Lovely Reader Review for Enemy of the King

“ENEMY OF THE KING is an excellent and intriguing read. All of the characters are depicted as multi-dimensional and complex, with a mix of positive and negative traits. I don’t want to give away the plot, but will just say there are surprising twists, and the author deftly combines both joy and tragedy in this romance novel about the American Revolution. I appreciate that members of each side of the war (both Loyalists and Patriots) are shown in a range from “good” to “evil,” unlike many romances in which characters or groups of characters are depicted as only “black or white”.
Great work, Ms. Trissel!”

~Review contributed by Lisbeth Eng’s

1780 SOUTH CAROLINA, SPIES AND INTRIGUE, A VINDICTIVE GHOST, THEBATTLE OF KING’S MOUNTAIN, PATRIOTS AND TORIES, POUNDING ADVENTURE, PULSING ROMANCE…

ENEMY OF THE KING

AN ADVENTUROUS COLONIALAMERICAN ROMANCE NOVEL

HISTORICAL ROMANCENOVEL ENEMY OF THE KING ON BEST ROMANCE NOVEL LIST AT BUZZLE!

BHB READER’S CHOICE BEST BOOKS OF 2009

Karin doesn’t know who she is—will she find the love of her life in the discovery, or uncover a tragic past and fresh betrayal?

Step into the elegant parlor of Pleasant Grove, an eighteenth century Georgian plantation built high on the bluff above the Santee River. Admire the elegant lines of this gracious brick home and its exquisite décor. Stroll out into the expansive garden between fragrant borders of lavender and rosemary. Bask beneath the moss-hung branches of an enormous live oak, then saunter back indoors to dress for a candlelight dinner in the sumptuous dining room. But don’t plan on a lengthy stay, you’re about to be snatched away for a wild ride into Carolina back country.

The year is 1780, one of the bloodiest of the American Revolution. The entire Southern garrison has been captured and Lord Cornwallisis marching his forces deep into South Carolina. ‘Bloody Ban’ Lieutenant MajorBanestre Tarleton and his infamous Legion are sweeping through the countryside. Revenge is the order of the day on both sides and rugged bands of militia are all that stand between crown forces and utter defeat.

“A true friend stabs you in the front.” - Oscar Wilde

“In a friend you find a second self.” ~ Isabelle Norton
My light paranormal romance, Somewhere My Lass, is a story of romance on the deepest level, and also of friendship.  To quote reviewer Poinsettia from Long and Short Reviews:

“Neil’s best friend, Fergus, is one of the most amusing secondary characters I’ve read in a long time. His bright orange hair and obsession with science fiction and technology made me smile throughout the story. Fergus is a friend in the truest sense of the word. He’s willing to follow Neil into the past to lend a hand, and his belt full of gadgets saves Neil’s life on more than one occasion.

I’m a fan of Ms. Trissel’s historical romances, so I was intrigued at the idea that her latest story would include the element of time travel. Somewhere My Lass, is book two in Ms. Trissel’s Somewhere series, but it is not necessary to read the previous book to enjoy this story. Once I started reading Somewhere My Lass, I found Ms. Trissel had masterfully blended the past and the present in order to create a lovely romance that spans centuries. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a touching tale of love and friendship.”

As a tribute to friendship, I offer the following quotes.
“Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache: do be my enemy for friendship’s sake.”
- William Blake

“Tell me what company thou keepst, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.”
– Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616) Spanish novelist.

“Have no friends not equal to yourself.”
– Confucious (551 – 497 BC) Chinese philosopher. 

“Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends.”
– Jacques Delille (1738 – 1813) French poet.
 
“A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)


“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson


“If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.”
– Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) British lexiographer.


“True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and choice.”
– Samuel Johnston
“It is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them.”
– Duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680) French writer.

“If it is abuse – why one is always sure to here of it from one damned good-natured friend or other!”
– Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 – 1816) British dramatist.

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
– George Washington

“True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”
– George Washington

“I can never think of promoting my convenience at the expense of a friend’s interest and inclination.”
– George Washington

“Should auld aquaintance be forgot, And never brought to min’?”
– Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) Scottish poet.

“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us.”
– Epicurus (341 – 270 BC) Greek philosopher.


“These are called the pious frauds of friendship.”
– Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754) British novelist.

“Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. he whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.”
– Samuel Johnston (1709 – 1784) British lexicographer.

 
“To like and dislike the same things, that is indeed true friendship.”
– Sallust (86 – 334 BC) Roman historian

“One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.”
– Euripides, Greek playwrite

“My friends are my estate.”
– Emily Dickinson

“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”
– Woodrow Wilson

“Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.”- Oscar Wilde
 
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
– Mother Teresa

“When true friends meet in adverse hour;
‘Tis like a sunbeam through a shower.
A watery way an instant seen,
The darkly closing clouds between.”
– Sir Walter Scott

“... no man is useless
while he has a friend.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson

“A true friend stabs you in the front.”
- Oscar Wilde
“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
– Mark Twain

“Thus nature has no love for solitude, and always leans, as it were, on some support; and the sweetest support is found in the most intimate friendship.”
– Cicero

“Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“The best mirror is an old friend.”
– George Herbert

“The friendship that can cease has never been real.” – Saint Jerome
 
“I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends.”
– William Shakespeare

“I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?”
– Henry David Thoreau

*Pics are of family, friends, and those who have gone before us.

For the Love Of Roses~

This snowy January day makes me yearn for roses, the wonderfully scented varieties that bloom in the garden on a glorious June morning.~.

“Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.”~Mark Overby

“You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.”
~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Life is a rose; beware of the thorns.”
“Beauty without virtue is like a rose without scent.”
~Proverb Quote

“How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said.”
~ Victor Hugo

“The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.”

“Love is like a rose. It looks beautiful on the outside…but there is always pain hidden somewhere.”

“Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade, before they can bloom again.”

“The splendor of the rose and the whitness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its lovliness.”
~Therese of Lisieux
“The rose is a flower of love. The world has acclaimed it for centuries. Pink roses are for love hopeful and expectant. White roses are for love dead or forsaken, but the red roses, ah the red roses are for love triumphant.”

“He who wants a rose must respect the thorn.” Persian Proverb
“If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I’d be picking roses for a lifetime.” Swedish Proverb

“Slow buds the pink dawn like a rose From out night’s gray and cloudy sheath; Softly and still it grows and grows, Petal by petal, leaf by leaf.” Susan Coolidge

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk. ~William Shakespeare
The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.
-~John Boyle O’Reilly
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies.
~Christopher Marlowe

The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
~Bryant

Here bloom red roses, dewy wet,
And beds of fragrant mignonette.
~Elaine Goodale

The rose is fairest when ’tis budding new,
And hope is brightest when it dawns from fears.
- Sir Walter Scott

She wore a wreath of roses,
The night that first we met.
~Thos. Haynes Bayly
We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,
or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.
Abraham Lincoln

This old world that we’re livin’ in
Is might hard to beat.
You get a thorn with every Rose
But – ain’t the roses sweet?
Frank Stanton

I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
~Emma Goldman
God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December.
~J. M. Barrie
“You are beautiful, but you are empty. One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you–the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered.” ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Love is like the wild rose-briar;
Friendship like the holly-tree.
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms,
But which will bloom most constantly?”
~Emily Bronte

“They are not, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream,
Our path emerges for a while, then closes,
Within a dream.”~Ernest Dowson

“And she was fair as is the rose in May.” ~Geoffrey Chaucer

“Truths and roses have thorns about them.” ~Henry David Thoreau

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit" ~Shakespeare

"Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold."~ Zelda

"Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic."~Anais Nin Nice
 
"Anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over-except when they are different." ~Nancy BanksSmith


"A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If a dog will not come to you after he has looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience."~ Woodrow Wilson

"The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, 'Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess I wish I were sitting quietly at home.' And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure." ~Thornton

"History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives."~Abba Eban


 "The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech." ~George Bernard Shaw

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." ~Oscar Wilde

"He was happily married - but his wife wasn't." ~Victor Borge

"You have delighted us long enough." ~Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)


"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."~Mark Twain

"There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full." ~Henry Kissinger

"Can't act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little."~ Screen Tester on Fred Astaire

My New Contract With The Wild Rose Press~

As mentioned earlier, and official now, I’ve signed with The Wild Rose Press for my eighth story, my first English historical entitled INTO THE LION’S HEART.  Release date to be determined but I anticipate sometime in May.  At approximately 25,000 words, this story will come out as an English Tea Miniature Rose, but it took as much research as a novel because the time period and setting were different for me. Actually, it's my ninth contract with the Wild Rose Press because I also signed for my FREE READ, Night Hawk, but I digress.

As Into The Lion's Heart is set in England in 1789 at the explosion of the French Revolution, I researched the entire revolution and various aspects of life in Georgian England.  The heroine sails across the channel, so I delved into seafaring vessels and terminology.

Fortunately my mother has read the brilliant Master and Commander series twice and was also a help.  Throw in more research into Dover and Cornwall, smuggling, highwaymen…took me months to write this.

My gracious editor, Senior historical editor Nicole Darienzo, assures me that all hard work paid off, so I trust my readers will agree.   You will be hearing more about Into The Lion’s  Heart in the coming months.

I’ve long been a British junkie, so the setting of a story on English soil was inevitable.  My ancestors are English Scots-Irish and our roots well documented in family genealogy which continues to inspire me.  I was also inspired to write this story by my love of such novels as The Scarlet Pimpernel and Poldark, which came out years ago as a Masterpiece theater series.  I loved it.  Read the novels and watched the series.  And I’ve long been a huge Pimpernel fan.  Poldark opens (initially) at the same time period as my story and then continues forward as the saga unfolds.  The Scarlet Pimpernel is set later during the blackest days of the French Revolution during the Reign of Terror.  I may get to that more bloody time in a later story.


My fascination with England continues.  Given the choice, I am more likely to watch a British murder mystery or historical (the two in one being my favorite) than most anything else.  Netflix have been great for supplying me with stellar productions.   Some of you may wonder how one who is such an ardent fan of colonial America could be so drawn to all things English, but in early America, the New World and the Old World were very intertwined.  The common thread in all my work, is my passion for the past.  And yes, I will return to my beloved colonial America.  Stay tuned.

Who Are All These Enemies of the King?

I spent years researching and writing historical romance novel, ENEMY OF THE KING, an exciting journey back to the drama and romance of the American Revolution with a focus on the Southern face of the war. Think Carolina backcountry and Francis Marion, 'the Swamp Fox.' ENEMY OF THE KING currently has 13 Five Star reviews at Amazon, and nothing less.  I don't have any control over what readers leave there so this strikes me as significant, but it also means not enough people are reading it.  Every story has its critics. 

Come out, come out, wherever you are.  But first, you have to read the book.  If you'd like to take the challenge and see if ENEMY OF THE KING lives up to its reputation, I welcome your thoughts.  Leave it a review.  

ENEMY OF THE KING received a five cup review from Coffee Time Romance, Five Books and won book of the week at Long and Short Reviews, earned a super review and You Gotta Read rating from You Gotta Read, came in third at the 2009 Publisher's Weekly BHB Reader's Choice Best Books, and made the Best Romance Novel list at Buzzle.

1780 South Carolina, spies and intrigue, a vindictive ghost, the battle of King’s Mountain, Patriots and Tories, pounding adventure, pulsing romance…ENEMY OF THE KING 

 "This sexy historical book is a must read!" ~Danielle Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More

 

Follow Your Heart

Many authors wisely choose a genre and stick with it. Most master a specific time period, such as the Regency romance world, and set up camp there. Not me. Like a restless spirit, I wander about visiting various places, even time travel to land in some of them. Writing would be far easier if I’d stay put, but not, I expect, as much fun. So I write both historical, with varying time periods and settings, and light paranormal romance, generally with a time travel or ghost in the fantasy meld.I follow where my heart leads as new stories beckon.

In Daughter of the Wind, I even ventured into the shape shifting realm with a bearwalking Shawnee warrior. Depending upon whom you consult among the Shawnee, they may not consider this to be ‘fantasy’ but an actual ability some of their people possess, or used to in ages past. Daughter of the Wind also has a magical moonstone necklace which I wish I could have kept, but the novel sucked that prize in and won’t let me have it back. Bummer.

Light paranormal romance Somewhere My Lass was a departure for me in that I also wove kewl sci-fi stuff into this Scottish time travel. My paranormals require the same research I’d do for a historical because there are other time periods to explore, and then the added contemplation involved in otherworldly elements, so they are not easy, but enjoyable in a challenging way. I admit to gleaning inspiration from some of the movies I’ve seen, and a few stories I’ve read, but I do have an occasional original thought, more than I’m sometimes given credit for.

To further explore my latest light paranormal release, here’s the blurb and excerpt from  

Somewhere My Lass.

Blurb:
 
Neil MacKenzie's well ordered life turns to chaos when Mora Campbell shows up claiming he's her fiance from 1602 Scotland. Her avowal that she was chased to the future by clan chieftain, Red MacDonald, is utter nonsense, and Neil must convince her that she is just addled from a blow to her head--or so he believes until the MacDonald himself shows up wanting blood.

Mora knows the Neil of the future is truly her beloved Niall who disappeared from the past. Although her kinsmen believe he's dead, and she is now destined to marry Niall's brother, she's convinced that if she and Neil return to the past, all will be right. The only problem is how to get back to 1602 before it's too late.

The balance of the present and future are in peril if she marries another, and the Neil of the present will cease to exist. An ancient relic and a few good friends in the future help pave the way back to the past, but will Mora and Neil be too late to save a love that began centuries before?

Excerpt:
 
“You are a beauty.” His words were a hoarse whisper.
 
The rise and fall of her chest betrayed a deep inhalation of breath. A flicker of reproach lit her eyes. 
“I dinna think ye took heed of me at all.”
 
He winced at the well-deserved jab. “About before, I’m sorry I left you so suddenly. But there’s no earthly way I could fail to notice you. I’d have to be deaf, dumb, and blind and even then…”
 
The tension in her face eased and then the hurt returned. “Oh, aye? How could ye forget all ye knew?” 
 
He remained as he was, threading that wealth of hair through his fingers. Again, the rational part of him argued, “Is it possible you’re imagining you knew me before?”
 
She balked, a mutinous glint in her eyes. “Nae.”
 
He slid his hand to the finely crafted silver chain at her throat and coaxed the coverlets further down.
 
A slight gasp escaped her lips. He muted any outward response to the thrill running through him. 
 
The scooped neckline of her nightgown revealed the tops of white breasts sprinkled with freckles. Above this heart-hammering sight hung the crucifix. “I gave this to you?” he managed to ask without betraying the swell of emotion surging inside him.
 
“At our betrothal.” 

                                                      ***