The map of Ath-o’Lea has been in the making for years. It’s changed many times since its conception, but the one thing that remains the same is my idea of what makes the land where my Shadows in the Stone characters live special to me.
After all that time spent creating the map, I still don’t feel it’s finished. I want it to look better. As an overall map for The Castle Keepers series, it’s useful because it shows Maskil in relationship to the sea and places mentioned in the first novel (Midway Keep, Ellswire, Pogwa Mountains, Petra), as well as places introduced in the second book, Scattered Stones (Tigh Na Mare, Glentosh, Titterton, Wardlow).
My characters won’t visit Moonsface, Wandsworth and Windswept Keep until the third book, Healing Stones.
Unfortunately, as a map specifically for Shadows in the Stone, it falls short. It’s too vast; locations such as Linden Lake, Moon Meadow and Lower Branch Road cover much too little ground to be properly marked.
This means, I’m going back to the drawing board to create a smaller map—smaller in area, but not smaller in size. Eventually, I’d like the map to be printed in real map size, something like two feet by three feet…or a little larger.
Until then, my characters will have to travel in the map below.
Diane McGyver 