When my husband and I moved to our “semi-retirement”
property, we had to downsize for a while. We stored all of the furniture we
didn’t sell in a 12 foot by 12 foot “tack room” we’d built. Our living quarters for 8 months while we
built a house was 10 feet by 16 feet. We
had a queen size bed, a small counter with a microwave, and I set up a 2 foot
by 4 foot table for us to use to eat on and I could use to write on. We had
stacking patio chairs we used indoors and out and a small deck with a table,
chairs, and a BBQ.
We had built a small room onto the cabin for a shower
and washtub. We used an outhouse for the other plumbing. I either took our laundry to town or used the
washer at the empty house owned by the people employing my husband to manage
their alfalfa fields. I would bring the wet clothes back to the cabin and hang
them from drying racks my mother-in-law brought me from the Netherlands years
ago.
For cooking, I used the microwave, an electric
skillet, crockpot, and the BBQ. I learned how to bake in the BBQ and made a
couple of cakes that way.
Living tiny for those 8 months taught me that I could
live without things that before I thought I needed. We were cozy but by the end
of the 8 months my hubby was ready to move into the house. The limited space
for him to do his bookwork and me to do my writing bothered him
.
When we moved into the house, I actually took a whole
pickup load of things to the thrift store.
I only have in the house the things I love or are useful. It makes cleaning and living a whole lot
simpler.
Have you ever had to live in a tiny space without all
the things you’re used to?
One of the things I enjoy most about where we live is
discovering new history about my home state. I’ve written two historical
western romance books using my new community as the setting. My recent release,
Brody: Letters of Fate, takes place over the hill from our place and
incorporates haying in the late 1800’s and a place that we have discovered and
take our visitors to: Malheur Cave. It is a 3000 ft long cave with a 1000
ft long lake in it.
To learn when my new releases come out and how you can
read my books for free join Paty’s Posse.
Historical western filled with steamy romance and the
rawness of a growing country.
Brody: Letters of Fate
Historical western filled with steamy romance and the
rawness of a growing country.
A letter from a grandfather he’s
never met has Brody Yates escorted across the country to work on a ranch rather
than entering prison. But his arrival in Oregon proves prison may have been the
lesser of two evils. A revenge driven criminal, the high desert, and his
grandfather’s beautiful ward may prove more dangerous than anything he’s faced
on the New York docks.
Lilah Wells is committed to helping
others: the judge who’d taken her in years ago, the neighboring children, and
the ranch residents, which now includes the judge’s handsome wayward grandson.
And it all gets more complicated when her heart starts ruling her actions.
Amazon / Nook / Kobo / Apple / Windtree Press
Paty Jager is an
award-winning author of 25+ novels and over a dozen novellas and short stories
of murder mystery, western historical romance, and action adventure. She has a
RomCon Reader’s Choice Award for her Action Adventure and received the EPPIE
Award for Best Contemporary Romance.
This is what reviewers says about her Letters of Fate Series: “What a refreshing
and well written love story of fate and hope! Very well written but sometimes
sizzling love scenes!”
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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