I am happily married and a mother of two wonderful boys.  I began writing "The Willow Pattern" in 2006.  The story began as a fleeting thought while I was exercising on my eliptical watching "Titanic".  I thought of Rose, from the movie Titanic and how trapped she must have felt having to marry without love as she inhabited the world of the upper class.  I thought of all the wonderful Jane Austen movies I had seen and read about; all the women looking for their true loves.  Then I wondered what it would be like in Jane Austen's time to be in a very low class, desperately poor, looking for your true love.  Would you find it?  Who would you look for? 

These thoughts led to my main characters, Emmaline and Lucas.  At this time, I was also blissfully happy, reading about my favorite character Edward in the Twilight Series.  He epitomized my thoughts of the perfect man and I was enraptured by all that the series had to offer.  Taking care of two very young boys at the time, I was greatly inspired by the author of the Twilight Series, Stephanie Meyer.  I read her biography on her website stating how she went ahead, even though she was a busy mom, to pursue a story she believed in.  So it was then I decided to jot down my fleeting thoughts of my two main characters, Lucas and Emmaline, and the rest is history....