What inspired you to write your first book?

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.