinda the tube top look. Still wouldn’t be the look for me, but for the right young gentleman looking for the right young lady…. Well, anyway, I’m not sure how one otherwise gets from “legal pad” to “tube top sports bra,” but y’know, everybody has their own thing. I’d say Amazon’s search engine might be feeling spring is in the air a bit early? LOL!
One was for a “junior bridesmaid” something-or-other. It did not look nearly so diverting.
The fourth offered a junior-size bike or skater helmet and three pads. (I suppose for the helmet instead of knees and elbows; I don’t know.) Because three pads…? Anyway, I’m sure some skater boiz and grrlz, or biker guys and chicks, will go for that. OK, probably more the cyclists than the motorcycle enthusiasts. (OK, now I’m picturing that tough motorcycle gang with the one rather nerdy safety-conscious misfit, or else the little kiddo, denim and leather _plus_ the pads and helmet, because they’re not crazy-stupid, just wild and alternative. Hmm, no, the little guys and girls would need real motorcycle helmets, kid-sized, for that. OK, whatever….) … Hmm, apparently, I have a biker gang persona I never really knew about. :grins:
Oh, Spike, buddy…where’d you go…?
^ Yeah, if only I were that wildly outgoing and adventuresome. I’d be lucky to find anybody at this rate. ;-/ But who knows. (Actually, I’d probably go for the quiet type, but hmm, ya never know. Vroom-vroom?) 😀
We now rather distractedly return you to your regularly scheduled cartography discussion, already in progress.
I’ve been mystified by search results, at Amazon and elseweb, on quite a few occasions. I have to assume that some of it is mistagged products, but some is, yes, WTF?
I was looking for custard dishes on Amazon and its search recommendations were topped with the phrase “Custard died for your sins,” which is apparently what people mistype when they search for a book called “Custer died for your sins.” It was a very confusing search result.
How about this as a solution for the map problem:
On this website, have an authoritative map of the Atevi homeworld, in as much detail as CJ chooses to put on it, a map that can be as large as needed, with true proportions of various parts of the continent, even including terrain features like the mountains dividing the Western Association and the East. This map can be a “living” document, CJ updating it as often as she wishes.
In the book(s), have a smaller, condensed version.. or even no map at all, but either way, have a link to the map on the website. The lack of details in a paper map don’t matter as much then, since there would be as much detail as one could presumably want online here, as pretty much everyone is, these days.
I know I’d love to have a map like this online to look at, and reference on my iPad as I (re-)read the books.
I like the “living document” concept. Expandable, flexible, and possibly zoomable (seems I just made up a word, according to my spell checker).
YES that would be about as good as it could be! Major map – zoom in! – on the web and links from the book(s).
Clearly, Custard’s Last Ice Cream Stand….
With extra Fish Fingers to regenerate sales incentives….
I am truly thinking about a mega-map, something that could be photographed (for DAW) in useful sections. That may be the way we go, so that you can have it on this site in place of the one with the sadly misplaced Marid.
Ever since there was mention made of a map on Cajeiri’s wall, I’ve wanted a framed mega-map printout for myself (I’ve always had a weakness for maps as decorations). The idea of one on this site to look at is exciting even if it’s still misshapen in the books themselves.
A good Mercator of the world wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all, either.
Wow, I’m actually very glad that you mentioned that the artist moved the Marid. Because I’ve been comparing the maps and I looked at that one and said, “yup, I’m going to ignore this.” Now it absolutely makes sense!