When I wrote the first draft of Antoinette’s Fish, I was too excited about the story to do any research. I decided to do it afterwards, and I cobbled something together with the limited fish-knowledge I had garnered from my husband’s hobby-ism and a travel guide for Tanzania. Now that I am rewriting, I am required to go back and check the biology and geography of what and where I am talking about.
I hoped that most of my facts were roughly accurate, so when I did fill in the details I wouldn’t change them so much that it altered the story. But I didn’t expect that one of my primary characters would already exist.
Ethelwynn Trewavas
In the beginning of Antoinette’s Fish, young Annie Velter is setting out on her long awaited adventure to Tanzania, to visit her grandmother, Dr. Antoinette Beauregard, a world renowned ichthyologist whose work is to study the cichlids of Lake Tanganyika.
While reading about cichlids yesterday, I found the real life (but unfortunately no longer living) ichthyologist Dr. Ethelwynn Trewavas (1900-1993). She was the lead fish scientist at the British Museum of Natural History for almost 50 years, her work on African Rift Lake cichlids is widely known.
Nineteen new fish species have been named after her, including the Aulonocara ethlewynnae and the Copadichromis trewavasae (how cool to have a species named after you), and she was mentor to Ad Konings, the researcher who has written THE book on Lake Tanganyika cichlids, a book that is sitting right here on my desk and has already reached bible status in the writing and rewriting of Antoinette’s Fish.
There is an article posted online about Dr. Trewavas’ career, but it costs $34 to purchase the digital version. Do I have to get a book deal before I can learn more about her?
