So, the Tuyo world is finally getting to be so large and complicated that, as I mentioned in a comment recently, I’m starting to put together notes about this world. I think it might be best to add all of it in separate pages linked from the series page on this website. That’s awkward if someone has poor access to the internet, a factor I’m vividly aware of since I have poor access to the internet, but on the other hand, I could set it up as a series of linked pages that are formatted in different ways so that people can choose which version to click to.
That is, I could do one main page of general notes about the world, but from that page link to various other pages. I could do a list that’s all people, sorted out into groups of Lau, Ugaro, Lakasha, Ro, Tarashana, and Saa’arii and then within those categories sorted out by family. (Not that we know many Tarashana people just yet, or any Saa’arii, but I expect that will change). Then a different list that’s all place names, sorted out by summer lands, winter country, country of sand, starlit lands. Again, we’ve hardly been anywhere in the starlit lands as yet; again, I expect that to change eventually.
But I could then also link from the general page to a different list where everyone and every place and every thing, including vocabulary words in each language, is listed in strict alphabetical order.
If I wanted to, I could also do yet a third list where everyone is listed by which book they first appear in.
Then I could link the general notes page from every Tuyo-world ebook and at least add a note that it’s there to the paper editions.
I think that sounds like a pretty good idea. It’s kind of a lot of work, but it’s the sort of methodical task I rather like when I’m not in the mood to actually work on a novel. And there’s no rush. I can plan to put that up sometime before TASMAKAT drops, but, I mean, June would be fine, but later would also be fine, it’s not like there’s a deadline.
Anyway, just something I’m thinking about.
Some of the people would have to have pretty vague comments because anything specific would constitute a spoiler. But I can add notes like, Tasa inYoraro, an important Ugaro healer. We meet her in SUELEN, at which time she belongs to the inKera. We hear about her influence in TASMAKAT, at which time she belongs to the inYoraro. That avoids all possible spoilers while providing a note that indicates I haven’t forgotten that she was inKera in SUELEN and it’s not a mistake to refer to her as Tasa inYoraro in TASMAKAT.
I suppose I ought to do that for other series as well. And maybe finally consider providing maps. I’m not sure how to draw a map that looks good and could be included as an image on a series page, but I guess I could figure that out.
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I would find this helpful. One disadvantage of ongoing series is that I forget many of the details in between book drops.
I listen to / re-read series books frequently while writing a new book in that series. So for ME, even minor characters and details are probably fresh in my head and I can forget that readers may not remember everything, until someone makes a puzzled comment about something.
Hopefully a series of “notes” pages would help prevent that kind of puzzlement.
I would find a notes page like that useful.
I would also love to have a nice map! When you say you’re not sure how to do it, does that mean you have technical questions? I have some experience with digital illustration (of both the “drawing pretty pictures” and “making scientific figures” variety) and I often start by scanning and cleaning up a pen & paper drawing. I would be happy to give advice!
I feel like there used to be a sort of genre of worldbuilding “companion” volumes that compiled these kinds of notes on dramatis personae and timelines along with a couple of essays or interviews and maybe an exclusive story for long-running series like Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar and Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga, maybe it would be a fun side project to make a dedicated print or ebook reference companion volume that goes up through the end of TASMAKAT since that seems to be a big conclusion/turning point for the setting? I always like learning about the kind of worldbuilding and character backstory around the edges that doesn’t necessarily fit in the main narratives.
Yes, Elise, I mean I don’t know how to do it technically, so I will ask you if I get to that point. Surely a map is less useful for the basically ribbon-like landscape of the Tuyo world — at least, that seems pretty straightforward to me — but the Death’s Lady series, for example, could benefit from having a map. Which I do indeed have in the form of a pencil drawing, somewhere.
Sandstone, that is a FANTASTIC idea! I LOVE this idea!
Thank you so much for suggesting it. This project just shot right up to the top of the Get To It This Year list of things to do.
Sandstone and Rachel,
Such things definitely do exist as actual published books. I still have _The Tolkien Companion_ from my childhood on a shelf somewhere, and got a _Handbook of Vance Space_ just a few years ago. They’re not even all F/SF genre: Louis L’Amour published a _Sackett Companion: The Facts Behind the Fiction_ for his longest series.
Google indicates there are, indeed, Valdemar and Vorkosigan Companions; I’m mildly surprised I never ran into the latter.
Ooh, yes, a Death’s Lady map would be super useful! And yes, absolutely a Tuyo world encyclopaedia: I think there’s enough info to fill a volume or two!
I like the idea of a Tuyo companion/encyclopaedia!
If you are interested in fantasy map making software then an author I follow uses something called Inkarnate…
Perhaps you could suggest to Sherwood Smith that she adopt this project as well? As many of her characters have the exact. same. name.
If she tells me she’s bored, I will certainly suggest it!
I read a historical once where EVERYONE was named Ferdinand, Maria, or some close variant. Drove me practically insane!
I believe Victoria Goddard is working on maps for the Nine Worlds books, which also have some settings that don’t lend themselves to a conventional map – she may have useful thoughts or technical info. (All I know, being a friend of some writers but not one myself, is that the info and tools are out there!)
There’s a lively contingent of folks on her Discord server who are fans of the Tuyo books, and definitely planning to remind others about the sale and wouldn’t this be a great chance to get into another enjoyable series that plays with some of the same themes that we enjoy in Victoria’s stuff?
Do you happen to know if you’re going to be able to do audiobooks for Tarashana and the later books? I’m a huge audiobook fan and would really love to be able to listen to all of them – although I understand the logistics involved and that it may not be practical soon or at all.
I’ve been reluctant to discuss the audiobook of Tarashana, because after many delays it is complete, but the narrator needs to fix a handful of typos and upload the book so that I can hit publish. And he hasn’t, and this is another very frustrating delay, because *I* have listened to it multiple times and *I* think it’s great and I would love to be able to hit publish.
Hopefully this will actually happen soon-ish and as soon as that is done, I will decide whether to ask the same narrator to take on Tasmakat, which I would love very much if he could do it in less than TWO YEARS, or whether to look for a different narrator.
I do intend to do audio version for everything in this series. I should start to look for someone for TANO. I should have done that already, except whoa, it was so fast to write and finish that I simply haven’t had time.
Marvelous, thank you! I hesitated to ask, since I was fairly sure there was either a reason or A Story.