Books

I have written poetry and stories all my life and was encouraged by teachers in my youth and clients in my mature years to write, write, write and get it out to the world.

In 2010 the journey began when I started to have very strange dreams. Images and words came in huge drafts that I never imagined I’d remember but as soon as I sat at my desk, the words streamed in and the first book, followed closely by a second, flowed. Silver’s Threads became a series of five volumes and are available directly from myself Australia wide.

With the series of five written, there came a little poetry and prose book, Unfurled. I continued from there with In Stillness, featuring my poetry and art. Scraps and Wild Gatherings, a collection of my take on Cornish tales and then Poetry for Wild Spirits came to life in 2022.

In the pipeline now is my tenth book, Wild Spirits, a journey beyond the gate, referencing not only my self-sufficiency journey, food, herbals, wines and gardening, on 20 acres of rolling green, but my spiritual and philosophical leanings as I connect deeply with the land and all its inhabitants. With a lot of hard work, this should emerge on the bookshelves in mid to late 2025.

Interested overseas clients may find it easier to purchase in both paperback or kindle version from Amazon or most good bookshops around the world.

The first in a series of five books, weaves the lives of, predominantly, four women who are charged with a task to unravel and re-weave the ‘Skeins of Tyme.’ An urban fantasy set in Australia that takes the reader to other countries and into other realms.

What if someone could fall off the edge of their own personal tapestry of life to disappear into uncharted places… hiding from sadness, perhaps? What if, mirroring that sorrow, a small being of light could become corrupted by the pollution of earth to fall through the time space continuum, lost and confused?

If other realms are affected how would our world respond? Would we fall into chaos or would we finally look for solutions? A tale of the Wytchways… the Craft of the Wise and how ancient rites can be a tool to reweave this world, to harmonise with other realms bringing oneness with all life. The journey unfolds with the discovery of a strange and ancient skeleton, hidden in the mud for centuries, found in a landscape of secrets on the Plains of Holderness in Yorkshire. A grove of Wytches gather on a sacred mount to celebrate the Mabon Rite but something is very amiss. Strange forces are at work that go beyond mortal understanding, with four young women and the fifth, their teacher who is a seer a Wytch and a Wise Woman, who trained the four in the Wytchways but has vanished inexplicably and with all their combined skills, they need help from the other realms to discover where she is. All they have are a set of cryptic instructions to be deciphered.

One of the four must change her understanding about how the world works, one must learn the tools of her trade anew, one must learn to trust that Magick is real and one must find the answers to their teachers disappearance by travelling to other realms where the Old Ones walk. The Birthing Tree is the place of soul renewal… all must return there but with the fall of an ancient immortal, the web of life has been torn, the Tree is wounded casting a blight that echoes throughout all the realms.

Within the twists and turns on the warp and weft of time the young women meet other aspects of themselves, where clues are hidden and they find within those clues the secrets of other worldly lives, connections to each other and even a shared ancestry. This will weave and re-weave their stories together and apart throughout the Skeins of Tyme, to manifest a new way of living, for one of the things humans fear the most, is that Magick might indeed be real and it might be hidden within each of us.

Beyond the Gate Studio

Slender Silver Birches whispered secrets to a flock of noisy sparrows, arrowing like darts into the depths of ancient twisted limbs, the last leaves clinging stubbornly are shaken loose, circling, drifting down to join their siblings on the earth to begin the journey to mulch-hood.

It was cold but the sounds of nature were undiminished… a raven’s caw, a kookaburra’s contagious chuckle and the sweet melodic call of a thrush, echoed across the garden to the silent group sitting beneath the canopy of branches, soaking up the sun’s last warmth before winter’s final grip held the earth in stasis.

Flora, Samantha, Maeve and the group who had assembled around them, were tired and confused, not knowing if the outcome of their ritual, woven with the intention of locating Sybille on Samhain eve the previous night, had been successful and knowing that much was riding on it. They had all witnessed things they could not put name to, although so much more had, to their frustration, been hidden from sight as they’d stood, backs turned to the events unfolding.

Who was the small creature, Maeve saw watching her with such cold intensity? Where did Bethan go in the brief moment she vanished? Who are the enigmatic Dark Fae waiting in the wings for any of them to make just one small slip?

Dare you walk the between, in the places unseen, will you dare to engage with your shade. Will you walk, will you stray, senses lost on the way, with the mists calling home… will you wander alone… dare you walk the between, unafraid?

…the story continues after the Samhain Rite

Beyond the Gate Studio

This is the long awaited sequel, the third in the Silver’s Threads series. Warp and Weft, continues the journey of four young women and those who have been drawn to help them on the journey. It is their story of self discovery, of Magick and places where the ‘Old Ones’ walk but it is also the story of this planet and the health of our environment.

A warning has been given to the four and so it is, they make amazing discoveries about their gifts and their ancestry throughout the tapestry of the Skeins of Tyme.

Their friend Sybille is yet to be found, after vanishing mysteriously 18 months ago and so they journey through the threads that weave all things together and apart, through the continuum of this life and other multiple existences, until the threads that hold Sybille ensnared can be untangled. They are not alone; otherworldly shape shifters help as much as they are able …however there is always a price to pay when dealing with the Faefolk!

Bethan, finding her ancestry is not all human, speaks to the Magick in all of us…

‘Magick feeds the land and land feeds our magicks,’ she sang. ‘Humankin have forgotten to believe and so our power diminishes, as too will the essence of the Mother. Soon they will wonder why their earth realm is suffering dire change and in turn so must they. Change or die; like us disappear into the threads beyond time. This realm will only be inhabited by those who appreciate their own powers of co-creation with the Mother and with us and who have the ability to project in all directions to restore the earth plane they believe is reality. It is only one among many but which will they chose as their truth, one with anger, revenge, regret and deceit or a planet where the light and the Mother’s Magicks return to empower the land again,’ and the tears of the small creature dried and the Maker was gone.

She was otter, dragonfly, leaf sprite, bird; a tree, a breath of air, a droplet of water vapour, a tidal pool of emotion. She knew no differentiation between herself and all that is for she was, all that is.

…continue the journey with Bethan, Samantha, Flora and Maeve and meet the new friends who make the journey with them.

Journey on the Silken Web, where the Wheel of the year has turned twice since Sybille vanished mysteriously and the women charged with finding her have grown beyond recognition, as has the group who gathered from all the realms to help.

Sam flew the Aethers, unfettered, free of all human burden and pain. A cool fragrant wind ruffled long flight quills, her memory gone of who or what she was, had been or would be, in that moment. She was carried under a cloak of musky-sweet feathers; safe. A gentle memory emerged of warm arms and soft down then something was pulling at her, tugging constantly at her mind.

‘Sam,’ she heard, ‘Sam come back. It’s not your time to leave.’

An acrid odour seared her nostrils; offensive… burnt feathers or hair. She fought to maintain her blissful flight away from the realms of pain and dark matters but the voice grew stronger, this one deeper, a masculine, melodic tones. Morgan sang to her, calling her back with haunting notes…

‘Life is a struggle to see through the veil, hands become fragile; skin fair and pale.

Come home from the dreaming, come back to this place, now’s no time to travel, come home from this space.

You are a dreamer. one who sees true; memories awaken of feather’s blue-black hue.

Free flying… falling, then higher you soar, come from your dreaming, there is more… so much more.’

Morgan was singing her home…

Beyond the Gate Studio

How much can one woman take?

Samantha crashed again and the group surrounding her struggle to remain strong as the search for Sybille continues. The outcome of the last rite left everything in uncertainty and three deaths have further added to the trauma of the times. Annie Savage, Nina and Magdalena are tragically gone from this world, yet joy mingles with tears as Alma and Maeve are reunited by their links on other threads in the Skeins; James and Maeve rediscover their shared bond.

Callum, stronger than ever, keeps a secret close to his chest but he knows the time is rapidly approaching for him to reveal all and waits patiently for Hercurin’s signal.

Vanessa holds a mystery; one she wishes she could shout from the rooftops.

Samantha vanished into the web just as her missing Shaper’s bracelet returned and so she falls…

As Rowan’s eyes dimmed… filming over to stare; sightless. She was lost, falling; a spark of light that darkened as it fell. Ancient words echo through the Skeins, rebounding as negative Magicks will, to strike all and any who haplessly travel the roadway Between.

‘I bind you to the eternal dark. I will return to make my mark.

In truth I curse you for your guile; believe you’ve won for just a while.

For I curse you to live in the in-between, your voice heard, yet you remain unseen.

Forever in darkness, never free…

…as I do WILL, So Mote It Be.’

What is this twisted web called fate?

…the final chapters unravel in the Skeins of Tyme.

Beyond the Gate Studio

From the author of the Silver’s Threads series, comes an intriguing work but not fiction this time…

Nature heals, stirs depths of emotion and, stripping bare all pretension, heals again without agenda. Respect rather than fear is the key to connecting, empathically with her ever-changing face.

We read stories of those who live in the wild and, connected to her changing seasons are protected when a firestorm circumnavigates a nurtured and well-tended property, whilst eradicating the modern edifice to ego in a heartbeat.

Sentient life in all forms, is Penny Reilly’s passion. Celebrating in words and what inspires her, Unfurled, is a magickal and oft whimsical, poetic journey, into reconnection with nature in the raw.

Beyond the Gate Studio

Lady Nature touches us… she waits for that odd moment when our thoughts are elsewhere, tucked in at the corners of a neat little life. Suddenly, she not only untucks those corners, but pulls on loose threads, unravelling all we thought was ‘normal’ in our world.

Greenman, Jack in the Green, Cernunnos, Herne, John Barleycorn… all reference the magical being who is the epitome of the God of Nature. His presence is revered in all things, all sentient beings and in the changing nature of the seasons themselves as the native Spirit, the Genius Loci of the ancient Land of Albion.

Who has not lain on their backs, looking up through a canopy of leaves, to see faces show briefly before vanishing? A benign, foliate mask of leaves, his signature appearance. I have dreamed of him since childhood. He has been there for me in the tales of my lands and to me, his presence represents nature itself and its changing cycles.

And so, Lady Nature and the Greenman come to play in my dreams and psyche, along with creatures who shapeshift and change. I give you, Scraps and Wild Gatherings, the tale that gave me the title, not only to the story, but the entire collection…

Beyond the Gate Studio

The art and poetry collection, In Stillness, was created through my daily immersion in nature after the loss of our eldest daughter. Each day a renewal occurs, within the natural cycles, from dawn to dusk, season to season, one moon cycle to the next and one solar year to another.

Life can hand out raw and unexpected deals at times, but for me, it’s important to continue trusting that all emotions pass, leaving bitter-sweet memories of previous times.

Visual references to the pain we suffer and losses we experience, hone us as human beings, helping us to move closer to the planet we live on as an intrinsic part, rather than separate, or overlord, to it.

All we have known is reflected in nature. We can draw from all the death and loss seen every day, so much of which goes unnoticed by the average, busy person, unless it is within their own sphere of existence, but each day, a bird may fall from a nest, be storm-blown into unfamiliar landscapes or die, unknown and un-mourned. We deem these, seemingly, natural occurrences, to be less important than a human death. Our grief and loss, apparently, far outweighs a fallen bird… but is this truly so?

By bearing witness to nature’s losses, we can better understand, and mourn, our own personal, and collective tragedies.

In Stillness… in gratitude…

Beyond the Gate Gallery

Art and Poetry, go hand in hand. Wild Spirits dwell in the most unlikely places and here in this little volume, they may surprise you with their presence in the everyday as much as in the quiet places of your mind.

You can rediscover the wildness of childhood innocence, by finding the magical awareness lost to so many, hidden within our mundane lives, but this doesn’t mean they’ve disappeared for good.

Look into the cracks and crevices of tree bark, of rough textured stone; in the wild fragrance of a fleeting, musky perfume sent on the wind. Find them in the wild places of your heart.

Wild Spirits are waiting for you to notice them… to remember them and in so doing, they may well help you to reconnect with the Soul of Earth.

In this little volume of art and verse… Wild Spirits abound.

Beyond the Gate Studio

Forthcoming 2025/2026, A Wild Spirit … watch this space.

Forthcoming 2025/2026, Shards, A Dark Faery Tale

Forthcoming 2025/2026, Song to a Green Moon, A Dark Faery Tale

Readers familiar with my first series, Silver’s Threads 1-5 will recognise some of their favourite characters returning to haunt the pages along with a new intriguing cast of people to meet.

Walk softly… Awen /|\

Penny