Life has been Good to Me by Paty Jager

This month is about being thankful. There is so much in my life that I am thankful for. My husband, my family, my friends, my health, my pets. 

My husband has always been supportive of my writing and hasn't balked when I say I'm going to the coast for a week to write, or I'm going to Montana to research, or I want to travel to Europe for a month. He just says if you can make it happen, go ahead. He knows that I am happiest when I'm writing. He acknowledged it early in our married life before I had even realized it. He has even been indulgent in my need to have horses in my life. 

I will help my family in any way I can, and they me. I have a good rapport with cousins, siblings, nieces, nephews, and in-laws. I've gained respect for and from my mother-in-law. I am proud of my children, now grown adults with families who I like to be around. My oldest daughter and a granddaughter recently joined me on my trip to Europe. They let me have the best bed and room at the places we stayed and watched out for me. My granddaughter pulled me onto the train when we nearly missed it and my daughter kept us safe as we walked around the countries. 

My friends... where to start- I have the couples and women I met through my children's years in grade school. Some I've lost touch with but I remember fondly. Others I've stayed in touch with. Then the members of the Salem chapter of Romance Writers of America. I've again lost touch with some and maintain relationships with others. And the writers I met at National RWA conferences. So many that I met, admired, and grew to know. Through writing, I have met so many in-person and online people who have enhanced my life in ways they may never know. Then there are my closest friends. The ones I go to for advice and commiseration when something upsets me. 

I'm lucky to only have to take vitamins and herbs to keep my health in check. I'm still able to ride a horse, go for walks, and keep up with my grandchildren. Many of my friends and family aren't so lucky. 

Having pets helps to keep me going. I love watching Nia run and play outside and in. She is our entertainment most of the time. She and Harlie bug me every morning until I'm ready to go out and feed my horse and the cats in the shop. they love their walks and so do I. The animals keep me getting outside no matter what the weather is like and that is good for me. 

I am most thankful for the ability to tell a story well enough that people want to purchase my books. When I first started writing, I never dreamed others would want to read what I wrote to entertain myself.

Right now I have a new book in my Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series out- 

Down and Dirty

Book 6

Spotted Pony Casino Mystery

The Spotted Pony Casino’s head of security, Dela Alvaro, receives a late-night call that takes her to a deserted walkway along the river. After confronting a woman babbling about love and bodies being buried, Dela stumbles over a corpse and discovers her knife covered in the victim’s blood.

Dela and Tribal Detective Heath Seaver find themselves working with FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce when the murder seems to be connected to a drug cartel. Dela nearly becomes the victim of a hit-and-run while someone is trying to frame her for the murder.

Proving her innocence has Dela interviewing past acquaintances and members of a drug cartel, all while trying to decide if the woman she met the night of the murder is truly crazy … or the killer.

Buy link:   https://books2read.com/u/bagQ66

And I'm proud to say I have a story in the Windtree Press Anthology- Imagine 

Imagination. It is a word that conjures up so much and can cover so many emotions. In this collection of nine unique stories and a poem, you will cross centuries, hang in suspense, chuckle and perhaps even laugh, and wonder did the character imagine that or not. Dari LaRoche starts this anthology with a poem that explores what sparks the imagination as it moves between conscious thought and the sublime, reflecting the beauty that surrounds us.

In Metro Takes a Road Trip, Susie Slanina returns to the adventures of a dog named Metro discovering new places and talents. In The Watching Game, Lisa de Nikolits crafts a story that explores invisible friends, suspense, and the power of suggestion. Diana McCollum’s story, Son-ja’s Journey, explores the story of a lost child who wanders into a Native American tribe’s camp and is raised as one of their own.

Pamela Cowan’s story, Mars, moves away from earth to outer space in her futuristic tale with a twist about a young man coming of age. Back on earth, Mary Vine provides a story of romance, suspense, and humor in Grandma Harper’s Imagination. Maggie Lynch pits fantasy against reality in Sky Painter, as a young girl develops unusual talents.

Another Life, by Paty Jager, provides a conundrum for the reader to unravel whether a battered wife and a dead husband is a tale of delirium or truth. In Project I.M.A.G.I.N.E. Anna Brentwood and Colton Long pen a cautionary tale of artificial intelligence that begins in the 1980s. Kimila Kay closes out the anthology with Rattlesnake Ravine, a suspense novella that plays with imagination versus truth and the consequences of having to choose only one side.

buy link https://books2read.com/u/booxnR

Paty Jager is an award-winning author 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.

Website: https://www.patyjager.net

Blog: https://writingintothesunset.net/
Newsletter: https://bit.ly/2IhmWcm

photo: by Paty Jager of the Steens Mountain

One...Two...Three...and a pre-order

 

This month the theme is "My favorite commercial." At this time in my life, I dislike commercials.  After watching shows on Public Broadcasting and not having commercials interrupting the flow of the show and then streaming shows without commercials, I now get irritated with them. 

But as a kid, my favorite commercial was the owl and the Tootsie Pop, which around Halloween you see the commercial now and then. I don't know why but the way the owl says, "One...Two...Three... always makes me smile. 

I'm happy to say that book number 6 in my Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series is up on pre-order with a release date of September 6th. 

Down and Dirty

The Spotted Pony Casino’s head of security, Dela Alvaro, receives a late-night call that takes her to a deserted walkway along the river. After confronting a woman babbling about love and bodies being buried, Dela stumbles over a corpse and discovers her knife covered in the victim’s blood.

Dela and Tribal Detective Heath Seaver find themselves working with FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce when the murder seems to be connected to a drug cartel. Dela nearly becomes the victim of a hit-and-run while someone is trying to frame her for the murder.

Proving her innocence has Dela interviewing past acquaintances and members of a drug cartel, all while trying to decide if the woman she met the night of the murder is truly crazy … or the killer.

Pre-order here: https://books2read.com/u/bagQ66

I came up with the idea for this book when I was checking out the River Walkway in Pendleton, OR. I came across the bridge, you see on the cover and below, and thought what a great place for my main character, Dela Alvaro to come across a body at night. Once that took root, I came up with why she would be there late at night and how she could be pulled into the murder. But the fun twist came when I met a woman who intrigued and scared me at a book event. 

This woman captured my writer's curiosity and as soon as she walked on, I began writing down all the details of our meeting to use it in a book. I just didn't realize it would be the book I was writing. In a way, I believe I put her in the book to make her seem real and not so scary. I won't lie, after talking to her, I was a bit shaky and felt like a fool because I was scared. Unfortunately, the other person in the booth with me had been on the phone and didn't hear the woman's rantings or see how she transformed. 

That's all I'll say about her. You can either pre-order the book and wait to read about the "scary" woman on September 6th or check out my blog post on the Ladies of Mystery blog on Aug. 12th. On that post I talk about my encounter with the "crazy" woman. 

ABOUT Paty Jager

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 59 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.

Website: https://www.patyjager.net

Blog: https://writingintothesunset.net/

Newsletter: https://bit.ly/2IhmWcm

Mystery Turned My Writing Around by Paty Jager

I'm beginning to think that time is flashing by at a rate much faster than even five years before. Is the world spinning faster and while the clocks read the same the time is, in fact, moving much faster? 

I can't believe it's June already! Halfway through this year. I'm sort of on track with my goals for the year. I do have 2 books that have been published so far. Now I have to get busy and get two more written and published before the end of the year. My goal is 4 books. Even with a month of no writing while I go on a vacation I've been dreaming about for some timem that will happen in September and October, I plan to keep to my goal. 

This month the theme is starting Anew. I'm not really starting anew, though I did ten years ago when I decided to write mysteries instead of western romance.  I'm so glad I did! I feel it is more my voice and I have gained a much larger and broader readership by switching to writing murder mysteries, or crime fiction as some people call it. 

I spent 2014 writing the first three books in the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series. The premise of the series and the character came about because of something my brother told me about a bronze statue he was putting the patina on. I used what he told me as part of the murder in Double Duplicity, book 1. Because the plot dealt with the art community, I made my main character a potter or ceramicist as it can also be called. But I wanted her to be a bit more unique. She lives on a mountain where she gathers the clay she cleans and uses in her vases that are sold in art galleries. 

Making her a child of a Native American (Nez Perce) father, who died when she was young, and a Caucasian mother gave me the ability to write her with wanting to learn more about her father's side of the family since her mother had kept her from it and have her learn about her heritage as I discovered things as well. Luckily, I'd met an author before I started this series, who is married to an Arrow Lakes tribal member. They live on the Colville Reservation in Washington state where I have Shandra's paternal relatives living. My friend gave me a tour of the reservation and gave me great insight into the thoughts and feelings of the people who live there. 

The Shandra Higheagle Series ended with 16 books and a novella. I enjoyed writing about Shandra, Ryan, her love interest, and all of her friends and animals. But I decided to end the series before readers said it was going flat. 

Before I ended the series, I started a new series. The Gabriel Hawke Novels are about a Native American (Umatilla and Nez Perce) Fish and Wildlife Oregon State Trooper in Wallowa County, Ore. This means most of the stories are set in NE Oregon with a few set in other states in the Pacific Northwest. Though Hawke did go to Iceland for a Search and Rescue World Conference and was caught up in finding a killer there. ;) I'm still writing this series and the current book, Cougar's Cache, was released on June 1st. Check the bottom of this post to learn more about it. 

I am also writing the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series with Dela Alvaro a disabled veteran who is head of security for my fictional Spotted Pony Casino on the Umatilla Reservation outside of Pendleton. From May 30th to June 12th you can get the audiobook of book 1, Poker Face through Independent Audiobook Deals. Some of your favorite bestselling authors have come together to bring you amazing audiobook deals! Check it out!🎧 The Pinch, book 5 came out in February. It's set in a casino on the Oregon Coast. Dela heads over there to audit the security staff and gets caught up in a kidnapping and murder. 

Starting anew writing mysteries in 2014 was the best thing I could do for myself and my writing career. Like I said before, I have truly found my voice writing mysteries. 

Cougar's Cache

Book 11 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels

This double cold case and current homicide have Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Trooper Gabriel Hawke calling in favors… and exploring a childhood he shoved into the deep recesses of his mind.

While patrolling on the Snake River in Hells Canyon, Gabriel Hawke’s dog digs up a human bone. Hawke is confronted by an aunt he doesn’t remember, and he finds a canister of film when the rest of the remains are excavated. The film shows someone being killed and a rifle pointed at the photographer.

Going through missing person files, Hawke discovers the victims of the decades-old double homicide. A person connected to the original crime is murdered, giving Hawke more leads and multiple suspects.

Attending a local Powwow with his family, Hawke discovers more about his childhood and realizes his suspects have been misleading him.

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

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 56 novels, 10 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.

Blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest

Fears and Fun by Paty Jager

This is the month when everyone thinks of Goblins, Ghosts, and Ghouls. I myself like the change of season, the pretty colors, and cooler air. 

However, I have been known to paint pumpkins and ghosts on my nails and wear spider earrings all month in support of October 31st and Halloween. 

Even though I write mysteries and love a good murder mystery, I have a low tolerance for violence and scary things. I don't watch scary movies, I can't read scary books, and when I was small the abominable snowman on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie scared me. 

I also don't like Criminal Minds or some books where the author gets into the mind of the villain. I have too vivid an imagination and I don't need to be worrying about a creepy character from a show or a book coming into my life. I prefer my Pollyanna attitude. ;)

I enjoy watching the Midsomer Murders a British mystery show even though some of the episodes have spooky or scary themes or costumes. And I recently watched an Agatha Raisin British mystery show that dealt with witches and had a scary theme to it. I only jumped a couple of times, but it never scared me so badly that I had to turn it off or hide. 

There are some commercials for horror movies that I have to hide when they come on. I'm just a weenie and it doesn't take much to go bump in the dark and get my writing brain dredging up all kinds of bad scenarios.

When our kids were in their teens we moved into a small mobile home while building a new house. The boy's bedroom and a bathroom were in a recessed area in the hallway. Our oldest son liked to hide there and when I'd go by, he'd make a noise and I'd jump, throw whatever I was carrying, and curse. Once my heart settled, I'd tell him one of these days he was going to give me a heart attack. He'd just laugh and duck into his room or run outside. 

I still jump easily at sounds or someone walking quietly up behind me. 

But I have always been excited about Halloween. I loved dressing up and dumping the bag of candy on the floor and trading with my brothers. Giving them candy I didn't like for the kind I did. And tossing the candy none of us liked into a bowl for our parents and grandparents. 

It's not the same anymore. We took our kids around town trick-or-treating until unstable people started putting things in the candy. Then we took them to the school events on Halloween. And we, as a family, usually pitched in and ran the Haunted House/Trailer. My husband had a "walking floor" trailer. Every other slat in the floor would move back and forth to offload goods. We would make the inside of the trailer like a haunted house, with hallways, spider webs, gooey things to put your hands in, and people popping out of coffins and behind things. It was always a hit.  

I have started decorating but will go to my daughter's later today and pick up pumpkins and corn stalks to decorate the entrance. 

Here is the info about my latest release that may or may not have a little bit of scary in it:

Double Down

Spotted Pony Casino Mystery

Book 3

A donkey, a three-legged dog, and a war-scarred veteran outwit the killer.

Dela Alvaro is the main suspect in the stabbing death of a man she stopped from beating his wife to death. The detective she abhors is ready to toss her in jail and not look for any other suspects. When FBI Special Agent Quinn Pierce is called in and Tribal Officer Heath Seaver is forbidden to work the case, Dela decides to find the killer.

Was it the wife, the drug dealer, or the man wanting to take over the victim’s business? Dela and Heath ask questions and work to prove her innocence. If she is found guilty not only will she lose her new life but she’ll never be able to solve the secret of her father.   

Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/4D6Wa7

Wishing you a wonderful October and a not too scary end of the month festivities! 

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 50+ murder mystery and western romance novels which have Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters.

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May is my Favorite Month

 May is one of my favorite months. It means spring is in full swing and summer is almost here. It is the month I married my always entertaining husband, I had my first book published, and this blog started. 

I am currently in the process of recovering the first book I had published and the 4 other books in that series. I like what my cover designer has come up with so far. I'll be doing a series cover reveal for those in July along with a sale. 

If things continue moving along, I'll have my next Gabriel Hawke book releasing early June. Owl's Silent Strike has my main character battling a winter storm in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, trying to get a woman with a broken leg and a man he believes is a killer out of the mountains. 

Unexpected snowstorm…

Unfortunate accident…

And a body…

What started out as a favor and a leisurely trip into the mountains, soon turns State Trooper Gabriel Hawke’s life upside down. The snowstorm they were trying to beat comes early, a horse accident breaks Dani’s leg, and Hawke finds a body in the barn at Charlie’s Lodge.

Hawke sets Dani’s leg, then follows the bloody trail of a suspect trying to flee the snow drifted mountains. Hawke is torn between getting the woman he loves medical care and knowing he can’t leave a possible killer on the mountain.

Before the killer is brought to justice, Dani and Hawke will put their relationship to the test and his job on the line.

While I wait in between critiques and edits on that book, I am working on the next Spotted Pony Casino mystery. Last weekend I spent part of a day, first looking around the tribal police station at the Umatilla Reservation where my series is set, and following security guards around at the casino to see what they did while on the casino floor. My oldest daughter said it was a wonder she didn't have to come bail me out! 

There wasn't anyone at the police station, so I wandered around the building looking in the windows to see the layout of the building. And at the casino, I would sit in a chair near security guards, studying their clothing and equipment and following them if they were walking around. Nothing creepy about that. LOL 

I really like where this book, Double Down, is going with the storyline. It's putting a strain on the main characters in the series. Poor Dela is accused of murder. She didn't do it but there are some who believe she did. 

May should be the month I finish this book and send it out to my beta readers and critique partners. Then I need to finish a short story I'm writing for a mystery anthology, titled, A Body on the 13th Floor. It is a Spotted Pony Casino short story.

Another thing I like about May- Flowers start blooming. Some are wild and some of the domestic ones I have planted. Color outside my window when I write makes me happy!

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 53 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.

Blog / Website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter / Pinterest   / Bookbub

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.

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

Change is Inevitable by Paty Jager

 I don't think the Blog Queens knew how much things would be changed when they came up with "change" as the theme for this month's blog. 

This past year, I've had two conferences I was excited to attend canceled. I now have boxes of  swag sitting in my office and no way of knowing when it will get handed out to readers. The chocolate coins are going to have to be handed out or they will go bad. 

I'm in the process of setting up a ZOOM meeting with a library for a book signing I was scheduled to do in October. And an in-person presentation I and Maggie Lynch have been working on for the PNBA conference in October, I'll now be doing my part via ZOOM if we can get it set up.

My personal life, little has changed. We live in a small rural community. We do wear masks when going to stores, but life on our property goes on as usual. We irrigate the hay field, harvest the hay, take care of the horses and steers, and I ride my horse by myself or with the grandkids down the road.  We visit with our daughter's families, I visit my dad in his senior living facility, and we go to the volleyball games our granddaughter plays in.

A writer on another blog I'm on wrote about putting the pandemic in her contemporary books. She gave good reasons for why she didn't and good reasons for why she is thinking about putting it in in future books. 

Me and my need to write "real" even in my fiction, I'd have to add in not just the wearing of the masks, but also the split among people on the vaccination. I don't like dealing with that kind of conflict, and therefore, have decided to leave the whole pandemic business out of my books. Besides, people read to get away from the real world. Why bring in something that they are trying to get away from for a short period of time? 

Change for me in the coming year will be taking more me time and writing one less book a year. I'm trying not to beat myself up over the fact I will have written one less than I had planned this year. But, I spent more time with family. While the writing is always nagging at the back of my brain, family is first, always has been. 

But writing comes second, because to me writing is fun. I enjoy coming up with characters, plots, and surprises in my books. My imagination will be going long after I can actually write a book, of that I have no doubt! 

Right now I'm closing in on the end of book 8 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels. The title is Churlish Badger. Then I'll be on to the next Spotted Pony Casino Mystery. Titled House Edge. I have twenty more animals picked for titles of the Hawke books and I have a dozen gambling terms picked out for the titles of the Spotted Pony Casino books. I think those should keep me busy for a while and keep me from dwelling on the changes around me. ;) 

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 51 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.

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