She wrote a short story set in the same world as her Valtain Preludes trilogy, which she was working on at the time. Like the book that I wrote when I was in my life right after I graduated from college: there’s no story, it’s just stuff happening.”Īlthough the original seedlings for the War of Lost Hearts series were planted in her adolescence, Carissa was inspired to pick the story back up when she saw a writing prompt on reddit a few years ago. “When I first started writing books as an adult, I didn’t really think about what I was doing at all - like I didn’t know anything about plot structure. “I had to do a lot of leveling up,” she explains. She self-published a book soon afterwards but decided to take it down a few months later. Nonetheless, the writing bug struck again soon after Carissa finished college. Even when I was in college and doing stuff that was not writing, storytelling was always the thing that pulled me in.” She reminisces, “I always just really enjoyed storytelling. And actually, that story that I did then became Daughter of No Worlds years and years later,” she reveals.Īlthough she was unable to find a lot of time to write during her teen years, storytelling was always on her mind. There was a blog section on the website, and I used to post chapter by chapter. Using online forums and sites where she was able to connect with others who loved storytelling, she started posting her work online on a site called RPG ToolkitZone, which is no longer active. “The internet in the 2000s was a magical time,” she remembers.

Granted, she admits, “It wasn’t a novel - it was 50 pages - but it was a superhero sort of story.”Ĭarissa wrote all throughout her childhood, but she recalls her discovery of online writing communities as a pivotal part of her writing development. By her 13th birthday, Carissa had already written her first book. CARISSA’S STORY OriginsĬarissa’s authorial journey is an affirmation of the idea that you are never too young to start pursuing your dreams. Today, as she releases the second book in her series - Children of Fallen Gods - she is able to reflect upon her writing journey and the creative process that allows her to build new worlds on her pages. The first novel in her War of Lost Hearts series, Daughter of No Worlds, has accumulated hundreds of raving reviews and positive ratings on Goodreads and Amazon alike. Ingrained on the internet, there is an extensive community of young, creative women writing romantic fantasy novels full of adventure, mystery, and magic.

Carissa broadbent books in order