Sunshine and Music Speak to Me by Paty Jager

Sunshine has always been my pick me up. I love the brightness. The light that grows plants, makes you warm, and gives you a feeling of life. 

Flowers grown this summer

Where I grew up the winters are long. Not as long as in Alaska but the cold and snow can come as early as November and not fully leave until May. Growing up I couldn't wait for May and finding the first buttercup. When that happened it was a pretty good chance the sunlight and warmth was there to stay through the summer.  

Buttercup

I wake with the sun. If it's not until 7 am in the winter, that's when I get up. If it rises at 5 am in the summer, that's when I'm up. I love the brightness, the cheerfulness of the golden rays that warm the earth. 

If it is a cloudy or overcast day, I turn on all the lights in the house. I like bright even if it's artificial. My husband would have all the lights off in the house when he watched television. I turn the lights on. I don't like sitting in the dark. It's dreary. Life is too short to be dreary. 

The other thing I do to cheer myself up is turn on music. I love cleaning the house while dancing to 80s pop and any other upbeat music. It's even better when I know the song and can sing along. Up-tempo music is the best way to put me in a good mood. Especially if the sun isn't shining. 

Music can set the tone for my day. Some days I listen to Cher. Some days Abba. Other days it's the Pentatonix. I also listen to Kenny G and various other artists who are popular now. I like any music that has a beat or that is soothing. I don't care for Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, or Hip-hop. Those just make my jaw clench and my head hurt. 

The other music I love is birds chirping or singing as well as the low of cattle and the nicker of a horse. Even the howling of coyotes after dark can make me smile. I don't want to be near them but their calls and songs are part of what makes them who they are. 

Nature sounds are better than music. The gurgling of a stream, the roar of a waterfall, the patter of rain, and the mesmerizing lull of the ocean waves rolling toward the land--all are soothing to me. 

White River Falls

Have you stood in a forest and listened? The leaves rattle. The tree limbs and trunks creak and scrape. The bushes scratch together and rustle. The thump and rustle of animals walking through grass and brush. The animal calls, the rocks sliding. The music of nature is pleasant and mysterious. 

So hearing how I love sunshine and music, it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that I love the outdoors. As soon as the weather grows warmer and the ground dries up enough I don't slip on mud or slide on ice, I am out walking every day. Enjoying the sunshine and nature's music. 

You can purchase my audiobook Stolen Butterfly, book 7 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels for $2.99 for a limited time. 

You can find links to my website, Kobo, and Chirp here: https://indieaudiobookdeals.com/

Missing or Murdered

When the local authorities tell State Trooper Gabriel Hawke’s mother to wait 72 hours before reporting a missing Umatilla woman, she calls her son and rallies members of the community to search.

Hawke arrives at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and learns the single mother of a boy his mom watches would never leave her son. Angered over how the local officials respond to his investigation, Hawke teams up with a security guard at the Indian casino and an FBI agent. Following the leads, they discover the woman was targeted by a human trafficking ring at the Spotted Pony Casino.

   

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 60 novels, 11 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. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Author’s Guild, Alliance of Independent Authors, and NIWA.

Website: https://www.patyjager.net

Blog: https://writingintothesunset.net/
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Building Relationships Through Words by Paty Jager

I can’t think of a better way to spend my birthday month than by sharing with you a book that I hope you will purchase, not for me, but for the cause it is supporting.

In case, you haven’t guessed this by now about me, I tend to have a small agenda in all of the books I write. I like to show injustices and hope the reader thinks a bit about it after they have finished the book.

For years, I’ve been hearing about how many Indigenous women, children, and even men go missing from reservations or are found murdered. It is a large number when you consider they make up only 2% of the population and yet have the highest percentage of missing and murdered people.

When I decided I wanted to write a book about this subject, I turned to my character Gabriel Hawke. He is an Oregon State Trooper who grew up on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla reservation. From book one in the series, I’d set up the premise of book 7, Stolen Butterfly. In the first book, Hawke visits his mother at the reservation. She is watching and caring for children of single parents while they work. That is where Hawke meets the woman who goes missing in Stolen Butterfly.

Before I started the book, I knew I would need help from people behind the MMIP/MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous People/ Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) cause. I reached out to an author who lives in Pendleton (a town near the reservation) and she put me in touch with a woman who worked with social services, who sent me to another woman, who gave my information to people on the reservation who had lost family members or were active in the MMIW cause.  

Fortunately for me, there was a woman, Kola Shippentower-Thompson who was open to speaking with me and helping me make my book as authentic as I could. She has lost four family members from the reservation and is the co-founder of Enough Iz Enough, a non-profit organization that teaches women and children how to protect themselves and how to avoid being a victim. She answered my questions, gave me insights into how the family feels, and read the book for accuracy and fluency. She also wrote this review: “The story was captivating, I couldn’t put it down. So many memories were brought to surface, so many emotions, like this has been lived before, because it has, this is a glimpse into our reality in the Reservation. Thank you for seeing us & helping tell part of the story.”   

Agency House on the Umatilla Reservation

I was also pleased to learn she had worked security at the Indian casino and her husband is employed with the Tribal Police in the Fish and Wildlife Division. She was able to give me information about how the Tribal Police work as well as the security at the casino. One of the secondary characters in Stolen Butterfly works the casino security and is the main character in my new Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series that will release in July. (Hint: I will be talking about that next month. 😉)

So far, the reviews that have come in for the book have filled my chest with pride. I am opening eyes to the problem. This problem isn’t just on reservations. The Indigenous people who move to the cities get swallowed up. And with no family nearby they become victims with no one looking for them. I would love a world where no one has to live in fear.

I'm hoping that by showing another culture that is the same as ours but dealing with more than just the day to day of living we can learn to see them and ourselves differently.

The proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the non-profit Enough Iz Enough. This is a community outreach organization that advocates for MMIW on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation.  

Stolen Butterfly

Gabriel Hawke Novel #7

Missing or Murdered

When the local authorities tell State Trooper Gabriel Hawke’s mother to wait 72 hours before reporting a missing Umatilla woman, she calls her son and rallies members of the community to search.

Hawke arrives at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and learns the single mother of a boy his mom watches would never leave her son. Angered over how the local officials respond to his investigating, Hawke teams up with a security guard at the Indian casino and an FBI agent. Following the leads, they discover the woman was targeted by a human trafficking ring at the Spotted Pony Casino.

Hawke, Dela Alvaro, and FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce join forces to bring the woman home and close down the trafficking operation before someone else goes missing.

Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/baZEPq

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 51 novels, 8 novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters.

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Photo source: Paty Jager and DepositPhotos