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I love road trips!
And books with road trips!
No wonder, really, that my novel AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country starts with three characters driving across Texas.
Maeve traced the day’s journey along the map with her finger. Maeve, Hazel and Tiffany . . . had departed from the corporate offices of MacTavish Markets in Dallas at eight o’clock sharp. Their path had meandered across two hundred twenty-five miles of Texas so far, with forty miles or so to go before reaching . . . a dude ranch outside of Fredericksburg. Maeve had expected the drive, including stops for gas and food, to take about five hours. Breaks at every Dairy Queen along the way, however, had delayed their arrival by at least three.
~ AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country, chapter one
Road Trip to The Clearing
Another thing I love, a hand-drawn map in a novel!
It’s fun to see how closely my imagination follows an author’s map. Sometimes I’m spot on. Other times, not so much.
This one I feel I nailed 🙂 even though it’s not to scale.
The road trip Maeve Clarke, Hazel Lampton and Tiffany Albright take early in AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country, is key to the mystery. The time spent, riding along in the Beast, gives the reader an opportunity to get acquainted with each of these women; how they talk, what they have to say and how they respond to their circumstances and each other.
After a couple chapters, you may wonder if someone is stalling. And why. Dun, dun, dun.
The ladies’ springtime trek begins in Dallas (top right on the map), travels through the heart of Texas, southwest to The Clearing (middle left) with an obvious dip through Johnson City and Fredericksburg. A beautiful drive with long stretches of pavement dividing rolling countryside. Wildflowers speckling the road’s shoulders.
As anyone who has driven across Texas knows, it’s a long way to get anywhere in this state.
But you also know, a road trip can be split up nicely by stopping for a potty break and a drink.
Nine times out of ten, when I drive this same route, I stop at the Dairy Queen in Hamilton. It just happens to be the perfect distance from my house. As well as the perfect distance from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.
The trio in the story stop by the Hamilton Dairy Queen, too.
In addition to five other Dairy Queens along the way, bless their hearts. All six DQ stops are marked red on the map.
This Road Trip Map is available for as a FREE Printable!
That’s right!
Just in time for National Coloring Book Day, the AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country Road Trip Map coloring page is ready for download!
It’s important to note, pictures optimized for the web are not usually great for printing. They will almost always come out grainy and pixely.
You can download a high resolution PDF version of this AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country Road Trip Map for FREE! Print and color it as you like!
(Or print out the one I colored ~ it’s sized to fit in a hard-copy of my book)
Ta da!
Click on the map above for details (or here).
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Happy coloring, my friends!
Email me your results so I can hang them on my fridge.
