On the Island with Charles Darwin is a work of fiction. While we know lots and lots about the life and work of Charles Darwin through preserved documents, notebooks, publications, letters, correspondence, membership in The Royal Society, we know nothing about the fictional characters I have created around him. The characters, their names, and events are entirely fictional. But they are authentic. I researched many

topics to build a realistic setting and plausible events around the time Charles Darwin was visiting the Galapagos Archipelago, making observations and journal entries for his manuscript, On the Origin of Species (1859). It was also my great privilege to travel to Galapagos, to visit the islands of Isla de San Cristobal and Isla Isabela, and experience for myself the entrepreneurial spirit of young naturalists who hire out their boats to take tourists on excursions to witness seals and sea lions, boobies, sharks, marine iguanas, penguins. Rather than travel by cruise ship, I rented Villa Rosa. Th is home was once the sea cucumber warehouse and counting house mentioned throughout the story.