Ever since I finished the original trilogy of the Whitby Witches, I've felt the lure to return to those narrow cobbled streets on the East Cliff, climb the 199 steps up to the gale beaten graveyard and look back over the town. Whitby is a place that won't let you go and strange, unearthly stories are waiting to be scratched out of the sand and soil.

I wanted to explore how much the place has changed in the intervening years. The Goth culture has really taken root and flourished and I was interested in creating a character who was brought up in a family deeply into all that. I also felt there was unfinished business with the Lords of the Deep and Dark, and that Whitby was always in need of a guardian, a witch whose job it was to protect the town from the anger of those ancient beings. A chance encounter with a colourful eccentric gave me my new witch completely whole and fully formed, but most of all, I wanted to see Aufwaders again - somehow. So the story began to simmer in my mind and a new, sinister adversary began to take shape...