n my novels, I strive to serve those readers who are looking for accuracy in historical fact and yet also engage those who are looking for a good story with strong characters, a little romance and lots of period detail. A Rose for the Crown and Daughter of York are for those readers who enjoy settling into a book and living with the characters for a good long time.
I spent my childhood in England, Germany and Egypt as the daughter of a British Army colonel. At my boarding school in Surrey a teacher we called "Conky" -- after William the Conqueror -- inspired my passion for history. When in my early 20s, I read Josephine Tey's "A Daughter of Time", I became particularly fascinated by Shakespeare's so-called villain, Richard III.
At age 24, after living and working as a secretary in London and Paris, I came on a lark to New York with my flatmate just for a "two-year stint." Thirty years, two marriages, two children and five cross-country moves later I'm very definitely a permanent resident of the U.S. -- but my love for English history remains.
I began writing professionally a few years after I landed in Plattsburgh, NY near the beautiful Adirondack Mountains with my first husband and daughters, Joanna and Kate. For ten years, I was the Features/Arts Editor for the daily newspaper and wrote articles on every conceivable subject that was not hard news! It proved a wonderful training ground for my foray into authoring.
It was while living in Plattsburgh that I took on another persona as a folksinger, playing in music festivals, clubs, restaurants, and on public radio. When I'm not writing, I can be found either on the local stage or weeding my garden, the latter which I hate almost as much as I do sewing! My husband, Scott, and I love biking, canoeing, cross-country skiing and sailing, which we can do either near Boston, where we live now, or back in the Adirondacks. I should also add that I'm a member of the Richard III Society and the Historical Novel Society.
(Photo above by Roxana Gundry, taken at La Bastide de Tremieres, Dordogne, France)
