I’m finally publishing A Tale of Two Sparrows! My hoped-for release date is November 1st, and so far everything is on schedule. If all goes well, the book will be available in time for the holidays, and I can’t wait to do a round of festive craft fairs with it. This is such an exciting season and process. I can hardly believe it’s happening, and that my hope of publishing this story is coming true.

One of my dreams was to include some of my own drawings in the published book, specifically a Tolkien style fantasy map. So over the summer, I decided to go for it! The process of creating the map was both fun and challenging (forget the Tolkien style). Eventhough I’ve spent years imagining the places in the story, translating them from my head onto paper and ink was tricky. I watched several YouTube tutorials and studied different artists. My favorite tutorials are by JP Coovert. I also like the tips from Maps by Owen, especially for drawing mountains.

First, I had to decide what specific style and perspective I wanted to use: what the coastline would look like, where to place the mountains, how the rivers would flow, and how to represent the cities, especially their fortifications. At first, I wanted to include roads and creatures, but after some trial and error, I realized the map was more interesting without those details. Figuring out the perspective, especially when it came to conveying cliffs, was the hardest part.

It took a few drafts, but I finally came up with a map I like. It was such a satisfying process that I even thought about creating a second map of the island village. That ended up being a bit too much to handle, what with final edits of the book and everything. Anyway, here is the map! I thought it would be fun to share it with you.