I  always enjoyed writing, but juggling a career and family left little time for anything else. Only when life slowed down was I able to start writing in earnest. And once I began I could not stop! The writing bug has well and truly taken me over now. My first publication was a children's book, but mostly I write women's fiction with a strong romantic thread, yet also depth. My aim is to write contemporary romantic fiction for 'real' women who understand that life is not clear- cut, as with my recently published novel 'The Path of Innocence' . The inspiration for my writing usually comes from mentally transporting myself to a location with which I feel a strong emotional attachment  and I find that most of my my ideas spring from this sense of place. Writers who have influenced me? I have to say Joannna Trollope because of the way she deals with contemporary issues in such a pithy style. I live in a pretty village in the Essex countryside, UK, having 'escaped' from London several years ago. We are now empty-nesters apart from an adorable, but incurably mischievous Cavalier King Charles.