AUTHOR NOTE

      The idea for Katie and Conrad’s story came to me a couple of years ago, when I wanted to explore the idea of two lovers separated and then reunited. It took me a while to develop the story because I couldn’t think of a good reason why two people should be apart. Then I read a book on early British exploration of both the Arctic and Africa, and Conrad’s reason for leaving Katie was born.

      I chose the Arctic over more southern climes because the southern regions usually involved higher rates of fatality from tropical disease. An Arctic expedition, while no less risky, wasn’t likely to kill a man within a few days of his arrival, but there was still the possibility of things going tragically wrong. The risk of Arctic ice trapping a ship at the end of summer was very real, and a crew might easily find themselves forced to overwinter in their ship, facing possible starvation, scurvy and frostbite until the spring thaw freed them. This is what happens to Conrad, and it keeps him from returning to Katie.

      Once Conrad’s profession was fixed I needed a heroine with a scientific passion equal to his. I stumbled upon Katie’s obsession as a result of my little one’s interest in dinosaurs. In many books I read about Mary Anning, the young fossil-hunter. I was intrigued by her and the early fossil finds, and began to delve deeper into the geological discoveries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

      I incorporated a great deal of what I learned about both Arctic exploration and early geology into the story, bringing in historical figures and using my research to make Katie and Conrad more real. I hope you enjoy their story as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.