The first draft of the map for The Harvey Girl!
Courtesy of Cartographers Extraordinaire (yes, that is their official title) Cherie and Thom Northon at mapmakers.com.
It will go in with the manuscript and Liz the copy editor will compare place names on the map with place names in the text and tell me exactly where I let it all go so horribly wrong. After which Cherie and Thom will fix it, masterfully, as they always do.
This long-term professional relationship came about by way of a fan comment Cherie left on stabenow.com, and then she sent me a photo of her holding Blindfold Game in front of an iceberg in Antarctica where she and Thom were on a cruise.
At some point I said, just making conversation, “What do you do, Cherie?”
And she said, “I’m a cartographer.”
Cherie and Thom have done all the maps for my books for going on twenty years now.
I often say that books are the gifts that keep on giving.
You could say that about the writing profession, too.
#thiswritinglife Chatter The Harvey Girl Cherie and Thom Northon mapmakers.com The Harvey Girl mystery seriees
8 Comments Leave a comment ›
Those places on your map? I’ve been to all of them, some by train. I live in Silver City now, which was a booming mining town, and now is an art colony and the gateway to the Gila Wilderness. We are also the first major stop on the CRT trail which runs from Mexico to Canada. I remember going over Raton Pass by train in January in a snowstorm which was kind of scary.
I haven’t made it down to Silver City yet but it’s on my list.
Your books have been a true gift that has made my life better and always will do.
Thanks so much, Ginger.
I thought the Sangre de Cristo range was all east of the Rio Grande. The mountains west of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico are, I think, the San Juans. Check me on that?
There are so many different mountain ranges in New Mexico it would have been impossible to have included them all. I trust my mapmakes to keep it as real as they can in such a small space.
So, dcp, I took a shower where I do all my best thinking, and I just emailed Cherie and Thom so we can talk about this further. Thanks for the comment.
::whew:: Thanks. I was a little worried I was being too nit-picky.
In the “Additional Note” at the end of Arthur C. Clarke’s IMPERIAL EARTH, he makes this comment:
“I can only fall back upon what is known in the trade as Bradbury’s Defense, viz:”
*****
Once dreadful boy ran up to me and said:
“That book of yours, The Martian Chronicles?”
“Yes,” I said.
“On page 92, where you have the moons of Mars rising in the East?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Nah,” he said.
So I hit him.