Ellen Byron

Mapping out Gold County

My second Golden Motel Mystery, Solid Gold Murder, launches on 7/29 – hello, shameless plug! I like to try something new in terms of promotion with every launch. I’ve always thought it would be fun to have a map of the fictional locations in my series, so I connected with mapmaker extraordinaire Rhys Davies and put him to work.

The first step was determining the type of map. I’d only be using the map for my personal promo, so I wanted it to be color instead of the detailed and wonderful black and white maps Rhys has created for authors like Louise Penny and G.M. Malliet. Stylistically, I envisioned it resembling the various Disney maps of Neverland. I found a picture and sent it to him. I’d share it here, but Disney would have me arrested for copyright infringement. (I’ve work for them. I know things.)

Rhys loved the idea. I sent him photos of the real locations that inspired many of my fictional sites. I drew the world’s worst map of the road between Foundgold and Goldsgone, the two primary villages in the series. Rhys didn’t judge me, bless him. He fiddled with it:

Armed with a terrible map and a stylistic direction, Rhys began playing around with ideas:

Gradually, the ideas became more specific:

Until they coalesced into a wonderful map:

The map couldn’t be more perfect. I’ve used it to create everything from puzzles to postcards (courtesy of my amazing graphic artist, Hunter Martin):

The postcards have been a real kick. I included one with an ARC of Solid Gold Murder that I sent to a reader, and she sent me the postcard to say thank you!

The locations in this series are a jumble of real and imagined places in my head. Somehow the map Rhys Davies created manages to capture both the real and fictional beautifully.

Readers, do you like maps of your favorite series?

40 thoughts on “Mapping out Gold County”

  1. ELLEN: That map is perfect for your series, I love it!

    I have been obsessed with maps ever since I was a kid. That map obsession was partly why I majored in geography at university.

    So no surprise, I love seeing maps in books. And i especially like the hand-drawn London maps in Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series.

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    1. Grace, I’ve loved maps since I was a kid too! I used to map family trips. Did you have AAA Trip-tiks in Canada? The spiral-bound map routes they’d make for you? My parents would get those for a road trip – until I was 14, all our trips were road trips – and I loved them!

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  5. Yes, I love seeing where the places I read about are situated in relations to others.
    I love the map. How do I get a copy of said map?

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  8. I love maps in books as well as cast lists, especially when there are lots of characters, especially new ones. The map (and associated postcard) are wonderful and really helped me visualize Foundgold and Goldsgone. I selfishly kept my postcard because I like it so much!!

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  10. I love maps of all kinds–street maps, topo maps, even building diagrams and blueprints. In the early 20th century, the latter were often included in mystery books to help the reader discover whodunit before the sleuth Col. Mustard in the library with the candlestick). Unfortunately, I think maps would be superfluous in most of my books, but I do spend a lot of time poring over Ordnance Survey maps of London when I write my Sherlock Holmes stories.

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  13. This map is so cool, Ellen–I love it!

    I, too, have loved maps since I was a kid. (Remember those tests they’d give you once a year in elementary school which had a section where you had to answer questions based on a map? I LOVED taking those tests!) Sadly now, however, I think kids have lost the art (and love) of map-reading. Sigh….

    And I love maps in books. I’d stare for hours at the maps of Middle Earth in “The Lord of the Rings.” And I finally got a map of my own when I hired someone to make one of the Big Island for my first Orchid Isle mystery, “Molten Death.”

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  14. Wow, your map is so cool, and I love that you made it into a puzzle! It’s funny, I just read a paranormal cozy over the weekend that had a map of the village in the front and I thought it was such a nice touch!

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    1. I’ve found the maps really match up to what’s in my head. But it’s disconcerting when an author shares the real place that inspired them, and it looks nothing like what was in your head. That actually happened to me with one of my own series when I went to the town that inspired Pelican in the Cajun Country Mysteries – and it didn’t look at all like I remembered it!

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  19. Sorry I’m late to the party, El–just got a new computer and my likes and comments kept vanishing like disappearing ink. But this map is just gorgeous, and I love that it’s in color. As an editor I used to work with illustrators who created maps for children’s books, until the publishers decided that they were too expensive. Often story maps don’t quite match up with what I’d envisioned while reading, but…that’s probably a good thing, because I’m terrible with real-life maps!

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