Note from author:

'You're not as clever as you think you are.  We're watching your every move.  You're going to be punished for what you did.'  Sarah's mum walked out seven years ago.  Now she lives just a few miles away – but she doesn't want to see Sarah.  But Sarah can see her.  Sarah's watching her.  And she's going to make her mum pay…

When I do school visits I talk to children about writing, and sometimes we plan out stories together.  I love doing this, because children so often have fantastic story ideas!  One school I visited certainly did: they had an idea about a girl who breaks into her mother's house.  I thought this was a really interesting idea for a story, and I kept thinking about this girl even as I was driving home that day.  I wanted to know a lot more about her.  Why didn't she live with her mum?  Why did she break into her mother's house?  

I thought that the girl was probably very angry…and the more I thought about her, the more I started to realise why.