A humorous slant at growing older by Mary Vine

My goal this fall is not to fall. I did fall recently−over my dog. Why is it when you fall when you are older, your brain tells you you’re falling but it doesn't do anything about it? When I was younger, I’d at least stick a hand out to help brace myself against a fall.

Thankfully, my dog didn’t get hurt and I didn’t break anything. I suffered a black eye. Yet, I didn’t have to wear makeup as the “eye” was all anyone looked at. My husband thought he’d be blamed for it, poor guy. And a friend asked if my dog was a boxer.

At my last wellness doctor appointment (before my fall), my doctor said my weight was okay, but I need to start exercising. I must have joked about it, or said no or something, because she raised her voice at me. First time ever.

I exercised when I was younger, using various machines I could fit into my home. I wasn’t always good about getting it done, but at least I didn’t forget I’d planned to exercise on a specific day without needing a reminder. Now, I must write it down, but often at bedtime, I recall that I’d forgot to exercise. Yes, I wrote it in my calendar, but I forgot to look at my calendar. I suppose I could move my fitness machine where I could see it, but then I might fall over it.

Now that I’m older I realized I’d had it wrong about exercising. I exercised to improve my waistline, which back then was just fine. Young people are so critical of their bodies, but that is another blogpost. Anyway, now I need to exercise for a stronger body, especially stronger legs.

Yet, this morning I read a Facebook post that seemed serious at the beginning but turned out to be humorous. It stated that if you exercise you will live longer. At age 85 you will have five more months to live in a nursing home. And then, he said his father walked five miles a day and now at age 92 he can’t find him.

As I write I am stationary, which doesn’t help accrue daily steps. But then on second thought,  if I wasn’t a writer, I’d probably be stationary as well. I have deserted an office and a writing desk to sit in my very comfortable recliner as I write on my laptop. Why not be comfortable as I write?

No one is going to get me to write anywhere else, I tell you. I even have a recliner in my summer cabin. So, this fall’s strengthening program is going to be a goal I will have to work hard at. At least I can read while I sit on my incumbent exercise bike.

Hats off to all you writers who do get exercise, I admire you. I plan to be one of you soon. Uh…next week.

Secrets of Trillium Falls

A courageous but naïve woman and a benevolent but cynical man
reconcile to evict ghosts and restore a mansion.

Taylor Glenn makes a deal on a haunted mansion in the town where she accepts her first teaching job. Her naïve optimism assures her that her depressed grandfather will come to life and help her rebuild it with the passion he once possessed for restoring old homes. Three deaths are connected to the tower room and no local workman will set foot inside except for the former owner, successful real estate developer, Dillon Nash. She wonders if this captivating man is the salvation she needs or an even greater threat to her survival when mysterious events happen in the house.

Link to Secrets of Trillium Falls:

https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Trillium-Falls-Mary-Vine-ebook

Mary describes herself as a late bloomer. She started writing at age 36. With practice and encouragement, she started writing romantic fiction and became a member and officer of a writer’s group.

Her story writing really took off when she discovered the pines, firs and rocky knolls of Northeast Oregon. Mary’s husband enjoyed panning for gold in the creeks, but she fell in love with the mining ghost towns and the history surrounding those areas. Three of her magazine articles based on ghost towns in Northeast Oregon, and the history of the Chinese miners who followed the white man to the mines, were published nationally. Mary has written books with gold mining or boom town settings, including a time travel series back to 1870 in Cracker Creek, which is now called Bourne, Oregon.

Mary is also a leader and speaker for the Idaho Creative Authors Network. She graduated from college and taught speech and language classes to K-12 students.

 www.authormaryvine.com

Easing through Summer by Paty Jager

In our neck of the woods, the last week of July was brutal! It was over 100 F for several days. We aren't used to that. Usually we have a week where we are in the 90s, hovering near 100, but never over. The good news about the hot weather, it kept myself and my cover designer inside. ;)

My latest Shandra Higheagle Mystery, Capricious Demise, book 15 in the series is published. I had the idea for the book about two Shandra books ago. Not the murders but the subplot. Once I figured out how to work that in along with a murder or two...the story was off and running.

It's funny how this story came to me as a scene in on of the secondary character's point of view. That scene helped me make the decision I did at the end of the book. I'm not telling you what that is, because it will spoil the book for you if you decide to read it. ;)

Capricious Demise

Book 15

Shandra Higheagle Mystery Series

Vengeance…Envy…Murder

Shandra Higheagle’s deceased Grandmother enters Shandra’s dream, showing her two lost children. Her grandmother never comes to her dreams unless there is a murder to solve. But whose? The children? Or someone related to them?

Ryan is called out to a suicide, that isn’t. While contacting next of kin, he finds the victim’s husband also murdered and their two children missing.

Using her dreams, Shandra helps locate the missing twins whom they take into their home as foster children. The hunt for the reason the parents were murdered becomes urgent when the children reveal they may have seen the killer.

universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/b6ZJOA

I'll have a novella from my Tumbling Creek Ranch contemporary western romance series releasing this month. It's titled Collateral Love and is the 4th novella in that series. The cover isn't finalized yet. Along this same line, I have also put the first three novellas from his series in a print book titled Love at Tumbling Creek Ranch. It will be available this month as well. 

8 Seconds to Love

The bull rider brought into Jared McIntyre’s ER is the girl he couldn’t get out of his head the last fifteen years. During his tour in Iraq, he lost another thrill-seeking woman, and he isn’t about to let this one destroy her life.

Love Me Anyway

Melanie Trask ran away from an abusive husband and found a job at a dude ranch with a wonderful caring cowboy, Brett Wallis. When they can no longer deny their feelings, Brett offers to help her divorce her husband. But she has one more secret she hasn’t revealed…

The Wrong Cowboy to Love

Ruby Cutter allows her cousin, the bride, to give her a makeover for the upcoming wedding because she wants to catch the attention of her high school crush. But while she’s infatuated with one man, she may be falling for another…

universal ebook buy link https://books2read.com/u/mv5w8X

My cover designer and I are also working on new covers for the Isabella Mumphrey  Action Adventure/Romantic Suspense trilogy. When those are finished I'll have a huge cover reveal sale and promotion. 

What I'm currently writing is the 6th book in the Gabriel Hawke Novels. In this book, Hawke is investigating a vehicle fire that happened in real life. The state trooper I rode with to get a feel for  Hawke's job showed me where a vehicle had caught on fire after "rolling' over a campfire. I told him I didn't see how the vehicle rolled on such a flat area. He said that was the conclusion all the investigators thought, but the D.A. called it an accident and that was as far as it went. In my book, it is a homicide and Hawke is digging up all the evidence to prove who did it.  

Because Hawke is Native American, I try to use titles that sound like Native American stories and always with a living creature in the title. Right now I'm stuck on the title. I know it will have turkey. My working title is: Turkey Struts Too Much-  Then this morning I thought about Gobbling or Strutting Turkey Fries. Still working on it. Any thoughts? 

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 46 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. This is what Books a Plenty Book Reviews has to say about the Gabriel Hawke series: "The blend of nature tracking, clues, and the animals makes for a fascinating mystery that is hard to put down." 

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest   / Bookbub

My Dream Almost Came True by Paty Jager

Acceptance, that seems to have always been my struggle. Growing up in a small rural community where most of my classmates were from families that homesteaded the area, I felt like the "California Girl" all of my childhood even though I was 2 when we moved to Oregon.  I didn't fit in. I read all the time, I was shy, and I was always around boys when I wasn't at school. My two brothers and my mom's best friend's boys. Our families did lots of things together so it was me and six boys.

I went to college for one year. It was my father's choice of my career not mine. But I wanted out of the county. I felt it would help me find me and find acceptance. The college I went to was mostly male. I ended up hanging around with guys in the diesel program more than with any girls. I made one close female relationship, but that wasn't until halfway through the year. But the last trimester when I was only taking classes I wanted to take, I had a creative writing class. I loved that class but felt picked upon. When the papers were handed back out mine always had more red marks all over it. I finally got up the courage to ask the instructor why. Was I that bad at writing? He told me "No, the opposite. He saw potential in me and therefore took more time in correcting my work. That made my little heart pittypat. And I worked harder at getting less red marks.

Time passed. I married, had three kids and they were soon to all be in school full time. I told my hubby I wanted to take some college writing classes and an art class. He loves me and indulges my creative side. :) I took the classes, loved them, and started writing children's stories. My daughter's kindergarten teacher loved my short stories I wrote about trips the kindergartners made(this was before kindergarten was put into public schools in Oregon) I also wrote and illustrated a story about Zero the Hero. That inspired me to attend a Children's Writing conference by Highlights for Children in New York. I saved up the money, my mom took the kids, and I flew to New York. Only to be told by Dayton O. Hyde and several other instructors that I wrote too adult.

Undaunted I returned home, and started writing what I loved to read- Mystery. I volunteered in the school's new computer room at my children's school to learn how to use a computer because I hated making revisions on the typewriter. Soon the head instructor allowed me to come in early and type up my work on a floppy disk I bought. When I received a small bit of inheritance money, I bought my first computer. I was in heaven. Revision were so easy now and I was cranking out the pages. 

But I was wise enough to know I didn't know enough about mystery writing to do it justice. Unfortunately, at that time, none of the mystery groups allowed anyone in who wasn't already published. How was I to find help? There wasn't as much online presence as there is these days. I gave up on mystery writing and turned to writing historical western romance. I'd read LaVyrle Spenceer and loved her stories. They felt like something I could write. Then I was introduced to Romance Writers of America and I had my place to learn craft and hone my skills.

I attended the RITA awards during their 25th anniversary. This is like the Oscars for romance writers. That year they gave everyone a chocolate RITA that was wrapped in silver paper. I kept that for years, wanting to be a finalist or recipient of that award. It hasn't happened.

However, this year I was a finalist for the Daphne du Maurier award. This one is given out by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA and is one of the top 3 mystery awards. While my dream hasn't come true, I came pretty darn close this year. I'm hoping to eventually win one of the top mystery awards and maybe, just maybe a RITA.

Paty Jager is the award-winning author of the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series. 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. This is what Mysteries Etc has to say about her Shandra Higheagle mystery series: “Mystery, romance, small town, and Native American heritage combine to make a compelling read.”

blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest   / Bookbub


Photo source: Canstock