It’s been a long time coming. I’ve been drawing maps for my own use for years, but I was afraid that the quality wasn’t good enough to share or print. But I’ve finally pushed myself to create something for readers. It’s long overdue, but I’m proud to finally give you a map of Seirenia, the setting for the Wyld Magic series:

You may recognize some of the place names from the stories. Korinna’s home, for example, is Kyratia in the northwest, while the rival state Sympaia is just to the southeast (which is why there’s so much tension between them). The Voyage of the Miscreation ranges farther down the western coast and also to the islands. Of course, there’s also a lot of places that I haven’t gotten to yet, but that’s what future books are for. I didn’t want to overwhelm things by trying to describe too many locations at once.

This map will be included in “The Captain’s Wife” and The Voyage of the Miscreation: Season 1, available tomorrow, but I’ll be going back and adding maps to previously released stories as time allows. For example, I think a smaller map focused on just Kyratia would be more useful for A Flight of Marewings, so I can label the individual towns and fortresses that Korinna visits. But that will have to wait for another day.

I admit that I am a geek for old-style maps. I have a collection of historical maps of our world, and a fair number of fantasy maps as well. One of the things that get me really excited about a book is opening the cover and finding a map inside. It’s no surprise that I fondly remember so many fantasy stories based on their maps. Middle Earth, Narnia, Pern, Tortall–I could go on for a while.

Do you have a favorite fantasy map?