Maps! Okay, these are technically blueprints or layouts, but I’ll share actual maps at some point soon. :) My characters are part of a carnival troupe, so they live in what I call carnival wagons until I can think of a better term. They’re something like a cross between a gypsy wagon and a motorhome.

While I've worked out that they have stoves and running water (pumped from a tank), I've been toying with the notion that instead of being pulled by horses or some kind of animal, they're pedal-powered. Magic can't grant propulsion, but this is a country where the magic users are the artists and inventors and magic supplements a lot of the technology. There's no reason why the wagons, large as they are, can't be driven like bicycles. Or maybe they hover off the ground slightly instead of using wheels and the pedaling powers a blower, kind of like a hovercraft? These ideas would work fine in the main country where magic is common and the land is flat with well-made roads. I'm not so sure how well it would work when the characters head into the mountains of the very cold north in book 3. I know I want to do something fantastical with these, though.

Anyway, back to the wagons. I think they uploaded to scale with each other. These are pretty plain sketches, but I'm happy with them because they give me a good idea of the layouts. The top one (Blythe's) is where a bunch of book 1 takes place since she shares it with another main character. (Adair is afraid of heights, so he can't stand the bunks. He sleeps on the floor instead.) The second wagon shows up almost as much since that's where the MCs' best friends live. The Healer wagon belongs to Blythe's mentor, so she's in there a few times during the course of the series.

I'm not set on the layout of the last wagon since that belongs with book 3 and I haven't started writing that one yet. All I can see in my head is Blythe grumbling over the fact that after having her own space for several years, she’s now stuck living with two people and they’re always in her way!

Oh, and it's kind of a joke that I put Adair's cat into each of my maps at least once. She'll show up again later. It's like a game of Where's Waldo. ;)

~Meri