Written in a month by month journal style, Shenandoah Watercolors features rural life in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  I  enrolled the book in the kindle lending program where you can read it for free at this Amazon link. *This perk is for Amazon Prime members.  


Shenandoah Watercolors is a 2012 finalist in the nonfiction category of the EPIC Ebook Awards, ‘Kind of a big deal’ in the publishing world.  Winners to be announced in March.  My American romance Red Bird’s Song is a finalist in the historical romance category.  Fingers crossed for a win!


Back to Shenandoah Watercolors:


“This is perhaps the most beautifully written memoir I’ve ever read. Its lovely and languid descriptions of the picturesque valley, the farm and gardens are equaled only by the charming and funny descriptions of the antics (and conversations!) of the farm animals. What a joy this is to read.”
~Amazon Reviewer C. G.  King

January Excerpt from Shenandoah Watercolors:

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.” ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins

Pale streaks of mauve feather the western sky above the frozen pond and the golden glow of the sun illuminates the ice as it sinks below the ridges.
The hardcore group of hockey players who’ve been here for hours still whack the puck around the smooth space cleared of snow and a lone couple circle together in one corner, reluctant to leave.

The frigid twilight breeze rustles the dry leaves that cling to the bare branches of the maple and I caught my breath as I trotted Mia past the wintry scene of skaters, timeless in its way. It seems as though the ice will last on and on, but we rarely have more than a week when the pond is frozen hard enough for skating. Weather in the Shenandoah Valley swings back and forth between north and south as though it can’t quite decide which we are.
Considering that my brother John said it was twenty degrees below zero in Vermont, I’d say we qualify as the South, just on the Northern fringes. Our sentiments are decidedly Southern.

Unlike the dedicated skaters, I scurried back inside. If it weren’t for the need to exercise my plump little dog and idle self I’d just lie on the couch like a slug. I’m well into my winter hibernation mode. Every fall I swear this lethargy won’t overcome me, but inevitably it does. Ernest Miggleton remains immune. He’s one pesky kitten since we took the tree down and climbs into the cabinets, raids the trash, steals Elise’s new fuzzy socks, her fluffy dog toy, and annoys the heck out of the big kitties. But all this sport pales in comparison to the daily assaults he launched on that enticing pine, resplendent with baubles hung just for his amusement.

Elise pointed out how seriously bored Ernest was yesterday as he perched eagerly beside her printer waiting for it to whir and buzz magically to life. She’d just finished printing a paper for ninth grade English lit and he was enthralled. Every time she gathered him up he wriggled to get back into position, not wanting to miss anything. So she printed another page, but that only feeds his fetish.

We’re endeavoring to find the little fellow a hobby. He has expressed interest in bird watching, the nurture of mice, and collecting kewl stuff.~

*Our latest kitten rescue is our Siamese mix, Pavel, picture by daughter Elise. *Snow covered Nandina berries photograph by my mom Pat Churchman. *Sunset over the frozen lake I bought from istock because I don’t have a good one on hand and out pond isn’t currently frozen. *Actually, as of this morning it is.

*My brother John Churchman is an amazing photographer gaining much long overdo recognition.  For his scenic, artistic images visit: Brickhouse Studios

Woot!  I’m delighted to announce my double EPPIE finals with my Native American historical romance novel Red Bird’s Song and my nonfiction book about country life Shenandoah Watercolors. 


I almost didn't enter the contest this time round because I'd done so every year since I was first published and had almost given up on ever being among the finalists, but on the last day before the contest deadline I decided to go for it and am very glad I did!

For the complete list of finalists visit: http://www.epicorg.com/index.php

A little about my finaling entries~

Description of Shenandoah Watercolors:


Author/farm wife Beth Trissel shares the joys and challenges of rural life on her family’s small farm located in the scenic Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Journey with her through the seasons on the farm, owned by her family since the 1930's, and savor the richness of her cherished gardens and beloved valley. 


This journal is a poignant, often humorous, sometimes sad glimpse into a vanishing way of life for anyone who loves or yearns for the country and even those who don't.~


With the help of my talented mother who took the photograph and did the cover, plus helped edit these many pages, I self-published Shenandoah Watercolors, available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nookbook. 

Blurb from RED BIRD'S SONG: 

Taken captive by a Shawnee war party wasn't how Charity Edmonson hoped to escape an unwanted marriage. Nor did Shawnee warrior Wicomechee expect to find the treasure promised by his grandfather's vision in the unpredictable red-headed girl.

George III's English Red-Coats, unprincipled colonial militia, prejudice and jealousy are not the only enemies Charity and Wicomechee will face before they can hope for a peaceful life. The greatest obstacle to happiness is in their own hearts.

As they struggle through bleak mountains and cold weather, facing wild nature and wilder men, Wicomechee and Charity must learn to trust each other.~

And to that I would add, or be destroyed.  Red Bird's Song is an adventurous romance set in the colonial frontier with a The Last of the Mohican's flavor.

Red Bird's Song is available in print and or digital download from many online booksellers including my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble...

I recently read a new release, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, as refreshingly unique as its title. This memoir first came to my attention when the publicist contacted me about the possibility of reading and reviewing this book after being impressed by my blog (not sure which one. I have several). As it turns out, I was a particularly good candidate and gladly agreed. I married into the Mennonite community a number of years ago and have a vested interest in the warm-hearted people author Rhoda Janzen humorously and touchingly describes. Although raised Presbyterian, I’m a member of the NEW Order Mennonite Church, for better or worse. They’ve been good to me.

*The OLD Order Mennonites are the ones who drive horse and buggies and wear the Laura Ingalls Wilder style clothes, many of whom are our neighbors here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. But I digress.

Reading in fascination, almost morbidly intrigued at times, I followed Rhonda Janzen through her train-wreck life and marriage to a man who left her for a guy named Bob he met on Gay.com. How much worse can it get, I wondered, ever assured by her witty insights and courage that somehow, someway, she’d make it through. Poetic, beautiful, sometimes bizarre, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress is a journey of self-discovery by a deeply wounded woman with an irrepressible spirit. The very people she’d left behind play a vital role in her healing as she returns to her roots. I cheered her on, alternating laughing my head off and shaking it in utter bemusement, even cringing at some points. I felt for her as I might my own sister and wanted to tell her ‘Stop making excuses for that total loser husband and recognize your own self worth!’ which she eventually does.

As Mennonites are a people who love to cook, noted for their fabulous pot luck dinners, an added feature is the food Rhonda often refers to. Many of the dishes/recipes she mentions are of ethnic Mennonite origin. Some are known to me and some not at all. Here, I pause to mention how impressed I've been by the culinary skills of Mennonite women whose cooking I've been privileged to sample. The recipes Rhonda mentions are of German/Russian origin but in Virginia the Pennsylvania Dutch have also influenced Mennonite cuisine, probably for the better considering how awful some of the dishes she describes sound. I own several Mennonite cookbooks, one put together by the women of our church, a committee headed up by my mother in law, an excellent cook.

Back to Rhonda Janzen and her book, I thoroughly enjoyed Mennonite in a Little Black Dress and look forward to more from this highly talented author.

* Rhoda Janzen holds a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was the University of California Poet Laureate in 1994 and 1997. She is the author of Babel’s Stair, a collection of poems, and her poems have also appeared in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, and The Southern Review. She teaches English and creative writing at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

"...Simply put, this the most delightful memoir I've read in ages.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love