Where the Past Meets the Present--My Somewhere in Time Series

I love time travel, thus my SOMEWHERE IN TIME SERIES. I'm also fascinated by time travel conundrums, and a big fan of Doctor Who, thanks to daughter Elise. I've shared the titles in my series at a meaningful glance. Yes, I'm at work on a new story.

Concept behind my Somewhere in Time Series: the story opens in an old home, (I love old homes!) so far Virginia, and then transports the main character, or characters, back in time, either in the same house or another place entirely, such as the Scottish Highlands.

Oh, and did I mention ghosts? They play a role in some of the stories.

Somewhere My Love 

Fated lovers have a rare chance to reclaim the love cruelly denied them in the past, but can they grasp this brief window in time before it’s too late?

Blurb: Two hundred years ago Captain Cole Wentworth, the master of an elegant Virginian home, was murdered in his chamber where his portrait still hangs. Presently the estate is a family owned museum run by Will Wentworth, a man so uncannily identical to his ancestor that spirit-sensitive tour guide Julia Morrow has trouble recognizing Cole and Will as separate. As Julia begins to remember the events of Cole’s death, she must convince Will that history is repeating, and this time he has the starring role in the tragedy. The blade is about to fall.

“As I read Somewhere My Love, I recalled the feelings I experienced the first time I read Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca long ago. 

Using the same deliciously eerie elements similar to that gothic romance, Beth Trissel has captured the haunting dangers, thrilling suspense and innocent passions that evoke the same tingly anticipation and heartfelt romance I so enjoyed then, and still do now.” ~joysann for Publisher’s Weekly

“Beth Trissel has written a captivating ghost story entwining a contemporary love story with the mystery of a murder from the nineteenth century. The wonderful characters and evocative historical details caught my attention from the first page.” ~Author Helen Scott Taylor for paranormal romance Somewhere my Love

Somewhere My Lass 

In Somewhere My Lass, I journeyed back to 1602 Scotland and more deeply explored my Scottish roots.  

An ancient relic, a medieval crypt, a mad Highlander at their throats and time fast running out. Mystery, suspense, romance, Somewhere My Lass.

Blurb: Will Mora and Neil be too late to save a love that began centuries before?

‘‘The MacDonald comes’ warns Mora Campbell when Neil MacKenzie finds the young Scotswoman lying unconscious at the top of his stairs after he discovers his murdered housekeeper slumped at the bottom. 

Mora’s claim that she’s his fiancé from 1602 and was chased to the future by clan chieftain, Red MacDonald, through ‘the door to nowhere’ seems utter nonsense. Neil thinks she’s addled from the blow to her head until his life spirals into chaos and the avenging Highlander shows up wanting blood. Mora knows the Neil of the future is truly her beloved Niall who disappeared from the past, but he must also remember. And fast.

Although Niall’s kinsmen believe he’s dead, and Mora is now destined to marry his brother, she’s convinced that if she and Neil return to the past, all will be right. The balance of the present and future are in peril if she marries another, and the Neil of the present will cease to exist. The only problem is how to get back to 1602. An ancient relic, the ultimate geek friend, and a little Celtic magic help pave the way back to the enormous challenge that awaits them. If they’re in time.

Reviewed by: Silvermage of Night Owl Reviews ~’Somewhere My Lass was a wonderful time-travel romance. I enjoyed that the time-travel went from the past to 2009 and not the other way.”

“Somewhere My Lass presents a convoluted time-twisting conundrum which becomes more intriguing as it goes along. I found the romance of it touching, the enigma baffling, and the resolution unexpected. A light, interesting blend of contemporary and historical fiction.” ~joysann, Publisher’s Weekly

Somewhere in the Highlands 
Sequel to Somewhere My Lass

Blurb: The MacDonalds are coming! When Elizabeth MacDonald (a.k.a Beezus Mac) thrusts a sealed gold box at Angus Fergus amid panicked requests for him to hide the stolen artifact, she has no idea the ancient cloth it contains bestows unearthly powers. Red MacDonald knows and he’s hell-bent on traveling 400 years into the future to claim the charmed relic, even kill for it.

Protecting Beezus from his old nemesis is only one of Fergus’s problems. Before they can stop him, Morley MacDonald, descendant of Red MacDonald, snatches the prize and leaps through the time portal to head the MacDonald clan and kill Fergus’s MacKenzie ancestor. If he succeeds, Fergus will cease to exist.

Danger grows in the feud between the MacDonalds and the MacKenzies as the pair, along with an ingenious friend and high tech inventions, returns to 1604 Scotland to face these brawny Highlanders and reunite with kin. Will Fergus overcome his mistrust of Beezus and fan the growing spark between them before they battle Morley? If he waits, it may be too late.~

So many readers were taken by the strong, quirky character, Fergus, in Somewhere My Lass (as was I) that I decided to write Fergus’s story. Yes, I have plans to write yet another story in this continuing saga–part of my Somewhere in Time series. Plotting is underway for that book. In the tone of Somewhere My Lass, Somewhere in the Highlands is an unusual twist on the time travel theme, with high tech gadgets, sci-fi lingo, and action packed. And a fun dash of romance, of course.

“I absolutely loved Fergus’s story! Fergus is the perfect geek hero, smart, funny, thinks on his feet, and cute! I love Beth’s stories, she has a wonderful way of writing so that you are right there in story with the characters. I thoroughly enjoy the tone of her stories and her settings, Beth’s stories are wonderful and definitely worth the read.” Amazon Review

SOMEWHERE THE BELLS RING: (Christmas)

Wonderful old homes are a major part of my Somewhere in Time series. The image below is of the old Virginia family home place that lies at the heart of many of my stories and is the setting for my ghostly Christmas romance novella, Somewhere the Bells Ring.


Nostalgia about the late 1960’s and an earlier era, WWI, coupled with a vivid dream inspired this vintage American Christmas ghost story. 

‘Although Somewhere the Bells Ring has a holiday theme, it’s an anytime read for Romance Lovers.’

Blurb: Caught with pot in her dorm room, Bailey Randolph is exiled to a relative’s ancestral home in Virginia to straighten herself out. Banishment to Maple Hill is dismal, until a ghost appears requesting her help. Bailey is frightened but intrigued. Then her girlhood crush, Eric Burke, arrives and suddenly Maple Hill isn’t so bad.

To Eric, wounded in Vietnam, his military career shattered, this homecoming feels no less like exile. But when he finds Bailey at Maple Hill, her fairy-like beauty gives him reason to hope–until she tells him about the ghost haunting the house. Then he wonders if her one experiment with pot has made her crazy.

As Bailey and Eric draw closer, he agrees to help her find a long-forgotten Christmas gift the ghost wants. But will the magic of Christmas be enough to make Eric believe–in Bailey and the ghost–before the Christmas bells ring?

For Somewhere the Bells Ring:

“Ms. Trissel captivates her reader from the moment you start reading the first page. She has written a compelling love story that spans some fifty plus years and keeps you entertained every step of the way with the story within a story…I fell in love with Ms. Trissel’s characters and look forward to the next delightful story ready with Kleenex box in hand. A must read for every romance fan.” ~Reviewed by Robin for Romancing the Book

****My talented daughter Elise Trissel did all the covers except for Somewhere the Bells Ring.

Fascinating Tale of the Girl in the Portrait and Me--Beth Trissel

When truth is stranger than fiction~

While watching Steven Spielberg’s Young Sherlock Holmes on Amazon instant video this evening, I shouted, ‘that’s me!’ during the fiery scene in the Victorian gentleman’s home. Between the flames filling the unfortunate fellow’s room, I spotted the identical old family print/painting I grew up hearing referred to as ‘Little Beth’ hanging on his wall. I’ve never seen this painting before anywhere, although I’ve been told the original hangs in a museum somewhere in Italy. If anyone knows the name of the portrait and the artist who painted it, please share that info with me. But back to my tale.

(Image above of the painting on the television screen and ours beside it)

Long before ‘Little Beth’ was so-called, or I was even born, my great Aunt Margaret Gilkeson Wray, a woman I never met, had an antique shop in the Blair’s Brick House on The Duke of Gloucester Street. This home later became part of the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg and we’re no longer certain which house it is, or was. If anyone has that information I’d also be most grateful. In the 30′s and 40′s (not during WWII) Aunt Margaret would sail to Europe and bring things back for her shop. It was there that she came across this print which found its way to her younger sister, my grandmother, where it hung for decades in the family home place in Augusta County, VA (circa 1816). That gracious home is the inspiration behind many of my stories set in old homes, and is the setting for Somewhere the Bells Ring. (House pictured above)

As I grew older I realized the girl in the painting/print couldn’t be me despite the uncanny resemblance between us, because she was dressed in an elaborate costume I’d never worn, not even at Halloween, and I wasn’t ever in possession of such stunning jewelry. But her face, even her chopped hair was identical to mine. Eventually ‘Little Beth’ was given to me by my grandmother, we fondly called ‘Mommom’ while she still had the mental faculties to distribute some of these special family pieces. She’s hung in our farmhouse over the mantle in the living room ever since.

'Little Beth’ is the inspiration for the heroine Meriwether in my historical romance novel, Enemy of the King, whose hair was cut from fever.  The thought came to me one day as I studied the painting that, even for a child, her hair is too short. Mine was kept that way because I wouldn’t stay still long enough to have it brushed. But historically speaking, a girl or woman’s hair wasn’t cut for any reason I could think of apart from it being matted during fever. Perhaps this beloved girl had been terribly ill and her parents were so grateful she survived they had her portrait done.  Obviously these were very wealthy, possibly even noble people, which contributed to my thinking that I was once a princess. Definitely gentry. It also led me to speculate on former lives…another reason for my Somewhere in Time series.

***This just in. A friend discovered the painting and, as I suspected, the girl did have fever. I also always thought she died young, and she did.  She also lived in the 16th century which I'd concluded.  Weird, huh....

From wikipedia:

Bia de' Medici (c. 1536 – March 1, 1542) was the illegitimate daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, born before his first marriage.

After her death of a fever at about the age of six, her father commissioned a painting of her by Agnolo Bronzino that is one of his most famous works.