Karen Nilsen

Biography

As a child, Karen suffered frequent bouts of insomnia. The only way she could settle into sleep many nights was to imagine stories that played out like movies on the dark ceiling over her bed. Since her mean parents refused to replace the TV after the cat blew it up by peeing on the cord, all Karen had left to entertain herself in the lone wilds of the Minnesota wilderness were books and her own stories. As Karen grew, the stories grew with her. One day when she was fourteen, she told her mother one of these stories for probably the hundredth time. Her mother, who knew Karen very well, turned to her and said, “You know, Karen, you keep talking about these stories, but you never write them down. You keep saying you’re going to write a novel, but I don’t believe that you will.” This comment infuriated Karen so much that she started writing her stories down and hasn’t stopped since.

Where to find Karen Nilsen online

Series

The Phoenix Realm
Following the Landers Saga, the Phoenix Realm relates the adventures of the next generation of Landers and their friends as they explore the limits of their realm and beyond.
The Landers Saga
Kiss the flame . . . Love defies family, king, religion, even death itself in a skewed Renaissance world of witch burnings, swordfights, and court intrigue. Safire, a psychic artist whose unusual abilities condemn her as a witch in her superstitious society, struggles to survive in a labyrinth of unforgiving rules and political plots. She plunges headlong into a passionate affair with a highborn man, little imagining the far-reaching consequences of this entanglement for her, her family, and her world.

Books

Persephone's Tears: A Romance in the Seventh Dimension
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 78,690. Language: English. Published: February 14, 2022 . Categories: Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical, Fiction » Romance » Fantasy
When a warlock steals an egg from a phoenix nest and brings it to the afterlife, he hopes to bargain his way out of Hell. However, the thief’s wicked scheme doesn’t work out quite as he plans, and the egg winds up in the possession of Hades, the ruler of the dead. Desperate to hatch the egg, Hades and his loyal servant Dante seek Zeus’s advice. Chaos ensues . . .
The Dream Garden
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 201,460. Language: English. Published: December 27, 2021 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » General, Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
Far across the sea from the mortal world lies a vast wilderness where phoenixes have existed for a thousand years. They guard the dream garden, a sacred place of untapped spiritual power. Now that Dominic of Landers has vanquished the warden of the western seas in a magical fight and broken the spell binding the phoenixes to their land, they are free to mingle with the society they left behind.
How Winter Came to Eden
Series: The Phoenix Realm. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 247,510. Language: English. Published: July 31, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Visionary & metaphysical
Grieving the death of one family member and the loss of another, the remaining Landers draw even closer than before. Together, they search for the means to recover their lost wife and sister and daughter, in the process exploring the furthest reaches of their realm and beyond. Their adventures revive an ancient magic. But if they dare to open the door of the gods, what might they let in?
The In-Between Place (Book Three of the Phoenix Realm)
Series: The Phoenix Realm. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 206,150. Language: English. Published: May 27, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Romance » Fantasy
The Landers have so far foiled the sorceress Saranay’s attempts to lure their beloved bird-girl Avreal to the Eldest Realm. Desperate and thwarted, Saranay sinks to new lows to gain power over her prey. Meanwhile, the conniving Spider King, newly apprised of his granddaughters’ ability to become hawks, threatens to reveal secrets that could plunge Cormalen into civil war.
Across the Summer Sea (Book Two of the Phoenix Realm)
Series: The Phoenix Realm. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 270,540. Language: English. Published: March 18, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Romance » Fantasy
One spring night under the scimitar moon, Princess Kelene of Numer and her mother frolic as mermaids in the ocean waves, unaware until it's too late that her youngest brother has followed them--and drowned. When this tragedy plunges her mother into grief-stricken shock, Kelene sets out to find Dominic of Landers, the only healer in the known world who can perhaps help.
The Bird Children
Series: The Phoenix Realm, Book 1. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 233,570. Language: English. Published: February 10, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Coming of age
Avreal of Landers just knows there is something wrong with her, despite her family's protests to the contrary. She has no navel, and she loses her voice on occasion, sometimes unable to talk for months at a time. Her older brother Dominic, a young warlock struggling with his own demons, remembers what his sister doesn't: that she hatched out of an egg and spent her infancy as a bird . . .
Fledgling Witch (Prequel to the Landers Saga)
Series: The Landers Saga, Prequel. Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 25,810. Language: English. Published: November 8, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Coming of age
A Prequel to the Landers Saga In the wake of her mother's death, young Safire fights for her footing as an artist and a witch in a skewed Renaissance world that punishes those who step outside its rigid boundaries. Can she defy the family she loves and still find happiness?
The Curious Fear of High and Lonely Places (Book Four of the Landers Saga)
Series: The Landers Saga, Book 4. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 216,130. Language: English. Published: October 11, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical
The Landers are no strangers to international intrigue. However, when bizarre circumstance suddenly thrusts them in the center of the known world's stage, they find themselves beset from all sides. It seems every innocent needs their help, and every villain plots against them. To safeguard their family, they must make some heart-wrenching choices. That is, if they survive the onslaught.
Phoenix Ashes (Book Three of the Landers Saga)
Series: The Landers Saga, Book 3. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 200,820. Language: English. Published: July 12, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Romance » Fantasy
Book Three of the Landers Saga An embittered priest. A hidden history of ancient magic, long suppressed. An ambitious noble family with too many secrets. And at the center of it all, a witch artist named Safire . . .
Tapestry Lion (Book Two of the Landers Saga)
Series: The Landers Saga, Book 2. Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 212,860. Language: English. Published: November 4, 2011 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Romance » Paranormal » Witches
When Queen Jazmene of Sarneth takes an interest in Safire's sketches, it would seem to be an artist's dream come true. After all, who doesn't want a royal patron? But Jazmene is no ordinary patron, and Safire is no ordinary artist. Suddenly entangled in an intrigue of international proportions, Safire and Merius struggle to escape the web of deception before their situation becomes deadly.
The Witch Awakening (Book One of the Landers Saga)
Series: The Landers Saga, Book 1. Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 151,470. Language: English. Published: September 22, 2010 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Historical, Fiction » Romance » Paranormal » Witches
The odor of burning flesh and the screams of those condemned to the flames disturb the dreams of young Safire of Long Marsh. Safire struggles to keep the curse of her psychic abilities secret, lest she be burned at the stake as a witch in her native land Cormalen. Forced to keep her talents hidden instead of learning how to use them, Safire is ill-prepared to face the evil that awaits her.

Karen Nilsen's tag cloud

artist    comingofage    court intrigue    dante    demeter    elf    family saga    fantasy    fiction    firebird    firebirds    ghost    gothic    greek gods    greek myth    hades    hecate    historical    historical fantasy    mermaid    mermaids    metaphysical    novel    painting    paranormal    paranormal romance    persephone    phoenix    phoenixes    psychic    psychic ability    renaissance    romance    swordplay    tarot    underworld    warlock    weretiger    witch    witches