the cover illustration for volume 2 of the spiritual, cozy, amateur sleuth series "The Tarot Dimes", "The Hanged Man's Secret", by Rahel Vega
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 Why I Created This Series: The Story Behind The Tarot Dimes

I have a sweet spot for dime novels.

Not only because I was involved in producing them at one point in my life (you’ll read more about that on the About Me as an Author page), but because of one summer when I was around ten or twelve. No internet, no cellphone, and only one television in the house — which, of course, was fully controlled by my grandfather. I was stuck in a quiet rural village with no other kids around, expensive landlines, and if you wanted to call a friend, you had to survive their mom answering the phone first.

Bored out of my mind, I stumbled on an old box in my grandma’s attic — filled with dusty dime novels from the 1970s, mostly cowboy stories. They looked cheap and outdated, the kind of thing you’d expect to toss aside after a few pages. But it was the ’90s, I was stuck in a rural village without internet, and desperation has its own logic. So I gave one a try.

I couldn’t stop.

I devoured all 54 parts in that box — and then realized, with horror, that there were no more. I searched every local bookstore, begged the grown-ups to help, but they were out of print. Gone. I was devastated. What happened after volume 54? Had the original owner — most likely my uncle — just stopped reading and never finished the series? Why would anyone stop mid-adventure like that? Who abandons a cowboy saga halfway through? To this day, I still have questions.

Those books became my biggest treasure that summer. They weren’t sophisticated or fancy, but they had sucked me in with their simple power: fast-paced language, addictive plot, cliffhangers, characters who felt real enough to follow anywhere.

That’s what planted the seed for The Tarot Dimes.

📚 What I Wanted to Create

I wanted a modern series that brought back that feeling — stories you can read in a few hours, that go down like honey. A digital dime novel, with the same pull, the same rhythm, the same slightly obsessive urge to read just one more chapter.

I knew I wanted to structure it like a streaming series:

• Seasonal arcs

• Spinoff standalones

• Cliffhangers

• A character you want to follow through hell and back

But there were two more things I had to bring into it:

1. Real spirituality — not made-up magic

I think real-world spirituality is wildly underserved in fiction. Too often, authors either invent their own magical systems or present a kind of “magic” that only makes sense if you’re a total atheist. I wanted to flip that.

I wanted a main character who sees the world the way we do — through synchronicities, energy shifts, spirit guidance, rituals, intuition, karma, and yes, the occasional chaotic miracle.

Not in a fantasy sense — but in the exact way people like us walk through the world every day:

magical, but real.

With all the messiness, beauty, uncertainty, and power that comes with it.

2. Absolute creative freedom

I obey most rules of modern creative writing. I’ve studied them, I use them, I respect them — especially when it comes to structure, timing, character arcs, and emotional pacing. But there’s one rule I refuse to obey:

No one gets to tell me how to write this series.

Not a publisher. Not Amazon. Not an algorithm.

That’s why I chose to do everything on my own website, empowering-tarot.com, and not go through the traditional route. I wanted to ask myself honestly:

What would I write if I had full creative freedom?

This is the answer.

The Tarot Dimes might feel a little different from other series you’ve read. They might be a little weird, a little unexpected, a little unpolished in all the right ways. That’s on purpose.

Yes, I applied structure where it made sense. Yes, I thought about reader experience. But I’m not afraid to break a rule when it serves the spirit of the story.

That’s what makes this series what it is —

and maybe, just maybe, that’s why it’ll stick with you too.

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