Elder William and Mary Brewster

I discipline churchgoers with godly lessons and sharp words if they do not change their ways. My goal is to open their hearts so that they seek forgiveness.  (William Brewster) William and Mary Brewster are my great x 12 grandparents. While doing research for the two historical novels I wrote with them as the main characters, I spent as much time in the 16th and 17th centuries as I did in the 21st one. The […]

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Trish Lewis, Founder of Van Velzer Press

Van Velzer Press

I was fortunate to learn about Van Velzer Press before I was ready to publish my most recent book. In my experience writing is about equal parts actually cranking out words and thinking about what to write while staring into space, waiting for the light to turn green, or trying to go to sleep. Most writers hope to share their work with readers, which requires a team of editors and advance readers who give honest, but […]

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Mary Brewster’s Love Life

I knew little about this remarkable woman until I started researching the Brewsters and their role in the Mayflower story for Mayflower Chronicles: The Tale of Two Cultures. She has been largely ignored by those who have researched in great detail the life of her more famous husband, Elder William Brewster. Toward the end of the second decade of the 17th century, he and other exiled English Separatists living in the more tolerant Netherlands, made the daring […]

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Those Sturdy Surviving Pilgrim Women

“Those intrepid English women whose courage, fortitude, and devotion brought a new nation into being.” So reads the inscription on the Pilgrim Maiden Statue in Brewster Garden in Plymouth, MA. Those Sturdy Surviving Pilgrim Women are immortalized in the work of Henry Hudson Kitson’s sculpture, dedicated to their endurance, courage, and devotion in 1924. ”The Mayflower set sail for the New World from England in September 1620 with nineteen women among the 102 passengers. The […]

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Friendships

Friendships are as crucial for a well-balanced, healthy, happy life as food is for sustaining life. Alan Loy McGinnis’ The Friendship Factor highlights the crucial role friends play in our overall health. He suggests that if everyone had at least one close friend, we would see a considerable drop in assorted mental health challenges. Friendships are essential to feeling satisfied with life. Friends provide company, consolation, encouragement, and even healthy challenges at times. The first friend I […]

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