Here are some links to maps that I made for Firegold while I was writing it. When you are writing a fantasy novel, it is both fun and necessary to make maps of the world you are creating.
A young adult fantasy novel for kids ten to fifteen.
One morning, while Jonathon Brae is fishing by the river, he spots a girl who looks different from anyone he has ever seen in the Valley. She carries a bow and arrows, has golden stripes in her red hair, and strangest of all, has blue eyes. When Jonathon realizes she is a Dalriada--one of the barbaric mountain people who have magnificent horses, mystical powers, and horns growing out of their heads--he runs away.
Yet Jonathon is also different from the brown-eyed Valley folk. They say he will go insane when he turns fourteen because he, too, has blue eyes. His parents, especially his father who is obsessed with finding the legendary Firegold apples, constantly evade his questions about his impending insanity. Jonathon even begins to wonder if Brian Brae really is his father. He also wonders if the blue-eyed Dalriada girl will go insane--or can the Dalriadas use their magical powers to prevent it? Could the Dalriadas help him? But he fears them as much as he fears his future. When Jonathon is blamed for the blight destroying the Valley orchards, he escapes to the Red Mountains and searches for answers.
Once there, he finds the Dalriadas who, facing extinction, believe that Jonathon has been sent to help them. But in order to stay with the Dalriadas and become an adult, Jonathon must survive the most dangerous test of his life. Only be completing the Ridgewalk can Jonathon discover his true identity and find the courage and the means to save his family, the Valley folk, and the Dalriadas.
My in-laws' commercial apple and pear orchard in the Methow Valley in Eastern Washington inspired Firegold (farm photos). It is a beautiful place, set in hills covered with sagebrush and pine trees. My in-laws grow Honeycrisp apples and Bartlett and Anjou pears.
Firegold was also inspired by a memory I have of being a young child sitting by a river. I remember looking across the river and seeing something (a bear?) with strange eyes watching me. Firegold opens with a boy fishing. He looks up and sees a girl with strange eyes watching him.
When I wrote Firegold, I was interested in how people sometimes divide the practical part of themselves from the imaginative or creative part of themselves. This division of the self is reflected in the division of the Valley people from the Dalriadas. The Valley people are very practical and down to earth. The Dalriadas are imaginative, artistic; they believe in dreams and visions. So when Jonathon tries to deny one half of himself or the other, he is cutting off either his practical self or his imaginative self. To be a whole person you need both of these things.
