I yoinked this from here (danke!), and am pleased as plum to see the covers side by side for easier comparison.
Final map, which will be in the hardcover. Much nicer than the one I did, huh? :)
A few random things to note:
- Owain is from Scottsby
- Pascal lives in Sapienshire
- The queen is from Estoria
- In an earlier draft, Syd and North stop by Haverport, thinking it might be faster to take a boat
Brightly Woven
Alexandra Bracken. Egmont USA, $16.99
(368p) ISBN 978-1-60684-038-2
Syd is a talented weaver who lives in a
poor, remote village, long plagued by
drought and largely removed from the
politics and duels of the ruling wizard
class. On the day of the first rain in de-
cades, a handsome wizard, North, arrives
and warns of approaching soldiers—a
war between kingdoms is brewing and
the village will soon be overrun. To save
Syd, her parents promise the 16-year-old
to North as a wizard’s tailor, and the two
set out to try and stop the war, Syd angri-
ly so. Bracken’s vivid prose and storytell-
ing offer a fresh, fun take on magic and
wizardry, with North as a tantalizing,
brooding hero and Syd, as a feisty, strong
woman of many talents, her most ex-
traordinary yet undiscovered. Between
her sharp tongue and emerging powers
and North’s grungy appearance and hip-
ster attitude, they make a charismatic
pair. Though at times the dialogue can be
melodramatic and overwritten, and the
plot occasionally falls out of focus, overall
this fantasy novel is a delight, and Brack-
en is a debut author to watch. Ages 12–
up. (Mar.)
On Friday, my publisher asked me for a map of the country that BW takes place in, because they’ve decided that they want to include a map in the final hardcover (hooray! A lot of early reviewers had been asking for one). It’s actually a little embarassing how much time I spent coloring this over the weekend. I definitely could have turned in the plain pencil version, but then I started thinking to myself, But what if the mapmaker doesn’t know where the desert-y region ends?? and What if he can’t tell the roads from the rivers????
My dad’s only comment: “Why are there no volcanoes?”
Anyway, anyway, this is basically the original map that I had used while writing, only redrawn and slightly reworked. I had to go back and double check place names/locations of places/geographical regions because so much changed during revisions over the past year.
Brightly Woven got a little feature in School Library Journal. It is very happy making :)
… for those of you who’ve had the chance to read Brightly Woven:
One of my favorite secondary characters, Owain, is the only character who had a name change in the editing process. His original name was Balin, but my editor immediately pointed to Balin the dwarf in The Hobbit and asked me to consider changing. My Balin, though, was actually named after an Arthurian knight, who was not exactly the best of knights (not by any means), but he wanted to be. Owain is another Arthurian knight, although he’s probably better known as Ywain/Yvain the Knight of the Lion.
Ah, memories. Ah, 19 page editorial letter.
