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My Mary
“Rich and intriguing, My Mary is a compelling look into clinical depression, the trauma of being a Barnardo Home Child, and the heartbreaking story of enduring love.” -Renee Cronley, author of Burnout
Teetzel delivers a powerful historical narrative, brimming with idyllic scenes and beautiful imagery of life on a Canadian family farm. This epic tale and enduring love story spans some seventy years and shines light on one woman’s life journey as a Barnardo Home Child.
January, 1945, Rural Ontario. It’s another bleak winter for Mary Thistle. When she receives two successive pieces of bad news, she spirals into a deep melancholia, believing herself a burden to her family. After a failed suicide attempt, Charles, Mary’s husband, the one she loves and trusts the most, commits her to a psychiatric hospital. With a timeline of three months looming, Mary rallies, determined to prove herself cured and return home.
However, confronting the memories of her past is more difficult than she had expected. And when therapy is paired with electroconvulsive treatments, Mary is left with an outcome she did not bargain for.
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Under a Ruish Moon
‘The Selkie’, The World of James Browne Under the Ruish Moon is Dawn’s first folklore fiction story. Published by Propertius Press in the anthology Draw Down the Moon, it is set in a remote location on the Shetland Islands and tells the tale of a woman who longs to return to her watery home but cannot leave the love she has found on land.
Read more about Draw Down the Moon here, or purchase online through Amazon.ca.
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The Silent Barn
I climb the narrow staircase to the mow of my father’s barn, the wooden steps worn smooth by man. Thin, winter sunlight streams, like shards of glass through the cracks between the wallboards. My aged parents are away. My purpose here is to feed the cats, the only welcomed creatures of this barn. There are other unseen inhabitants: the mice, the racoons, and the rats that warrant the need for the cats and the .22 rifle hanging high on pegs at the bottom of the staircase—beyond the reach of children and the view of most.
Written in memory of Dawn’s father, James Beecroft.
You can read more here. -
Depths of Summer
July 29, 2021 Old Lovers published in Depths of Summer Anthology by Wingless Dreamer is an anthology of incredible poems to celebrate summer and the pleasant sense of nostalgia that accompanies the season.
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Being Her Sunshine
“Trust me, being her sunshine is not easy”
The kitchen is in total disarray. A whispered groan escapes my lips as I take it in: pots and pans strewn across the counter top, the table obscured by dainty floral china. My father has cleared a small area for his cereal bowl and coffee mug. “I see Mom was at it again last night,” I murmur.
Being Her Sunshine – By Dawn Beecroft Teetzel. Published by Off Topic Publishing.
Available to read in full here.
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Paradise Acres
April 1, 2021 In this deeply touching memoir, Dawn Beecroft Teetzel returns to her childhood in the countryside, retracing the roots of a life-altering friendship with a rough-around-the-edges, old bachelor, Earl Brush. Though life has been kind to her—she’s happily married with two beautiful daughters—a nagging sensation stirs memories of peaceful afternoons spent with Earl as a young girl. As Dawn fondly chronicles her childhood and Earl’s dream to build himself a cabin in the woods, she confronts the possibility of past lives and what never was but could have been.
Brimming with tenderness and imbued with the calming sounds and sights of the woods, Paradise Acres is an uplifting account of growing up, family bonds, friendship, and how one person can leave a tremendous, lasting impression on another, even long after death. It is a heartwarming coming-of-age story that tells the tale of an unlikely friendship between a young girl and a weathered, elderly farmer, proving age is just a number and that love does indeed span generations, perhaps even lifetimes.
Written purely for personal reasons, Paradise Acres is not available to the public.