GUESTPOST by Annalisa Carr author of Exile in Darkness a Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy



Heritage and magic matter to the London covens.

Aristocratic witch, Isabella Pethany, has heritage but not magic.
Underworld powerbroker, amnesiac vampire Maldit, has magic but no heritage.
Lukas Sindis, coven sorcerer and famous psychopath, has both.

Isabella knows her null magic status makes her an embarrassment to her family, but since Natalie, her sister, was murdered, she is all they have left. Guilt makes her willing to do almost anything to compensate for her lack of value, but her grandmother’s proposal to match her with Lukas, in an attempt to bring strong magic back to their bloodline, is a step too far.

When Maldit rescues a strange witch from hunting vampires, his main concern is to limit trouble in his territory. Everyone knows witches are troublesome, and this one is no exception. Her proximity slashes through his damaged memory, allowing him to catch glimpses of his forgotten past.

Drugs have suppressed Lukas’s magic for almost twenty years, filling him with a reservoir of trapped power. When he escapes, his magic flies free, washing over Maldit and Isabella, and clearing away the spells paralysing both of them.

The dark secrets of the London coven are about to explode into the light of day.

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Where do story ideas come from?
The above question seems to arise on all sorts of writing courses, author-signing events and so on. Where do writers get their ideas?

For me, they come from all sorts of places. The idea for a story might loom, full formed, in the front of my mind and I won’t have a clue about what nudged it into existence. Of course, when I come to write it down, it might change completely.

More frequently, an image, an emotion, or a sensation will be the seed for the story. My first published novel, ‘Children of Poseidon – Lykos’, came from an idea I had while swimming off the south coast of England. I was doing a pier-to-pier swim for charity in appalling weather. When I finally finished and scrambled back up the beach, I was battered, bruised and bloody. As I drank my finisher’s hot chocolate, I pondered what it would be like to swim for your life. As a result, I made my protagonist, Lila, jump overboard from a cargo ship, escaping from her kidnappers and arrive, exhausted, on the beach of a Scottish island.





The two other books in the ‘Children of Poseidon’ trilogy were spin-offs from the first, inspired by secondary characters who demanded their own stories.


My science fiction novel (under my own name) evolved from a short story published in the Lady Magazine. It involved the escape of human hybrids from a military laboratory. I wrote it in parallel with its sequel (my MA writing project). It is the only non-romance novel I have written so far, and I’m not at all sure where the original idea came from. I loved writing it.


‘Exile in Darkness’ is set in the same world as ‘Children of Poseidon’ but involves different characters. It is the first in a new series, following the fortunes of a group of misfits. At present, I am writing the story of Lukas Sindis. A prisoner from the age of fourteen, he has little experience of the world and has no idea what to do with his newfound freedom. His people view him as a pyschopath, dangerous but useful, and if he wants to keep this freedom, he needs to show them that he is something more than that. When he meets troubled empath, Robyn, he finds an opportunity.


I love taking the small seed of an idea and growing it into a fully-fledged story. I’m always interested to hear how other authors find and develop their stories. So do share...




Annalisa Carr lives in the English Lake District, where she shares a view of the fells with three cats. She spent the early part of her life working as a protein crystallographer, a job she found fascinating. She now spends her time writing, in a variety of genres. Science Fiction, fantasy and fantasy romance are her favourites.











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