Mapmaker Stories

In an age when maps can conquer more than armies, Elena Valenti learns to draw the world in secret. Born in sixteenth-century Venice to the royal cartographer of the Portuguese crown, she grows up among compasses and parchment - tools that decide the fates of nations. But Elena's gift is more dangerous than her father ever imagined: she alters the maps that feed empires, hiding villages, sacred sites, and entire peoples from the greedy eyes of kings. When her deception is exposed, Elena's world collapses. Her father is executed for treason, imperial fleets are dispatched to hunt her down, and the cartographers she once idolized become her fiercest enemies. Armed with nothing but ink, stolen charts, and a secret atlas written in codes no conqueror can read, she flees across oceans - pursued by soldiers, spies, and rival mapmakers who would kill for the knowledge she carries. From the markets of Lisbon to the gold-dusted cities of West Africa, from the palaces of Mughal India to the misty peaks of the Andes, Elena's journey becomes more than a flight for survival. It is a mission to rewrite the world itself. Along the way, she forges unlikely alliances - a priestess who encodes landscapes into song, a ronin who reads the sea like scripture, a rebel princess who believes maps are prisons. Each teaches her a truth the empires fear: that land does not belong to those who claim it, but to those who remember it. Sweeping from Renaissance Europe to the uncharted edges of the known world, The Mapmaker's Daughter is a story of courage and betrayal, ink and blood, and a young woman who turns cartography into rebellion. It is about how maps do more than chart the world - they define it - and how one woman dares to redraw its lines.

"What if your greatest power was also the shadow that wanted to consume you?" In a world where power is tied to the very essence of who you are, eight extraordinary youths are bound by fate, fear, and the secrets they keep buried within themselves. Amani, a shape-shifter exiled from a homeland not of this Earth, carries a darkness he does not fully understand. Shifa, the healer of hidden oases, mends more than just flesh. Temba wields courage like a weapon, Tsering carries the wisdom of ancient peaks, and Caíque brings laughter that cuts through despair. Alongside them are twins torn apart at birth: Kaelen, a daring acrobat, and Kaelanah, a soul whose power lies in embracing the world's diversity. Together, they must traverse realms that mirror their fears, face the shadows of their buried forms, and unravel the mystery of the "Thread" that weaves their destinies. But when the past bleeds into the present, who can they trust-and who might they become if they fail? A journey of magic, identity, and survival begins here...

In a world where separate lands refuse to accept foreign ideas and explore the unknown, Lilla plunges outside of her countryside home to fulfill her dream of creating a map of the world, while acting as one of the few bridges between nature and the xenophobic peoples of the world. Born with a gift of foresight through dreams from Queen Mab, the faery queen of dreams, and a close relationship with the spirits of nature, Lilla embarks on her quest both for herself and nature to re-establish the relationship with people and nature. Along the way she meets Rayne, a wanted gambler and thief from a large city, Twyla, a clever and beautiful warrior cast out from her tribe of nomads, and Annick a justice seeking desert prince, who join her journey.

When he is captured by a necromancer, a cartographer refuses to cooperate with his captors, but he fears his resistance is in vain.

I make maps for your sci-fi stories, your fantasy novels, your short stories, and anything in between. This may expand into more than just maps as I continue to get better at graphic designs.