It turns out, from my cursory research, that the Isla la Tortuga is one of the few uninhabited tropical islands where my Camellia character can have her adventure.

Tropical? Check (unlike just about any land mass off the US or Europe). Interesting animals? Check – capybara, coatis, even a jaguar which could be the source for the needle-felted black panther I bought for her.

However, it’s been a long time since Robinson Crusoe claimed an uninhabited island, and nothing of any size near enough to reach by a small boat is really uninhabited. Even the little island of La Tortuga gets some tourist traffic. Plus, for a story that depends on her regularly uncovering new things, it’s rather small. And sparse

So, while I think restricting the animals to those potentially found near each other makes sense (no polar bears romping with the armadillos), I don’t want to restrict her story just to give her an actual locale to live in.

I continue to struggle with the same problem with Daisy. Bob and I spent many weekends checking out various small towns she could launch from – trying to find something small enough that it would make sense for her to leave (no one launches an adventure *away* from Paris), while not being so small that she would really have to leave in order to have any kind of life at all. But, nothing so far has really been right. Some are so small as to not have any sense of place at all. Some have a great residential area while missing a really good main street, while others have a great main street while missing a really good residential section. Like Camellia, I think I’ll end up giving her a real general location but an imaginary town within it.