Frequently Asked Questions

Inspiration for Consequences of Sin came mainly from two sources, my grandparents’ experiences living and working in Lancashire, England and a trip down the Orinoco River in Venezuela that my husband and I took in 2000. My mother’s parents were poor, working-class Catholics from Rishton, a small industrial town in the North of England, while my father’s family were middle-class Southerners who lived on the outskirts of London. I have always wanted to incorporate some of my family’s experiences, not only working in mills and factories but also the conflict that often occurred when “North meets South”. Writing the Ursula Marlow series has allowed me to pass on, in some small way, a legacy of my grandparents’ experiences in both the North and South of England.

I’ve always been intrigued by the Edwardian period, that “golden sunlit afternoon” before the devastation of the Great War, because in reality this was a period of tremendous upheaval and change. There are suffragettes on the streets demanding votes for women, Irish nationalists clamoring for Home Rule and trade unionists heralding the rise of socialism. Against all of this is the looming threat of war with Germany.

My two favorite novels are Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life.

Since moving to Florida, I’ve been volunteering at historic palm cottage in Naples and sitting on the porch my first summer in Florida inspired me to write a novel about the early period of Naples development (described in the early 20th Century as “Summerland in Wintertime”). I’m currently working on a historical mystery set in Naples in 1921.

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