Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

Author Tristan Perry with her two poodles Mocha (left) and Nutmeg.

Signings

• 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Easy Chair Bookstore, Blacksburg
• 2 to 5 p.m. Feb. 3 at Barnes & Noble, Christiansburg
• 1to 4 p.m. Feb. 10 at Barnes & Noble, Roanoke
• On the Net: furrytailsbooks.com

CHRISTIANSBURG -- What does a well-mannered Southern lady say when someone tells her she looks like a dog?

Tristan Perry -- a blue-eyed strawberry blonde who hails from Asheville, N.C. -- says merci mille fois. ...

Thanks a million!

When a woman in a waiting room remarked that Perry resembled her red toy poodle, Nutmeg, Perry took it as a compliment.

After all, the naturally curly haired Perry believes that "poodles are angels in fur clothes."

The 32-year-old Perry likes poodles so much that she made one the main character in her first book, "Furry Tails: The Adventures of Cinnamon Persimmon."

Her children's chapter book, the first in a planned series, was printed by PublishAmerica, a royalty-paying publisher known for accepting new writers. The book was released Dec. 11.

Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other national booksellers, Perry has no figures yet on how well her first book is doing. She's still reeling from the excitement of getting published.

"We're just at the very beginning stages of all this," she said Monday from her Christiansburg home. "One thing I've learned is this is a day-by-day process. I'm just trying to enjoy each day."

"The Adventures of Cinnamon Persimmon" is drawn from Perry's experience with poodles. Cinnamon, an apricot-colored toy breed, was the first introduced into her family. The poodle still lives in Asheville with Perry's younger sister, Audrain Stephens.

"Cinnamon is now 11 and going strong," Perry noted. "Poodles have been such a blessing in my life, I wanted to share that blessing with my readers."

Geared toward children ages 8 to 12, "The Adventures of Cinnamon Persimmon," is written on the young reader's level and traces the escapades of Cinnamon as a curious puppy. In the story, Cinnamon bites into a fish hook and ends up with a stitched lip, plays Frisbee with a hyperactive canine chap named Twiggy, lifts the spirits of a sick, elderly patient at the Happy Valley nursing home and even eats a Bible.

To quote a character in the book: "She digested the word of God."

Indeed, Perry's religious convictions are woven throughout the book. The pianist at Blacksburg's Wesleyan Community Church said she didn't shy away from writing as a Christian.

"I wanted to do something different that I feel like the market lacked. There's been a lot of controversy with children's books," she noted. "I wanted to encourage children. I think it's subtle but not pushy or condemning."

"My poodles teach me lessons about life that I think God wouldn't otherwise be able to teach me," she added. "People can be so judgmental of each other. With pets, it doesn't matter where you live, what you look like."

Perry and her husband, Will, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Blacksburg office, have two toy poodles: Nutmeg, 9, and Mocha, 3. They have no two-legged children.

"Each poodle has his or her own personality. I cannot emphasize that enough," Perry said, pointing out that Nutmeg is the sensitive, intuitive member of the family while Mocha is easy-going.

"I think her philosophy is 'Life is short, play hard,' " she said.

Part of Perry's purpose in writing "The Adventures of Cinnamon Persimmon" was to teach kids how to train and care for poodles in an entertaining way.

It worked for 9-year-old Alex Hunter, a fourth-grader at Dayspring Christian Academy.

"I liked it," Alex said. "I learned that poodles have really sensitive stomachs. Since my dog is part poodle, she has a sensitive stomach, too."

Alex said her terrier-poodle mix, Sandy, is like Perry's canine character in another way, too.

"She gets in trouble."

"I'm really excited to read the next book that's coming out," Alex added.

Perry already has completed the sequel, one that she says has more action than the first book. "The Adventures of Cinnamon Persimmon" took her nine months to write, but the second book took only four. She credited that to the fact that the initial effort required more time devoted to developing characters. Now that her characters are established, she said, the writing seems to flow.

"I think the sequel will be in the hands of readers soon," she said.

Trained as a nurse, Perry works part time at Heritage Hall in Blacksburg. In 2002, she received her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Tech and taught nursing for several years at Radford University and the Jefferson College of Health Sciences in Roanoke.

She joined the staff at Heritage Hall, she said, because "I wanted to go back into clinical practice and work with the elderly."

It was her elderly grandmother, in fact, that she credits as the inspiration for her book.

"My grandma died in 2001," she explained. "I really began to think long and hard about the legacy I wanted to leave behind. ... My spirit wasn't quite content. I felt there was something more I needed to do."

Writing scratched the itch.

"I know that when I look in the mirror I can live with what I've written," she said. "Some writers don't ever get published. It brings that contentment I was looking for a couple of years ago."