Native American Historical Romance

The opening to both of my Native American Historical romance novels, THROUGH THE FIRE and RED BIRD’S SONG were inspired by dreams, as were some of the subsequent scenes in them.  I also encountered several of the key secondary characters in that mystical realm.  Behind these stories lies an immense wealth of research.  Boggles the mind how much work went into them (into all my stories, really).  I have shelves of books and piles of manuscripts given to me by historians, old journals, etc, heaped here and there in my house.  Now, of course, there are all the online sources too, but back in the day, there weren’t.   And I began this research fifteen plus years ago.

Apart from all of these non-fiction sources, I’ve read very little NA based fiction.  And I’d already written Red Bird’s Song before I got around to seeing the superb 1992 film,  The Last of the Mohicans.  Granted I loved the movie, but never set out to reproduce it in any of my novels, only to say that they have that sort of flavor.

My admiration for Native American peopleand their culture is a long-standing one, as is my profound regret at the horrific treatment they suffered at the hands of Western man.  In my stories, I aim to depict both points of view with varying the shades of grey.  No one group is ever all bad or good–people are people the world over.

I tire of some readers telling me my hero, if he’s a warrior, wouldn’t do this or that.  First, he doesn’t have to fit a Native American cookie cutter mold.  He’s an individual.  And yes, I consulted historians, anthropologists, archeologists, reenactors and even some of the Shawnee themselves before and during the writing of these stories, so I had a good idea what comprised traditional behavior for that era, and there’s no one size fits all for warriors.  It just all depended.

Bear in mind that Eastern Woodland warriors intermingled heavily with the whites, or could have, through trade, acting as guides…not to mention the inevitable warfare and captive situations that threw the two groups together.  Many warriors spoke at least some English and possessed an awareness of Western ways.   Again, to various degrees.   Some were educated.  The eloquence of their words are with us still, at least in those instances where they’ve been preserved.

Back to the interaction, remember, the first settlers to the New World arrived  in the late 1500′s (think Roanoke Island and The Lost Colony), and Jamestown was established  in the early 1600′s.   So, Eastern  Woodland Tribes had a lot of experience  with Europeans by the time period my stories take place.  Unlike western and Plains tribes, some of whom hadn’t even seen whites until the mid 1800′s.   Makes an enormous difference.

I’m at work on the sequel to Through the Fire, a story that also builds on the history of Red Bird’s Song and follows closely on its heels time wise.

Let's Call It Spring~

At long last, today is the first of March.  After spending much of January and most all of February sick with one thing or another, I tottered forth into the sunshine and managed to accomplish a few much-needed errands.  Now I’m whacked and feeling it’s time for a nap.  That’s what seemingly endless virus’s will do to a body.  Considering I’m not the only sufferer in the Shenandoah Valleyor the country, I think most everyone except the die-hard skiing fanatics would agree that what we all need is SPRING!  A tonic to mind, body, and spirit.

To that end, I point out the snow crocus and snowdrops blooming here and there in sheltered spots of my yard and garden.    Welcome green shoots of crocus, daffodils, tulips…are pushing up through the earth most everywhere, and tomorrow the weather is to be sunny and 60 degrees.   The pussy willow is bursting forth with catkins, and fussy barnyard geese are laying eggs.   I conclude it’s early spring and much prefer that term to ‘late winter.’  Far more mood brightening.

In keeping with the season, I’m sorting through boxes stuffed with envelopes of seeds leftover from the past year or two and ordering more (we count our wealth in seeds) as well as potatoes, strawberries, culinary herbs and all things garden.   Which as far as I’m concerned equals all things good as any true gardener will agree.  I also save seed, am a big fan of  heirloom seeds, and have been known to share  so I’m not simply hording my treasure trove.

An excellent place to be for those in want of  plants is out in the garden with me on a fine spring day while I divide perennials and thin overly generous larkspur, love in a mist, and poppy seedlings…I’ll soon tire, allowing them to take over certain spots of the garden, but in the beginning I’m imbued with the determination that this year all will be in order.  I soon concede to a more wildflower look and justify many of the weeds as ‘kind of pretty.’  We definitely have a wildlife habitat here, another justification for the unkempt tangle that encroaches as the season unfolds.  But now, all is fresh, new, and filled with promise.

In my search of every more seeds on the internet I came across an interesting site with images of vintage seed packets for sale:http://www.seedart.com/flowers.html

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