Welcome to the Writing Website of
Karen Tucker and Rhianna Nodens
(They are the same person, by the way!)
It’s a long story, but I managed to end up with two names. My family and colleagues and some of my friends know me as Karen, while my pagan friends and my partner call me Rhianna – it’s how they were introduced to me. So you’ll see some of my writings attributed to Karen (these are the more universal ones) and some attributed to Rhianna (which I call my bardic offerings).
Please feel free to browse around, and if you like what you see, let me know. There’s lots to read, including samples of the various genres I write in, so grab a cuppa, settle down, and read on!
FREE EBOOK!
If you’d like a free short story to take away with you and read, please sign up to my email list, so you can get updates when I’m working on a new project, or when I publish something new. If you fill in your contact details on the sign-up page, you will get a special free gift of a short story. I may include in my emails, from time to time, inside information on my characters, worlds or scenarios – little snippets that no-one else will have seen.
About Me
I’ve always loved reading, and even as a young child, it seemed a natural progression for me to start writing my own stories. So I’ve been a writer of fiction most of my life (with occasional gaps when life got in the way). I’ve also branched out into non-fiction, and done a little proof-reading and editing for other writers. I had several pieces published in the magazine of the Institute of Qualified Professional Secretaries, and wrote reviews for Paradigm Shift magazine for a couple of years; I also had an article on Past Life Therapy (in which I am well qualified) published in an on-line spiritual magazine.
For more about me and what makes me tick as a writer, please see my About Page.
Published Books
As of Wednesday 5th April 2023, I now have three books available as paperbacks, along with a number of short collections of short stories that are on Kindle only.
Lindy and the Fairies Series
My latest publication is the first book in the Lindy and the Fairies series. Titled Sandals in the Snow, it’s set in 1977 and stars a sweet girl called Lindy. It’s aimed primarily at 7-11 year olds, but several adults have also read and loved it. Orphaned, bullied and broke, Lindy only has her Nanna. But when her Nanna is taken ill, Lindy has to take action. Can she catch a fairy and receive three wishes?
Books 2 and 3 in this series are also now available for pre-order at Kindle books, and I’m working hard on the editing, with my talented illustrators also working hard on the images that will grace the cover and accompany the text. The Backyard Fairies sees her looking for a way to save her home from developers who want to build a supermarket car park on the land. In A Fairy in my Schoolbag, Lindy starts secondary school hoping to make new friends, but instead makes an enemy when she frees a captive fairy. Can she turn this around and help tough girl Nellie to receive her third wish?
Healing the Wounds
A novelised account of several of my past life memories, Healing the Wounds stars Cathy Heritage, a woman who lost a child, an embryo she carried for only a few days. Haunted by the loss, she dreams about a past life in which she was brutally killed while pregnant, and learns the reason for a painful relationship break-up. As more past life issues on a similar theme begin to come to light, Cathy learns to find relief from the karmic emotions she has carried for many lifetimes, through forgiveness, understanding, acceptance and compassion.
With tears and laughter, the unfailing support of good friends and her spirit guide, and initially the bewilderment and scorn of others, Cathy learns to release much of her past-life trauma. Along the way, she helps others release their own trauma, forms new friendships and frees herself to find a wonderful new relationship, as well as a possible new career. But the hardest lesson of all is to let go of the little girl she never got to hold.
Departing Souls Volume 1
Many years ago (in 2002!) I was shortlisted for the prestigious Debut Dagger aware by the Crime Writers’ Association, for the start of a novel titled Past Sins. It starred Liberty Gibbens, known as Libby, an osteo-archaeologist (bone specialist) with psychic powers. That novel is still awaiting final editing, but in the meantime, I also wrote a number of ghost stories. When I decided I needed to know Libby better, I took those ghost stories I’d collected into short Kindle books and wrote a series of extended stories starring Libby, where she met the ghosts involved, got to know their stories, and helped them to pass over. Departing Souls Volume 1 is an omnibus edition of Horripillations Volume 1 with Liberty Gibbons, Ghost Whisperer Volume 1 and Volume 2. These collections take the ghosts from Horripillations 1 and resolve their stories via Libby’s gift.
There are two more volumes of Horripillations – Volume 2 and Volume 3 – and the stories from Volume 2 are resolved in Liberty Gibbens, Ghost Whisperer Volume 3 and Volume 4.
Works in Progress
Fantasy Novels for Children
My next children’s novels for publication are likely to be The Secret Magicians stories. Set in a fantasy world where any child who can do magic is taken away by the Regime and forced to use their powers in a never-ending war, it stars Jack, a farmer’s son, whose father has been killed in the war. When his powers suddenly open up, he is whisked away to a secret training school for magicians, where he should be safe from the Regime and taught how to use and control his magic. But when soldiers come to take over the property, he and his fellow students are forced to take a dangerous journey to find safety elsewhere.
After that will probably come the Grail Maiden books. Originally planned as a trilogy, these have expanded and grown in concept and size since I first started them with just the kernel of an idea. Currently four books long, with another one at least in the pipeline, they are set in an alternate timeline around the 9th century in north west Wales. Princess Aelwen lives in a land where paganism still reigns, and which is alive with myth and magic. She needs to find where the Merllyn is sealed up in a cave in a magical sleep, find a way to free him, and quest for the Grail Cup to heal the wounding of the King, her grandfather. Along the way, a bitter vendetta must be resolved.
I have also started a number of fantasy novels aimed at the more adult market, but none is finished yet. See the Fantasy Novels page for more information and some samples of these works.
Paranormal Crime Novels
As I mentioned above, my paranormal crime novel, Past Sins was shortlisted by the Crime Writers’ Association for their Debut Dagger Award in 2003. It’s not yet ready for publication, but maybe one day … ? I hope so, as I already have ideas for two more Libby novels. Watch this space!
And Finally …
Last, but by no means least, as mentioned above, I follow a Pagan path and sometimes write under my ‘pagan name’ of Rhianna Nodens. I also have a qualification as a Bard from British Druid Order. As Rhianna, I have contributed an article to the Moon Books publication, Naming the Goddess. I’ve written a number of poems under this name, which I may publish one day, and I’m also undertaking a self-directed course in Bardism, as a means of developing my writing skills still further.
My current pagan project, which I’m really excited about, is writing, recording, and making available a series of pagan meditations. There will be six available free of charge; the rest will be available for purchase and download or streaming from the website. It’s a work in progress, but the free ones are already roughly recorded and available to listen to. I’d love some feedback if you’d care to pass on your thoughts.