The edit of Maggie has landed in my Inbox, which means today will be all editing, all the time. What you see above is a work in progress on the map of the city. Becka is ridiculously talented and she has put up with all my insane edits. We are trying to figure out a good way to mark the locations.
Ideally, I would like to hyperlink this map, so when you click on a number, it pops up or switches to the close up of the location with a bit of description. The map itself is ridiculously detailed and zoomable.
I don’t even know who to hire to code that, though. Like what category of free lancer would this fall under? Web developer? Something to consider for later.
Thank you so much to everyone who suggested the names, and sorry to C for saying that nobody could pronounce Oisín. It was a literary hyperbole and not meant as a slight against 11 million Gaelic-speaking people. I will choose my words better next time.
We have hidden the post so we can sort through all of the suggestions. There are some very good ones and we might use them later in fiction. Thank you again for taking the time to come up with the names and comment.
We are both still very tired. I wanted to tell you a funny about Gordon misreading my online Christmas decorations order, but I better not, since someone would likely get offended and I don’t want to make more work for Mod R. When you are that tired, it’s best to err on the side of caution. I’ve been doing my Christmas decorating in stages. One garland per day. That’s all I have the stamina for. Right now putting up the Christmas tree seems like a climb to Everest’s apex.
The list of things to do before Thanksgiving keeps growing, no matter how hard I try to knock things off it. Today is mowing day, so I loaded the string into the weed eater. My husband is the paladin of landscaping, but to keep things in balance and compensate for his supreme skills, he was cursed with hedge trimmer problems. That man can look at a weed eater, and it will instantly break. So I prep them for him. I can hear him cutting weeds. He hasn’t cursed yet, so fingers crossed.
I did accomplish one thing: I scored the Cajun Turkey from Popeyes. I’m so happy about this. We had it last year and it was amazing. It’s precooked, all you do is warm it up, and since I have other protein to cook as well, this will save us so much time on Thanksgiving.
Things still to do today, besides the edit: sign more copies of collector editions, get the last HEB grocery order in before Thanksgiving, buy the extra crate for Baby.
Well, I’m going to go and do all the things.
PS. The little scene with Augustine has been incredibly well received. We are thinking about what to do with that. We don’t want to promise something and not deliver, but we have heard you loud and clear.
yay 😁😁😁 so happy any time you want to dive back into your book worlds I will buy that you write.
PS it’s spring here I was planting lettuce plants and starting to dig up the tulip bulbs
OMG the map looks amazing OO It would be so cool to be able to zoom in, such a cool idea 🙂
That’s a gorgeous looking map. Can’t wait for Maggie. Just entered a super busy period of life for the next six months or so (already exhausted!) and it’s nice to have things to look forward to.
Have you considered hiring someone to put your tree up and decorate it? It might simplify your life.
I was all set to have my living room clean, carpet shampooed, by Thursday so I can decorate & put up the tree.
Then my Christmas present to me, a sock machine, was delivered. It turns out you can’t just set up and knit. LOTS of bugs to be worked out. Hours & days later, still dropping stitches, but it’s better…
Ok, tomorrow, I promise myself, I’ll clean, and Weds shampoo the carpet.
I HAVE to get this done because next week I’m having eyelid surgery and can’t lift, stoop, etc for ?2 weeks.
I would rather be knitting…
Listening to the Innkeeper series while I do various crafts. Thank you House Andrews!
PS: I am death incarnate on any gas powered yard tools. I now have a gardener!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Buy electric
Green works has good battery powered products. Their lawnmower is good for somewhat hilly spots. Great hedge trimmer too. Chain saw is only so-so. Good for honeysuckle but not really for anything bigger around than my arm.
Or Worx for an extension corded version. Love the chainsaw. Takes down the dead trees at church no problem.
I often send people into Orro’s Offended Woods when I’m tired too. My husband also struggles with the weed wacker, but you’re a better wife than I because I just make suggestions and then go into the house when he doesn’t listen haha. Hope you guys get some rest and have a stress free Thanksgiving!
I get the weed whacker thing. My husband has passed his lawn mower destroying gene on to his son’s. I mowed the lawn and since my back issues, we hire someone.
Yup, picked up my Cajun Turkey yesterday!
I only had it once about 5 years ago and I often thought about it so I was glad to remember to buy one this year. It’s 14 pounds and cost $71. Is that the standard at all Popeyes?
I paid $50 for 8lbs of mashed potatoes from local Busch’s because they are delicious and I cannot stand the thought of trying to make them myself this year.
I call it money well spent in relation to my time but I also feel incredibly guilty about it so 🤷♀️
You are putting money into the local economy. That’s a good thing. Time is money, and if you have more money than time, it’s well-spent. Plus really good mashed potatoes are worth whatever it takes.
I heard a story on the radio recently about a woman who got tired of making them from scratch and started buying a frozen variety, microwaving it, and putting it into a nice bowl. The only family members who knew were her son and his wife. This was the status for about six years until they ran out one year.
The son snagged a couple of packages out of the freezer and microwaved them. His sister came into the kitchen and caught him in the act. She was outraged and demanded to know where the real potatoes were. He said they ran out and this was all he could find. She complained about it all through the meal.
No one who was in on the secret ever clued her in, but they made sure to erase all traces of the packaging from the kitchen in future years. That sister still talks about the year her brother gave them microwave potatoes instead of their mother’s authentic ones, even as she unwittingly eats the microwave ones.
Moral of the story: It’s a freaking holiday. Serve what tastes good and keeps you sane.
That’s a bit over $5 a pound, which is pretty fair considering somebody else did all the work and didn’t tie up your oven for roughly 4.5 hours.
Absolutely!
To make the map interactive you need a person with GIS (Geographic Information System) skills. I am sure I cannot be the only GISy fan out there.
Augustine!!!! Hehehe Even the possible *hint* of a well received! Yay! (He’s my favorite! So mysterious.)
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you have time to rest!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at House Andrews.
And the website A Couple of Cooks has a Potato Pancake recipe from leftover mashed potatoes. Big Yumm on that one.
Thank you for the comment on the turkey. I’ve noticed the advertisement for those when we go through the drive-thru. We normally buy a turkey from a local BBQ place. We’re always happy with it, but I wouldn’t mind a change. We’re not having Thanksgiving food this year. It’s just us so we’re going in another direction. But, we will probably have all that stuff at Christmas. It hope the Maggie edits go well.
It’s been just the two of us for a while now but that turkey will work for a couple of dinners and sandwiches. Hmmmm, reminds me that I need to pick up some cranberry sauce 🙂
There are some world building tools out there for D&D people who homebrew their own worlds that can do maps with links that might be another avenue to check. Legend Keeper (not ‘of Keepers’) and World Anvil are the two that I have seen people use.
The maps look great so far! Good luck with all the revisions, and holiday prep!!
Lucky, lucky on Cajun chicken…we are all sold out up here…so have to do a “normal” one! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Still waiting…much love to you all!
A web developer should be able to do what you want with the map. I only give this advice because I am a web developer and have done interactive maps for work before, but I started with file which told me all the borders for a country, state, county etc and then used a free javascript app called d3 and went from there. Google is failing to provide any decent examples. But it is more country map with borders (link just to provide an example map picture, this is not mine) https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/getting-started-with-d3-js-maps-e721ba6d8560
The ability to have hovers over points of interest, zoom, show and hide things, etc are very doable and not all that hard with something like d3. Though I am less familiar with adding buildings and such.
That said there also is probably a way to take an image and scale and allow all the same zoom and hover ability. Also, something a web developer would be able to do. But working with images, I am less familiar with.
Was the name port from yesterday the most that received a comment? the last I saw it had over 2,000. If it wasn’t which one has the record?
There wasn’t a clear winner. Everyone pretty much suggested something different.
I think Vincent is asking if that was the post with the most comments.
Yes, that right. I have been following the blog and don’t think I have seen so many
Oh. No, serial chapters have 1,500- over 2k comments regularly.
I remember a Ruby Fever snippet that broke the server and the comments weren’t even notified anymore because it went over some insane thousand limit 🙂
I saw it was over 2300 the last time I checked before it was hidden, so thanks for asking, I was so curious too! lol
The map looks stunning! I’d love a interactive map, I would actually look it up a lot more during reading, if I could look at all this details and if I would be positive, that it’s absolutly approved by you and not just added by a publisher (and only *mostly* right) or something like that.
If it’s so detailed, would we be able to retrace someone walking trough the streets from A to B and actually realize details they are encountering in the book on the map? I’m thinking the bridges, special types of buildings, a park or a merchant. That would be amazing!
Even if it would probably be overkill 😀 😀
Thanks so much for essaying the map. I am very spatially oriented, so miss them terribly when they aren’t included.
I know or the Cajun turkey and will go for it when hosting T-day, but am visiting my sister-in-law (and brother) this year and she is totally into doing her spectacular cooking.
Thanks. So much for the snippet. Now I will for more.
For the interactive map, you might want to consider someone in Interaction Design. That is my daughter’s field and they concentrate on UX– user experience, and UI– user interface. That may serve your needs. Happy Thanksgiving! We had ours in October and the fall colours were great. I hope yours is as beautiful.
Love love love the idea of a online map that I can zoom in on! Regardless of whether I read on paper or ebook, I’d still love to see the map online. I’d probably use a computer (rather than a phone) to view it because I like the BIG view 🙂
I’m pretty lousy at imagining maps in my head so this would be wonderful. I hope you can find a way to do it!
yes please an Augustine book or novella or serial short posted on the blog or just anything!!!!!
+1
Augustine seemed like such a *CENSORED* at first in the series but as we got to know him better, I started to like him. The more I found out, the more I liked. More on Augustine would be great.
Yes! Can you imagine Augustine trusting someone enough to let them see what he actually looks like without any illusions? That would be an amazing reveal.
Your map\zooming needs would be done by a Front End Web or UI Developer. I’m not sure of the possibilities of that inside an eReader – but a nice detailed map with a link to website with zoomable would definitely work there. This could be done purely with CSS I believe so no hard core coding would be required.
**I’m a former back end web dev (about 20 years before I moved to Consulting and designing large Application implementations). I didn’t design the shiny, I made the shiny do things LOL.
Good morning,
Here are a couple of unasked for thoughts:
1) The map could be coded with interactive links on a web page and work very well. or;
2) Create a PDF of the map and add the links there.
Either way is a good solution. The small advantage of the PDF version is a) you won’t need a skilled web programmer. You can even do it yourself if you have Acrobat Pro and the final PDF is easily portable, ie. email, text, etc.
Tell Gordon to look into a walk behind weed eater. BEST tool I ever bought to keep the weeds under control on my little 6 acre place. LOL, sometimes it seemed like the post return of magic the way the weeds outpaced by best efforts. Not only is the walk behind weed eater better at cutting down even the worst of the black berries, it is easy to string, way easier to operate for a long time than the shoulder carrying version (senior lady here much, much, easier) . . . .and mine always started on first pull (after the first start in the spring.)
Before I go. I want to thank both you and Gordon for the literally hours of enjoyment I have with each and every one of your books. You guys are both “Rock Stars.”
A guy I knew once bolted a circular saw blade to a weed eater to clear some blackberries. When I freaked out, he acted like I was the one being unreasonable. His point was it worked really good. I felt like he wasn’t seeing the bigger picture…
I absolutely LOVE the idea of an interactive map with story links! I hope you’re about to work that out.
I spend a lot of time flipping back to and enlarging maps on my Kindle, so I can visualize what’s going on and where.
Sometimes I get obsessive enough to bring it up on my huge computer monitor to see details. The zoom-ability of this mail looks like a big improvement already. Can’t wait!
Must be nice to need to mow We had snow here all day yesterday. Again.
🙂
Hello
just wondering who’s Baby?
“buy the extra crate for Baby”
I tried searching the site but too many articles came up. Is she/he a new addition or am i missing/forgetting someone?
Ops, just saw Mod R answered it, its the a Shih Tzu Beast is sort of based on
Must be the middle of the week, i’m all thought out
I love the details on those maps that Becka has produced. and the idea to (if possible) hyperlink to them is great. if that doesn’t work with the electronic jiggery pokery would it be too disruptive to have them as images throughout, so that when you click on the image in kindle (or app of your choice) it opens bigger?
Oisin reminds me of the French word for neighbor (voisin). I wouldn’t think it that hard to pronounce (wa sin?). I’m sure the BDH could deal. Regardless when one reads it’s a silent process happening in your head, so for me whatever twist I give the pronunciation works. Woiks? Yea, verily, it woiks.
But it’s your story, so whatever gives you the warm and fuzzies, and reduces stress, woiks for me.
Once a tale is released… well, a twisted tail ensues colored by the reader’s psyche. We’re all nuts anyway. Might as well revel in it.
Thank you for all your hard work
I enjoys the Augustine snippet, as well as the Augustine (well all of the) Inn interview(s). Perhaps Augustine (and Diana, and Bug, and, and, and) side-stories can be in an Arabella book? If you feel like writing that story …
I am fascinated to learn how she got her advanced degree without most of the family figuring out what she was doing …
Happy holiday season, and please post your T-day menu … always a treat to read that.
You and Gordon are going to be SO tired of Maggie and the two of us are SO looking forward to meeting her.
Happy Thanksgiving to Ilona and Gordon and your families and to the BDH.
Happy Birthday Mod R! May you have a wonderful day full of whatever makes you happiest! 🥳
Happy Thanksgiving to all those that celebrate it! 🦃
So how does one pronounce Oisin? This Alabama gal would guess oo’sin
Closer to USH-een 🙂
This map makes me think of the Königsberg bridge problem. Ha!
Yes! Me too! Ever since I found out there were 7 bridges in the city hehe.
Hope you and Gordon had a relaxing turkey day. You need a cartographer and/or GIS professonal for your map work – here is a helpful link for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and it includes mapping tools. Hope this helps! 🙂
tpwd.texas.gov/gis/
There is an interesting article on the Smithsonian website about an American lion fossil discovered in the Mississippi river due to low water levels.
Having been somewhat absent of late due to circumstances the Augustine snippet was a wonderful breath of fresh air. I am glad to have read it even if we never get a book.