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Now I have actually safely found out from Fiona that she didn't like it either can I just comment how completely shite the map in the front is?

I know Fiona had next to no input into the finished product but it really looks like someone spent an entire 2 hours tops rushing it out. It really annoys me in a proffesional way and that is before I get to the bits where Lazar appears to have his house somewhere out in the desert and not in one of the classy suburbs.

Is there someone we can complain to about this?

 ,

Mud

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So, I stand in my tank, the great liberator: a human head with a 30 ton body of armoured steel. Nobody can see my feet of clay

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Ooh Mudcrab you're a grump! Just so that everyone knows how it works. I am not a map freak so I don't focus at all on where things are or how the lie of the land is. Then suddenly when the edit's done and we're all on deadline someone at Harpers will say, what about a map? So I scrawl something out on paper and send it to them. Now, for Trinity I know they got a pretty reasonable map producer involved, and again for The Quickening there was lots of time, so the maps are fine. But for Percheron we were supposed to be coming out in December and thought we had loads of lead tme and suddenly a space became available in October and marketing grabbed it because that's the key month to launch in for Christmas. Losing that window of time meant all of us were on mega alert to get everything done in time and the map obviously suffered as a result. I drew something close to resembling a four year old's attempt in about 30 secs flat before faxing it through and no one at the publishing graphics team had the usual amount of warning or space to spend on crafting the map. The main thing was getting it out for the October deadline. You win some, you lose some. Publishing is not perfect - it's like any business....sometimes you just have to take the glittering opportunity even if it means compromising elsewhere.

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I think one of the main problems with it is that it's too empty to be spread over the space it has been.. ie it would have been better off on one page.

I guess thats the value of hindsight... will more detail be spent on the map for the next book fiona?

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I am Me! This is I! Therefore we can conclude that me, is who I am.

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Well if you''ve read how it came about, then you'll see no time was spent on it so hopefully they will give it greater focus for book 2. The thing is the entire book is set just about exclusively within the walls of the palace. We briefly flirt with the bazaar, the temple and Lazar's house. Apart from the giants, there is nothing else spoken about so filling the map with items you don't know seems pointless. Frankly, I'd prefer to have no map - if you aren't travelling around the realm as a reader - and reckon that's what I'll be suggesting for book 2! In Trinity and The Quickening the characters were on the move constantly through villages and towns and in these instances I do believe a map is valid for those readers who enjoy the trail. But I personally feel a map is superfluous - or is that erroneous? - for the Percheron series. I guess we'll have a chat amongst the editorial team as we get closer to Emissary's launch date and I'll certainly pass on everyone's comments. I think reader comments are incredibly valuable although perhaps I won't use the word "shite".....

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Another reason to have a more detailed map of Percheron and the lands sorrounding her, maybe even including Lazar's old haunts, is that the reader might be encouraged to think about the greater world and that there are other things going on besides whats happening in the palace. I'm thinking it might give rise to more questions from the reader that they want answered and so therefore be even keener to read more books! I imagine it like one is tempting the reader to explore the world they can see in the map by reading the story.

Of course this might not be the effect at all. But as Fiona knows, I love maps, and when I see places and things that may only be fleetingly mentioned through the course of the book I wonder about what else is happening and that makes me want to read on.

Jaimquon The Wanderer...