Baquaire Archipelago Map - Elydes

Here it is. Surprised? If you were wondering about the archipelago geography and the seven major islands, I hope this answers your questions. 

Keep in mind that the distance between the islands is not on scale, and I pulled them closer together to make a clearer map. I might also make some minor changes as I continue writing the story, but this should remain a pretty accurate representation of the Baquaire Archipelago. 

Credits to my brother who helped me draw this map.

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I saw some people guess the surprise was about the release. Unfortunately, no news yet on that point. 

I finished the final edits for book 1 (chapters 1-59) last week and I wrote a few lines in my author's notes on Monday, but then cut it by mistake when editing, so many might not have seen it. For anyone curious about the editing process, let me give a few more details.   

First, I went through the professional editor changes, she cut about 2.5k words, fixing typos, word repetitions, parts where the story wasn't too clear, etc. I checked what she had done and decided whether to accept or refuse her changes. 

After that, it was my turn to do another edit. I also cut 2.5k words (in total the book went from 157k to 152k words). 

My changes were:

- Fixing more repetitive sentences and cutting pointless adverbs; 

- Modifying dialogues to sound more natural and in line with the characters (my dialogues in the earliest chapters were particularly rough and needed to be reworked); 

- Rewriting some glaring info dumps to make them flow better in the narrative and shortening them when possible;

- Generally cutting unnecessary lines that stated what was already made clear by the scene, aka more showing and less telling; 

- I also made some slight story changes, but they were all minor things that didn't really affect the narrative. 

After this, I sent the manuscript back to the editor to look over my changes and see if I made some typos while editing. Yesterday I got it back for a final look of proofreading (which I'm still doing). Now book 1 makes for a much smoother reading experience. 

And, yeah. Going through 59 chapters took a ton of time and I probably worked more last week than usual, lol. 

Unfortunately—but understandably—, Aethon Books (my publisher) doesn't want me to put the edited version of Book 1 on RR. So, you'll have to wait till the official release, I'll let you know as soon as I have a date. But I did get permission to put the very first chapters on RR if you are interested (plus chapter 11 because there was a particular rough dialogue between Kai and Alana, and I cringed too hard to leave it like that. Keep quiet about that XD).

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This is everything. Let me know what you think of the map. I'll see you tomorrow with a new chapter :)

- Drew