Blog Tour- THE BEAUTY OF DARKNESS by Mary E. Pearson A Post About the Map

I think by now everyone knows my love of high fantasy so I am stoked to be on this blog tour! I adore this series! I have Mary E. Pearson here with an awesome guest post about the map in the book! In my opinion it's not a proper high fantasy unless there's a map so I had to get the dish. 
Haven't heard of THE BEAUTY OF DARKNESS? Check it out!

Title: THE BEAUTY OF DARKNESS(The Remnant Chronicles: Book Three #3)

Author: Mary E. Pearson

Release Date: August 2, 2016

Hardcover: 688 pages

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) 
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, audiobook
Find it: Goodreads |Amazon | B&N | iBooks

Lia and Rafe have escaped Venda and the path before them is winding and dangerous - what will happen now? This third and final book in The Remnant Chronicles is not to be missed.

Bestselling author Mary E. Pearson's combination of intrigue, suspense, romance and action make this a riveting page turner for teens.

Now on to the post! I asked Mary..

QUESTION FOR MARY: Welcome back to Two Chicks on Books! You stopped by to speak about the map during the blog tour for KISS OF DECEPTION! So here's my question! Has the map changed at all and is it still how you pictured it in your head and if it's not how's it different?

Thanks for having me back Jaime!  No, the map hasn’t changed at all. I spent a long time working on it for the first book, and the details were fairly cemented in place, but I can give you a little trivia about the map. There are twelve kingdoms in all in the Remnant Chronicles: The three majors, Morrighan, Dalbreck, and Venda, and the nine Lesser Kingdoms, all seen on the map (pictured below):

1.     Gastineux
2.     Cortenai
3.     Candora
4.     Terquoi Tra
5.     Gitos
6.     Azentil
7.     Cruvas
8.     Reux Lau
9.     Eislandia

Wait a minute. Eislandia?  Where is that on the map? Well it is there, but you just can’t see it.  Eislandia was always one of the Lesser Kingdoms on my original map, but when the artwork for the map was finished, the designer still had to plop in the type to identify the various kingdoms and key places.  But there was the little issue of “congestion” when it came to one of the kingdoms, and that one was Eislandia.  See those “clouds” tucked between the words Morrighan and Tribe of Gaudrel? Right behind those clouds is the tiny kingdom of Eislandia.  I talked with designer and we agreed that there was just a bit too much happening in that one area to include another label, so it was left off.  It became the mystery kingdom lost in a cloud bank! But it was always there in my mind, and in The Beauty of Darkness, readers will hear it mentioned, so now they will know just where it is.

Another bit of trivia—many of the lesser kingdom names are derived from real places—bastardized versions of names, that is. I played with how a name might evolve over several centuries. So some of those names might bear some distant resemblance to real places.


And one last bit of trivia. Even though I had sent the designer the coats of arms I had created for the kingdoms, I wasn’t sure he would include them, so it was cool the way he fit them in, but those two awesome veiled figures at the bottom? Complete surprise. I was blown away. They are so beautiful and mysterious. I’m not sure what they represent--hidden truths and knowledge?  Or the goddess Isis and the secrets she holds? But I love them. What do you think they stand for?

Click on the map to enlarge

About Mary:

Mary E. Pearson is the award-winning author of The Jenna Fox Chronicles, The Miles Between, A Room on Lorelei, and Scribbler of Dreams.  She writes full-time from her home office in California where she lives with her husband and two golden retrievers.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

THE BEAUTY OF DARKNESS Blog Tour Schedule

July 23 - Adventures of A Book Junkie - "Kaden" 

July 24 - Bookiemoji - Response to annotated chapters 

July 25 - Step Into Fiction - "True Love" 

July 26 - Tales of A Ravenous Reader - "Rafe" + promo for Hicklebee's event

July 27 - Dark Faerie Tales - Fancasting

July 28 - Stuck In YA Books - Review of first chapters, comments on series as a whole + Giveaway!

July 29 - Two Chicks on Books - "The Map" 

July 30 - The Book Hookup - "Love Triangles"

July 31 - That Artsy Reader Girl - "World-Building"

August 1 - Jenuine Cupcakes - "Lia" 

August 2 - My Friends are Fiction - Review of first chapters, comments on series as a whole + Giveaway!

August 3 - Mundie Moms  - "The Covers"

August 4 - Eater of Books - Swoon Thursday Post 

August 5 - Belle of The Literati - "Love Triangles" 


Grab the books on the series!