Treasure Chest

Okay, so the subject of this blog post isn't a literal treasure chest, although I have edited two anthologies concerning a magical toy chest and a magical crock of charms. In this case, I'm looking at treasure in the sense of gems and gold, and the way one thing leads to another.

Way back, in around 1989, I began work on a book called Amy Amaryllis. I needed gemstones that don't exist in our reality, so I invented stargems.  In Nanda the Naughty Gnome, some years later, Nanda Gemdibbler dibbles for non-specific gems. There's the special and frightening silver mineral (just called the silver substance) that bedevils the survivors of the crashed starship Elysian Dawn  in the Elydian Dawn series, the skypearl, or blue gold, the settlers find in Blue Gold and a few others.

In the Counterpoint series, Court Leopold inherits a gold fief ring from his father. It is a reddish colour that one character identifies as island gold. I can't remember why - maybe I just wanted something that sounded foreign or non-local. However, I do like to catch up these dropped stitches in stories later, so in Betony Buys Adventure which is coming out next month, I picked up the dropped stitch of island gold when I invented a whole new locality - the Star Pin archipelago.  Yes, that's where the island gold comes from. Since I had a rainbow theme in the story, I also invented seven new gems that echo the colour of the rainbow.  These are listed below.

Arcadian crystal; quartz, white and blue, found on Arcadian Island

Cadeau de l'été (aka Gift of Summer) red gems found occasionally in the streams on Summer Island. Very difficult to spot.

Heather gems: violet-coloured crystals found in the rocks on Heather Island. They sometimes work loose, and are used in fief rings or betrothal gifts.

Orris stone; an indigo stone found on Stella Orris

Shamrock stone; a translucent green gemstone found on Bodhran Island

Sons of the sea orange gemstones found commonly and only on Arrival

Sungelt; yellow gemstones found in the reef around Dawn Island

So, that's a sample of my treasure... Have any of you invented new gemstones? If so, what were they called, and why?