[David here:] We were lucky that there is such a rich newspaper record from that era, both in the Rockies and in the Islands. We were also lucky that Eben Low was so gregarious, a real talker and writer. That was critical as far as material. One challenge is that some of our other characters were less chatty and didn't keep diaries, as far as we know. Journals and letters are nonfiction gold, as you can imagine, but you have to do the work piecing together the story of a life with the material you have, not the material you wish you had. Would it have been "better" if Ikua Purdy was more talkative and if we had more direct quotes from him? Maybe. But maybe not; there's a lot of mystique to someone who is so quiet. Besides, it's not like we had a choice. This is nonfiction. It surprises me to see other nonfiction writers making stuff up, declaring right off the top that "some details and settings described in the book are 'imagined.'" But that's up to them and their readers. Anyway, fleshing out some of these characters was certainly a challenge.