I’m delighted to report that I’ve been getting questions.

People have asked, "What do you do about rain?" and "What happens when they encounter ice? They do encounter ice, right?" (from the winter-concerned Canadians in the room) and "Did you make everything up, or did you do some research?"

People appear to be looking for some insight into how I went about mapping things out and making my story-based decisions. So I’ve uploaded some images that should help clarify or at least, provide some insight.

These images are scans of THE THING THAT I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT... My notebook. A Moleskin journal that, when you read Ch.2, you’ll recognize as a shameless personalization of the plot.

Bay’s List of Wonders

Having this quasi-artefact helped immensely. It kept me focused, and helped me come to understand Bay’s personality.

Yes, many of them are places that I want to go. Again, shameless personalization.

I was always slightly disappointed with this list, because I could never find pink paper that matched what I saw in my head. But it did the job so I love it anyway.

Making sense of things

Distance & pace of travel had to be factored into their timeline, so did the logistical nightmare that I’d created for them. Sorry about that, Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons.

Charts like this helped me make sure I wasn’t messing up my timezones, ecological zones, and twilight zones too much.

I like exhaustive lists, sometimes. The list below helped me prioritize what natural phenomena I was most interested in interacting with (in the literary sense) through Vole.

For example, did I want to focus on his experience with landscapes?People? Animals? A variety? What combination of things?

It might be funny, to some, to learn that Vole puts bananas in the hands of all the primates he encounters. Just kidding, that would make Dr. Jane Goodall very sad.

Maps

I love maps the most. Because Vole is only passing through 24 hrs of weather change, I needed to make sure that the climate experiences he was having at each of the locations he passed through, were accurate.

Hope that helps answer some questions. More importantly, I hope it inspires more!

Thank you all for supporting my author journey. I couldn’t be doing this without you.

Donna

(PS, current count is 107!!!!! If you like what I’m doing, I invite you to show your support by sharing my journey and sharing your comments. If you’ve considered placing a pre-order but haven’t yet, I invite you to click that green button and give it a go!)