One of the biggest challenges in saving endemic species in the Galápagos Islands is tackling the problem of invasive species (including feral domestic animals). The Galápagos is leading the way in ending pet overpopulation … and this amazing story shows the rest of the world how to do it.

The Galápagos Islands are uniquely motivated to get rid of unwanted pets, who endanger local wildlife. But every city and country can learn from how domestic animals are being successfully managed in the islands.

As this story makes clear, this is not just “the quirk of a remote island.” This is multiple organizations (including government, cities, and the national park) working together. And they’re not doing anything we don’t already know works: spay/neuter, microchipping, and education. But this program goes a few steps beyond to include short-term instead of long-term sheltering, a ban on the commercial sale of dogs and cats, and strong enforcement of responsible ownership (such as fencing requirements and mandatory reporting of lost pets). As the story shows, “The Galápagos didn’t discover a new principle; they simply implemented the one the U.S. long claimed to believe in.”

For these islands, managing companion animals will not only protect the local wildlife but eliminate the suffering of lost, unwanted, and feral dogs and cats … which is something we need in the U.S. and just about everywhere.

“While the Galápagos is making shelters obsolete, the U.S. is building them larger. While the Galápagos has quietly demonstrated what happens when you invest in crisis prevention, the U.S. has built an entire financial ecosystem around crisis response. … The Galápagos is not a small, lucky exception. It is a proof of concept; a functioning, scalable, prevention-based system that solves a problem most U.S. agencies have been unable to solve. It is, quite simply, a blueprint.”

In real life and in my novel FLOREANA, and in the 1930s and the 2020s, Post Office Bay has been a place where visitors to the island can leave and receive mail.

Back in the 1930s — when the Dore Strauch, Frederich Ritter, and the island’s other settlers rarely left — they would leave mail in the barrel at Post Office Bay, where visiting ships would take their letters to the next port of call. In fact, the tradition began far earlier, back in the eighteenth century.

Today, if you visit the Galápagos island of Floreana, you can leave a postcard for someone … and it just may get delivered! To this day, visitors to Post Office Bay go through the mail, find a postcard addressed to someone who lives near them, and hand-deliver it. No stamps required!

I am so excited to welcome Floreana to the world!

This book was many years in the making, and I’ve had the joy of chatting about it with so many …

… including Melanie at Postcards & Places; check out my interview with her to learn more about the inspiration for Floreana (from the real-life human mysteries of the island to the Galápagos penguins), plus writing and traveling and more.

You can also learn about the stories behind Floreana and about my research for my first adventure in historical fiction in this essay on Necessary Fiction. Floreana, though very much about penguins, also involved a different kind of research — looking into an unsolved mystery from a century ago and sorting out who might’ve been responsible for the very mysterious happenings in the Galápagos back in the 1930s.

In other news, I’ll be talking about Floreana on JPR on December 2 at 9 a.m., and if you love books set on remote islands, check out my list of Seven Books about Islands and Isolation on The Nerd Daily.

I’m thrilled to have received wonderful reviews for Floreana … including a starred review from Library Journal, which calls Floreana “gripping and intriguing” and “highly recommended.” Publishers Weekly writes: “As Dore’s account sheds light on the mystery of the disappearances, Raymond reveals how both Mallory and Dore fail to escape their problems, even by crossing the globe. The result is an engrossing narrative of self-reckoning.”

And to learn a bit more about the book as well as the historical details of Floreana, check out Ed Battistella’s article and review in Ashland.news.

Finally, for anyone who is in Southern California or Southern Oregon, join me at an event! I’ll be at the Ashland Public Library on Tuesday, December 3, at 5 p.m. — at San Diego Writers Ink on Tuesday, December 10, at 6 p.m. — and at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido on Friday, December 13, at 4 p.m. I look forward to seeing you!

To learn more about the book and how to get a copy, click here. And for all of you in book clubs, you can contact me for a visit and get a book club kit here.

I received the gorgeous final copies of Floreana last week … it is officially out in the world on December 1, and the novel received its first (wonderful) trade reviews: “highly recommended” (Library Journal) and “engrossing” (Publishers Weekly).

And for those of you who want an early peek at Floreana, it is now available on Amazon’s First Reads for the month of November.

I’ll be doing events as soon as the book launches in December, in the Northwest and Southern California … click here for details, and I hope to see you soon!

Ever since a trip to Antarctica twenty years ago — long before travel there was as popular as it is now — my writing shifted toward animals. Travel has always inspired my writing (see Forgetting English), but visiting the very end of the earth made me realize that, while the continent and its creatures are so very far away, we are all connected. And everything we do from other continents — from eating meat to fishing to driving — affects the rest of the world, including Antarctica.

My Last Continent focused on penguins — and my new novel, FLOREANA (coming in early 2025; stay tuned!) focuses on another species of penguin, as well as many other animals. And in the mystery novel I co-authored with John Yunker, Devils Island, the endangered Tasmanian devil plays an important role in the story.

Likewise, the boutique press John and I founded in 2011, Ashland Creek Press, has evolved: We still focus on environmental literature (which was hard to find in 2011), but now that mainstream publishing has embraced climate fiction, we’re focusing more on animals. For whatever reasons (and there are many), the close connection between animals and the environment still eludes most people — mostly the fact that eating so many of them is destroying our lands, rainforests, air, and oceans.

And because literature is such a powerful way to open hearts and minds (what’s better than a great story for learning something new?), John and I started teaching Writing for Animals, a four-week class based on the ACP anthology Writing for Animals. It’s available as a self-paced online class — and this March, we’re offering another live class via Zoom.

We were thrilled by the response of students and so happy to learn how many wonderful writers are interested in advocating for animals. Our aim with the class is to help writers convey animals with authenticity and empathy in their work … and we learn as much as we share along the way. We also talk about how to get your animal-themed work into the world. As with environmental fiction years ago, it could be hard to find a publisher to embrace the topic. But it’s possible — and so important to get this work out into the world.

Below is what a couple of our students are saying … see more writer reviews here. And for more on the class and to register, click here.

“John and Midge are knowledgeable, positive, and generous. Their class is one part support group, one part craft lesson, one part animal education, and one part industry talk.” — Heather Marie Spitzberg

“This class is fantastic. It changed my writing and I sold my novel afterwards!” — Sharon J. Wishnow, author of The Pelican Tide