April 2023 – Writing Into The Sunset

I’m late! I was hacked on Facebook last month and I have felt behind since because I am constantly trying to find a new way to connect with readers. Because of the hack, I lost my personal account which was connected to my author account and I can’t get into the author account anymore. Which leaves me without all of my contacts. The only reason I started up a new personal account is to see posts from family members. But if you wish to friend me (I’m not allowed to friend people on the new account) it is Paty Jager.

I have a weeklong book tour the first week of May with author Dwight Holing and I’m limited in my ways to tell my readers, due to the lack of my author page on Facebook. So you are getting the skinny on my tour here. 😉

I’ll have Bear Stalker, Stolen Butterfly, and Murder of Ravens with me for the events. I ordered enough that I shouldn’t run out. If you are in the area of one of these events, I’d love to meet you in person. I always carry lots of goodies with me. This trip I have my Gabriel Hawke keychain flashlights and pens. And lots of bookmarks.

At every stop except Jan’s in Beaverton Dwight and I will be talking about how we came to write our series and what challenges we’ve faced in writing books with Native American characters. We’ll answer questions and sign books.

I purchased a new way to get my books, swag, and everything else to a signing. My author friend Carmen Peone was using this system when we had an event together at the first of the month. I loved the idea and headed to Home Depot to get my set.

I separated the pieces and took photos of each one. And as I did that, I realized I probably won’t be able to lift the bottom one full of books into and out of my car…

This is the top one with the promo stuff.

This is the middle one with the flashlights, tablecloths and book stands.

This is the bottom one note even filled all the way and too heavy to lift.

In the next week before I leave, I will most likely pack, unpack, and repack these several times before I am happy with how I plan to use them. But I do love the fact they stack and lock, making it easier to handle them. I don’t know how many times I nearly lost or did lose totes off a pile on a dolly I bought. Even when I had bungee cords on them. These all lock together on the sides.

Hopefully, the next post on here will be about an awesome Book Tour. And then I’ll have a post on the transformation hubby and I made of a wooden box trailer into my new book mobile. Stay tuned for that!

Don’t forget you can purchase my print books from my website. Just go to https://www.patyjager.net and click on the “Shop” tab and select the series you are interested in. The books are marked down and there is no shipping cost.

This past weekend, I traveled to Wallowa County, the area where my character Gabriel Hawke lives and works. It is also where I grew up. I spent Friday night with my brother and sister-in-law. We caught up on things, watched two of their grandchildren while their son played with his band at an open mic night at Terminal Gravity brewery.

My SIL and I woke up Saturday morning and headed toward Clarkston, WA, where the book signing was to take place. The north highway, which is mentioned a lot in Hawke’s books because he uses it a lot to get to places to check on hunters, was not as much fun to drive. We were barely out of Enterprise, and it started snowing and blowing. We crept along at 35 MPH. A couple times it was a whiteout. I couldn’t see the sides of the road, but thankfully there was little traffic. (I think we were the only crazy people out driving.) I drove in the middle of the unplowed road.

We had left early and made it to the bookstore in Clarkston with about twenty minutes to spare. Carmen Peone, the other author at the event showed up just after we did. After setting up and putting out our goodies- I brought cookies and Carmen brought veggies and fruit- we started catching up.

Readers came and went during our time at the store. We enjoyed visiting with each of them and giving advice to an aspiring writer. Carmen had a family member show up and a friend. I had a reader the bookstore owner had turned onto my books. She was fun to talk to at the age of 90. She was full of life and had interesting stories.

Carmen also told me about a Choctaw woman, Sarah Sawyer, who writes books and teaches writers, like me who is non-native, how to write respectfully. I started listening to her modules on the subject and am feeling much better about my books and how I convey my characters. I have more to listen to and will be following her blog and books. I also ordered one of her books.

On the drive home it was uneventful other than seeing a herd of elk on the side of the canyon going south on Rattlesnake Grade out of Washington.

Back at my brother’s we settled in to a quite night of wine and conversation. Sunday I headed home. And just before Wallowa there was another herd of elk in a field alongside the highway. It was my trip for seeing elk. I wonder if that was a sign to have the work elk in my next Hawke book??

Speaking of books, today is the release of The Squeeze, book 4 in my Spotted Pony Casino mystery series.

Lies, deceit, blackmail.

Murder ends it all.

Or does it?

When an employee at the Spotted Pony Casino is caught leaving early, Dela Alvaro, head of security confronts the woman. The lies the woman tells only piques Dela’s curiosity. After witnessing the employee threatening a man, she is found murdered in her car parked in the driveway of her home.

Upon learning the woman used her job at the casino to blackmail men, Dela feels compelled to solve the woman’s murder and teams up with Tribal Officer Heath Seaver. Not only does the duo have a death to solve, but there is also a mystery behind Dela’s dead father. Not to mention, her mom just announced she’s marrying a man Dela has never met.

Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/4X0WY9

My narrator and I are getting things squared away to begin the production of this in audiobook.

That’s all the excitement here in SE Oregon at the moment. It is cold and windy. We could really use some warm weather.