Donna Nucci Author, Nurse, Listener
"He removed his cross and came to me unburdened. We did not speak. It would have been unbearable." Luigia 1880
Donna Nucci
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THE PENNY
Publication Date: MAY 2027
Koehler Publishing
Thank you to my editors
Susanna Daniel for your unwavering commitment
to this project and honest feedback.
https://www.susannadaniel.com/
Suzanne Kingsbury Gateless Writing
The first person who told me 'you can write' and
here is how to open writing to a new place.
https://gatelesswriting.com/about-gateless/
My daughter Julia Nucci
Your honest feedback and final edit brought the manuscript to acceptance.
I love you endlessly, mom
UPDATES FROM DONNA
Follow me through the journal from signing to publication.
Sneak peak at chapters, quotes, cover vote and other pre-order news.
I’m sharing the real journey of publishing my first novel at 60 along with stories about mothers and daughters, memory, nursing, Italy, writing, book clubs, and the things we carry forward.
Occasional emails. I won’t fill your inbox.
MEET DONNA
I was inspired to write THE PENNY after losing my mother to dementia and after decades of work as a nurse witnessing how women’s lives, choices, and sacrifices are often absorbed quietly and left unnamed.
Nursing trained me to listen not only to what is spoken, but to what is withheld, to the silences women carry around caregiving, desire, grief, and duty.
This novel grew from lived proximity to loss and from observing how devotion, when unexamined, can become erasure.
My career has centered on listening to what people say, what they cannot say, and what is carried silently across generations.
That practice of deep witnessing shapes the emotional architecture of THE PENNY.
Does death close a door or open it?
PRAISE FOR THE PENNY
- Advance Reader
'THE PENNY left me in tears sometimes and wanting to get to the
end fast but also wanting to savor. The love scenes so well done!
Can not wait to see it in the shelf!'
'I hope the companion diaries have the full love scenes steamy :)
I identified with Franny her love for Rosa was so pure.'
Writing Group Feedback
'I cannot wait to find out what happens with the priest and Luigia - I could feel their love. '
'Growing up with a male dominated religion I felt the shame unravel THANK YOU DONNA'
'Book clubs are going to go crazy for this book. Every woman was relatable.'
Early Beta Reader
The women were all so different - the story moved so well I could not stop reading!
'Donna's command of lyrical language, humor and death kept me up reading.'
