Strong Women in my Life (real and fictional) by Paty Jager

 

Me and Jan

As a writer, I enjoy writing strong women. I feel it has taken us much too long to be seen as an equal to men, when in fact, if you scan history, it has been the woman who helped "man" get as far as he has. 

If not for the mothers and wives, men would not be able to procreate or have someone to tend to the people they make, or make their clothes, or feed them foods that are more than a seared piece of meat. 

And while I am happy to see so many more women in political places and businesses, I also feel the women who are down in the trenches, raising children and keeping the rural areas and communities thriving are just as important. 

I tip my hat to both of my daughters. One has homeschooled all her children while also building houses and raising cattle, hogs, chickens, and hay and doing most of this while her Coast Guard husband was away. The other daughter homeschooled one of her children for many years while they were remodeling houses and her husband was going up the ranks of law enforcement. They are both strong, able-bodied women who can take care of themselves and their families. 

My mom

My mom, who passed over thirty years ago was mentally strong. She had to be to survive in the rural area where my father hauled her, their two kids(at the time), and her in-laws in 1960. She left sunny California for the long cold winters in NE Oregon. As a kid you don't know any different, but when I was older my mom said on one of my birthday's they couldn't afford to buy me anything, so she took one of her nightgowns and cut it down to make me a nightgown. She said she cried giving it to me because she felt so bad. But it was all they could afford. She said I just hugged it and thought it was wonderful. I don't remember the event, so it didn't traumatize me. ;) She was a registered nurse and worked nights at the local hospital while my dad worked the land and looked for work for himself. Mom never bought herself anything. My dad bought her new underwear and clothes. She only spent money on the household, my brothers and me, and nurse uniforms.

There are so many strong women I know. I can't name them all. Some are women I've met through my kids going to school with their children. Others are women I've met through 4-H and writing. I feel like we have all come a long way and can still rise up and make this country and this world a better place if the men would get out of the way. 

Some of the strong women characters I enjoy writing are: 

Doctor Isabella Mumphrey in the Isabella Mumphrey Adventure series. She is a highly intelligent anthropologist who gets caught up in artifact thefts and drugs in the first book Secrets of a Mayan Moon. Her upbringing wasn't normal in any sense. She was a genius child who was sent to boarding schools her whole life with little contact with her parents. She turned out to be socially awkward but is trying to fit in and learn all she can to be "normal" as an adult. When she is faced with ordeals in the jungle, she uses her wit to stay alive.

Another strong woman character is Shandra Higheagle of the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series. She is a Native American potter who begins to discover her roots when her grandmother dies. This deceased grandmother comes to her in dreams, helping Shandra and a detective solve murders. Shandra is strong in spirit and overcoming a harsh childhood at the hands of a stepfather who wasn't Native American.  

And the latest character I'm writing is Dela Alvaro. She is the main character in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series. She is a disabled veteran who has returned to the reservation where she grew up and is the head of security for the Native run casino. She is strong from being in the Army for seventeen years, having grown up on the reservation as a white girl in a Native environment, and not having a father or family to turn to other than her mom. She is becoming one of my favorite strong woman characters. 

I have many romance books with strong heroines. I can't write anything but a strong woman character. Growing up with brothers, I always felt that I could do as well or better than them and had to prove it. It's the same with my writing. I feel that strong female characters make better books. You can find all of my books at my website: https://www.patyjager.net

Who is the strongest woman in your life? Do you like strong women characters in books? What is the most recent book you read with a strong woman character?

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 53 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

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