I’ll never forget the evening my husband and I rowed out on Ullswater, in England’s celebrated Lake District. As is typical in the British Isles, we enjoyed varied weather: bright sunshine, a brief shower, a rainbow and finally a soft drizzle. But most memorable were the views of the long, winding lake and the surrounding mountains, bluish-purple in the shadows and glowing with rusts and golds and greens in the ever-changing light. Earlier that day we had climbed Gowbarrow Fell, a wonderful viewpoint, and come back down through a ravine where a waterfall plunged through rocks and trees and ferns. Before our vacation was over, I knew that I had to write a story set in this wild and beautiful place.

A view of Ullswater from above, and Aira Force, the waterfall in Gowbarrow Park.

I have my characters attend an assembly in Keswick, on the north end of Derwentwater.

And Castlerigg Stone Circle, the most beautiful in all England - in my opinion, anyway!