Category: Oregon Coast

March Madness for Me

Can you believe it is the third month of the year already? This year is flying by and I’m feeling behind. I’m starting off the year with some packed months and that’s why it goes so fast. I am working on a short story for another Windtree Press Anthology. This one ties into the Spotted Pony Casino mystery books. I’m also working on the next book in that series- Crap Shoot. I love figuring out stories that go with the gambling terms I picked to use as titles for this series.

This month you can find me at the Left Coast Crime Conference in Denver, CO from the 13th-15th. I’ll be on two panels: Thursday 3:34-4:30 the panel is Animal Sidekicks and Friday 2:45-3:30 it’s Crime in Small Towns: settings, secrets, scandals. I’m also hosting a coffee and tea gathering at the coffee bar Friday afternoon from 4:00-4:45 and hosting a table at the banquet on Saturday night with author Sheri Lewis Wohl.

The conference is always a fun time to connect with author friends and readers.

I am also part of a book signing at And Books, Too! in Clarkston, WA with author Carmen Peone on March 22nd from 1-3 pm.

Today is the last day to get Stolen Butterfly, book 7 in the Gabriel Hawke novels in audiobook for $2.99.

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.

IndieAudiobookDeals.com

Later this month at this URL IndieAudiobookDeals.com you can also purchase the first three audiobooks of the Shandra Higheagle Mysteries for $4.99. That starts March 20th and runs through April 2nd.

I’ve finished Merry Merry Merry Murder book 1 in the Cuddle Farm Mysteries. I’m planning a big Christmas in July event on my author Facebook page. Follow me there so you can win prizes and free copies of the book. Author Paty Jager

And if you want to keep up with my writing and the specials I have along with getting your name in the drawing for a free mug you can join my newsletter: https://bit.ly/2IhmWcm

These are the mugs I’ve given away so far.

What Does May Have in Store?

Wow, I’m kind of leery of what May has in store for me. On May 1st hubby called saying he was being taken to the ER. He’d left early that morning to drive a cattle truck for a ranch. I asked what happened and he said a bull kicked him. Great! By the time I arrived at the ER he was all stitched up. three layers worth of stitches. They had a hard time getting some arteries to stop bleeding. He has a four-inch gash in his head with stitches and staples. But luckily, he moved out of the way and didn’t get the brunt of the kick, so he didn’t have a concussion or any other head injury. He told me he has a hard head.

Then on May 5th in SE Oregon four inches of snow came down and the power was out for five hours. A skiff this time of year isn’t unheard of but the 4 inches came down all at once. My poor horses were freezing after being rained on and then getting snow. I blanketed them up since I’d curried a good chunk of their winter hair off the week before thinking spring was here! Mother Nature fooled a lot of us. The good thing that came out of the power outage, it gave me time to finish a book I’d been trying to get read. 😉

Today the morning started pleasant with blue sky and puffy clouds. Hubby said he needed help unloading irrigation pivot pipes he’d picked up the day before. So the morning was spent, thankfully while the sun shone, unloading the pipes. I was the lucky person in the backhoe following directions. 😉

This coming weekend is our 45th anniversary. May 12, 1979 is when we were married in a church in Lostine, Oregon. My mom when to great pains to make it beautiful. She made my dress, and they remodeled the kitchen and dining room so it would be better for hosting the reception at the house in the back yard. The apricot trees were in bloom and it was a sunny day. That’s about all I remember of the day.

Anyway, for our anniversary we’re going to the coast for one night after I sell books at the Comic con in Redmond, Oregon. Which is about the halfway point from our house to the coast. We’ll stay two nights with my mother-in-law and then go on to the coast for a one night stay before loading up calves and alfalfa seed and coming home.

It’s a little bit better than our honeymoon, 45 years ago. We were headed to the coast from clear across the state. Lostine is in the NE corner of Oregon. So we had to travel the full width of the state. And at the halfway point, which was close to where we were living, the car started acting funny. We limped it home and never made it to the coast for our honeymoon. As soon as we arrived at our house, the phone rang and hubby agreed to haul a load of something to pay for repairs on the car. Since then, we try to go to the coast or somewhere we both want to see on our anniversary, but it doesn’t always work out since it normally ends up being Mother’s Day weekend. Something we didn’t think about when we picked a month between our birthdays.

Before I go, I want to let you know that because May 5th was MMIW Awareness Day, I have my book Stolen Butterfly on sale through the month May for $1.99 in ebook or audiobook. The proceeds from the sale are donated to the MMIW movement.

https://books2read.com/u/baZEPq

While I’m sharing good deals on audiobooks, I wanted to pass along that I also have an audiobook on sale with the Indie Audiobook Deals. You can get Murder of Ravens in audiobook for $0.99 until May 15th. IndieAudiobookDeals.com 

I hope the month of May will be kind to you. Be happy and enjoy life!

My Happy Place, The Oregon Coast

I’m spending a week at the Oregon Coast to finish writing a book. Why do you say do I need to go to the coast to write? Because at home I have too many distractions. Like, feeding animals, doing laundry, making meals, cleaning house, and many more things that take my attention away from the fact I have a book to finish.

Here on the coast, I write and I walk on the beach to get fresh air and energize my brain. I always manage to write a lot when I’m here. If I can finish the book before it’s time to leave, I can start figuring out the next book.

Here are some of the fun things I’ve seen while on my walks.

This was the scene we had the first night as we sat outside at a restaurant. The first day at the coast was beautiful. The warmest we’ve had and the prettiest sunset.

This is a starfish I found on one of my walks. I thought “wow this is so unusual” and then another day there were six starfish on the beach. I threw them back into the water. I don’t know if they were still alive or not. There weren’t any rocks around for them to have been clinging to so I wasn’t sure if they had died and were being carried around on the waves or what.

As aways with a walk on the beach there are seagulls flying and fighting over the crabs and other sea creatures that the birds eat.

I like to take photos that encompass more than the main object in the photo. This is a mussel shell. The iridescent colors didn’t show up in the photo as much as they did in person but I liked the scope of the photo.

I liked the lines made in the water by the incoming and outgoing waves that crossed at this point on the beach.

This is my favorite sight at the beach. It was a trail made by a crustacean heading back to the water. At first, I thought someone had pushed a rock through the sand, but I saw the little almost zipper like markings in the middle of the track and picked the critter up to see where his head was buried in the sand and see his body poking out of the shell. So I set him back down and took a photo.

The beach is one of my favorite places to go to reenergize and get a book finished. I can’t wait until next month when hubby and I come back over to celebrate our 45th anniversary!

And don’t forget my latest release, The Pinch is set on the Oregon Coast in a different coastal town.

Book 5
Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries
Dela Alvaro, head of security for the Spotted Pony Casino, is asked to do a security check of a casino on the Oregon Coast. She no sooner starts her rounds at the casino and a child is kidnapped. The parents are a dubious couple. Special Agent Quinn Pierce of the FBI has been out to get the father for some time.

One of Dela’s best friends from the Army appears and they catch up, only to find her friend strangled the next morning after having divulged to Dela she may have photos of the kidnapping.

As Dela struggles with the violent death of yet another best friend, her lover, Tribal Officer Heath Seaver, arrives and the two begin untangling the lies, bribes, and murders.

In the end, as Heath carries the child to safety, Dela must face a cunning killer alone.

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/u/38Y787

ebook $4.99 – Print $14.99 – Audio $14.99

Keeping up with Paty

I thought spring had arrived in SE Oregon. I found buttercups on the hill while hiking and we had two beautiful days of sunshine and 60s temperatures. Then, rain, rain, rain, a little snow and sleet, and we’re back to the cold weather with dreary gray skies. I’d just begun to think about pulling weeds and turning over the soil in my garden bed. Too muddy to do either now.

But the snow keeps building up on the Steens. I wish I had a view of the mountains from my house, but I don’t. There is a tall hill that I have to climb to see them. However, my daughter has a wonderful view of them. As witnessed by this photo taken at her place.

Steens Mountain from my daughter’s.

I’m so happy that my little dog, Nia likes to do road trips. The small dog I had before, Tink, loved road trips. I took her everywhere. Sumpter Flea market where I sell books on Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends, on research trips to Silver City, Granite, and other places. She also attended several outside book selling events. I’m hoping once Nia gets out of the puppy/teenage stage she’ll be a good mascot as well. She has been to one outdoor selling event and has attended Sumpter with me twice. She is getting better, but she likes to meet everyone, dogs, people, squirrels. And doesn’t listen well. Once she starts listening better she will go on more trips.

As you read this, I am on a plane to Seattle, WA. I’ll be attending the Left Coast Crime conference in Bellevue, WA from the 11th – 13th. I’m excited to meet some authors I’ve worked with but have not met in person. They are other members of my Ladies of Mystery blog. If you like to learn more about mystery, suspense, and thriller writers and books, it is a fun place to hear stories about how some books come to fruition and learn a few of the writing snags authors have. https://ladiesofmystery.com/

This month I also have a couple of audiobook deals happening. One is part of a great Indie author audiobook group I joined. Right now, you can get some great deals on audiobooks. I have the first box set of my Shandra Higheagle Mystery series on sale for $0.99! Yes! That’s 3 audiobooks for $0.99 and it’s at most audiobook vendors. You can find all the deals here: IndieAudiobookDeals.com

I’m participating in the Kobo Stock UP and Listen sale. I have the first audiobook of the Shandra Higheagle Series, Double Duplicity on sale for $1.99 at Kobo only. During this sale, you can also find the first Gabriel Hawke audiobook, Murder of Ravens for $2.99. Here is the Kobo link to find all the books that are on sale right now. https://bit.ly/3TIvKuC

My next post will be coming to you from the Oregon Coast! I’m excited to do my semi-annual trip to Rockaway Beach. I’ll be writing and spending time with friends. If you follow me on my Author FB page, Author Paty Jager, you’ll see my daily photos of the coast and what I’m doing.

And if you want to get a free mystery/suspense/thriller book a month, you can join my newsletter. I have teamed up with 12 other authors to share one of our books each month on our newsletters. You’ll not only get the free book, but when you sign up you get a subscriber only free short story from me and each month I have a puzzle search for you. Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/2IhmWcm

New Year, New Adventures

While I have trimmed back the amount of traveling I’m doing this year to fewer trips, they are going to be bigger adventures. 😉 Of course, with less long distance trips, I hope to ride my horse more, and take small trips with hubby in our camper to see the sites close to home.

Grandson and his wife.

To start with Hubby and I are going to visit a grandson and his wife in Clovis, NM, then hubby’s sister and her husband in Killeen, TX, then on the way back to Oregon we’re swinging through Arizona to visit with a writer friend and her hubby. She’s been wanting us to come to Arizona in the winter for several years so she could take me to some of the historical Indigenous dwellings and petroglyphs. That will be a fun winter trip.

Then I’ll be attending the Left Coast Crime conference in Seattle in April. I have always enjoyed this conference when I’ve attended. I like the fun things we do with readers, and I learn more about other authors.

With only a short respite at home, I’m staying at the Oregon Coast with two of my besties for a week. There will be writing, chaos, and lots of laughs!

Rockaway Beach last year.

New people have taken over the Sumpter Flea Market that I attend with Mary Vine every Memorial and Labor Day weekend. They are changing things up. We are discussing if this event we have attended for nearly ten years may have priced us out. We’ll see.

Mary in the book trailer at Sumpter.

I need to sign up for the NIWA booth at La Pine in June. I’ll do that as soon as I finish writing this post. It’s a three-day event in La Pine, OR where I and another member, Andretta Schellinger, sell books from NIWA authors at the Rhubarb Festival. 

Then there is a possibility that I’ll be attending Author Jacquie Roger’s annual event in Idaho. She had it usually in July. The event has gone from a three-day event in Silver City to a one-day event in Homedale, ID.

Then! The trip I’ve been dreaming of for a while. My oldest daughter, a granddaughter, and I are heading to The Netherlands, Spain, England, Scotland, and Ireland. We’ll visit family in The Netherlands and Spain, then off for an adventure in the UK. We have our lodging taken care of, but I’ve been watching airline flights. Does anyone have any suggestions on which airlines are the most reliable, cheapest, and comfiest? Or any tips on getting a reasonably priced ticket? The prices are all over the place. The thing I do know is that we need to book directly with an airline and not one of the third party markets.

After that trip, I’ll do a few local bazaars and the Holiday Market in Portland with NIWA. I’m looking forward to the year so I can get to the fun trip in the fall.

Holiday Market 2023.

I have several books planned to write and hope to keep the momentum going with my audiobook sales. Which I’ll talk about in my next blog post.

I hope you have wonderful plans for the year to give you something to look forward to.

Deluge of Life

Ever feel like you will never get something accomplished? Even if it is something that you can accomplish?

That’s where I’m at. November is such a busy month. I have two long writing/book events which will take up two weeks. I have a book I would like to have finished by the end of the year, I have audiobooks I need to upload to make into audiobook bundles, I am learning new things to hopefully get those said audiobooks selling, which leads me to even more things I need to do for the audiobooks.

And then there is life outside of the writing. Hubby is finishing a barn that has had poles in the ground for 15 years. While he is doing most of it by himself, he does need my help for certain things. Like lifting the metal roofing up to him.

Hubby on the roof, the piece of metal against the hay that I lift up.

There is also my desire to decorate the house and soon start baking. Not to mention working on the quilts for the two grandkids graduating in 2024 and Christmas presents. One of my favorite things about Christmas is finding the perfect present for my family and friends. I think even if it’s a trinket or bauble, if it has something to do with their favorite things, it makes them smile.

Today, I didn’t take my usual morning walk so I could sit down at the computer to write this post and get some more words on the Work in Progress- AKA The Pinch book 5 in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series. My friend and I spent a weekend at the Chinook Winds Casino and resort on the Oregon Coast last spring so I could research for this book. I’m finally getting around to writing it. And I’ve discovered there were some things I should have researched while I was there. *sigh*

I’ve sent an email to the casino, but I fear they won’t reply because I didn’t ask about staying there, I asked questions about how the place is run. They would rather take my money and have me visit than help me with logistics for my book.

I will continue using common sense and hope I get things right. Or if I really need to get the answers, it might mean a trip to the coast for hubby and me in December. 😉

There are so many things I need and want to get done before the end of the year. I’ll have a tight schedule next year too as I try to get back to publishing 4 books a year and also take a month-long trip to Europe with my oldest daughter and a granddaughter. I can’t wait for the trip, but I have to. It won’t happen until September next year. I’ll have more about it in future posts. As it gets closer and I get more excited, I’m sure I’ll have posts about how we planned and booked everything.

That’s all the dithering I have on life at this time. My next post will be about the 20 Books Vegas conference I’m attending next week.

Another Road Trip

The end of this week I’m headed to Lincoln City on the Oregon coast. Many years ago while at the Oregon coast on a writer’s retreat, I saw three things during a walk on the beach that had my mystery mind whirling.

The three unrelated things, what looked like a grandfather and grandson playing on the beach that was mostly empty, something that looked like a seal head or person in diving gear bobbing in the water not far from shore, and a boat that was also close to the shore.

Most people wouldn’t think much of these three things. But when I came back from my walk, the boat was gone and the grandfather was all alone. That had me wondering if that wasn’t really the grandfather, but a man who had lured the child to the beach in order for someone to kidnap him. The scuba diver and the boat waiting off shore.

And that is where the idea has sat for a number of years. Because I couldn’t figure out how to make it work in a book/series. Well, the time has come. My character Dela Alvaro of the Spotted Pony Casino mysteries is the perfect person to make a trip to the Oregon Coast. She will be visiting the Chinook Winds Casino in Lincoln City to learn things with other security teams from Indian run casinos.

I can now let this story, that has been simmering in my head, play out in a book.

That is why I am headed to Lincoln City. To get a feel of the layout of the casino and hotel rooms. To walk the beach and see if I can set the scene I described above for someone staying at the casino to have witnessed and for Dela to come to that person’s aid when there is an attempt to steal their camera and later their life.

While I am headed to do research for the Spotted Pony Casino book, I am actually plotting out the next Gabriel Hawke book to be written after I write a short story for an anthology.

However, I won’t have time to do the research for “The Pinch” nearer to the time of writing it and that’s why I am headed over there now. I plan to have fun and get all the information I need.

My latest book in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series is available for pre-order.

Book 4

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.

UBL: https://books2read.com/u/4X0WY9

My latest trip

Two weekends ago, I attended the Mt. Angel, Oregon Oktoberfest as a member of NIWA (Northwest Independent Writers Association). We had a booth at the event for four days. I helped sell books for three of those days. We were asked to dress up. I purchased a Bavarian dress online that arrived the day before I was to head to Mt. Angel. Thank goodness it fit!

As you can see by the photo, Nia went along with me. She was a good puppy. She either played with her toys, slept, or peeked out from under the table, luring people in. 😉 It was fun to meet some of the other NIWA members since we are spread out all throughout the Northwest. I have to get busy and read a few more of the authors’ books so I can do a better job of selling them.

From Mt. Angel, Nia and I headed to the Oregon Coast. I had rented a house at Rockaway Beach for the week to write (very little of that was accomplished) and to hang out with my younger brother and his family that were at the beach.

On Saturday, we were lucky enough to see not only the large colorful kites but groups of kite flyers as they showed off their synchronized flying.

Sunday, we went back to Mt. Angel to help with the last shift of the day and take down the booth. I had so much fun at the booth, I’ve signed up to help with the booth at the Portland Holiday Market November 17-20th.

Monday, Nia and I walked the beach with family and then we drove to Tillamook where we perused the shops, and I purchased some fabric at my favorite fabric store to make a Christmas table runner.

Nia liked chasing sand fleas.

During the week, my brother and his wife suggested we try to look in some tide pools they’d heard of. So we drove a little way out of Rockaway and found these interesting rocks, and a few small tide pools. The tide wasn’t out far enough for us to see much sea life.

There were birds perched on the tree and a couple of pelicans landed on the rock/island.

I took several shots of this opening in the rock with different settings, but this was my favorite, though the blue of the rocks in the foreground aren’t as noticeable in this photo.

This was one of the two sea urchins we saw. I liked the color of this one and the surroundings.

And I spotted a unique to me jellyfish swimming in a tide pool.

Our last night at the beach ended with a beautiful sky.

Time Flys

Wow! It is already the middle of September and it feels like I’m still in August!

I had a wonderful time at the Sumpter Flea Market with Mary Vine, a granddaughter and my new dog Nia. We sold books, visited, and had lots of laughs.

Mary and I at Sumpter

I came home and judged two days at the Harney County Fair. The first day was 4-H static exhibits. That means I judge food, art, photography, leathercraft, llama wool, scrapbooking, and educational displays. I was sad there wasn’t any sewing, knitting, or crocheting. And fewer entries than in the past. The following day, I judged open class textiles- so sewing, quilting, knitting, and crochet. The next day I watched a granddaughter show her pig and a grandson (who I watched show is goat the day before) show a guinea pig.

This week I had a critique meeting with local writers and am headed today to Mt. Angel, Oregon where I’ll be manning a booth with other NIWA authors at Oktoberfest. I’ll be at the booth from 4-10 pm on the 15th, from 10 am- 4pm on the 16th, then I hop over to the coast to visit family and come back on Sunday from 2-6 pm to man the booth and help take it down.

After I help take the booth down, I’m back to the coast for a week of writing and hanging out with family.

My favorite place on the Oregon coast

I need to write, because I am behind schedule with the books I had planned to write this year. I’m going to be one book shy of what I had envisioned having finished by the end of the year.

But the events that have been intruding on my writing time won’t be a part of my life in the coming year so I can concentrate on more time at home and writing 4 books a year. Unless the ideas start to dwindle. So far, they haven’t. I’m still 3 books ahead with ideas for the Gabriel Hawke books and 2 ideas ahead for the Spotted Pony Casino books.

Speaking of the Spotted Pony Casino, book 3, Double Down, is now available in ebook and print.

Double Down

Spotted Pony Casino, 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

At One of my Favorite Places

I’m spending a week at Rockaway Beach to get a book planned out. Not so much to work on the book but to enjoy the beach. 😉

I like the lines the water made from the different directions it flowed.

It is one of my favorite places to come. I enjoy the sound of the ocean, the power of the water, and the brine in the air.

I always take photos of the jellyfish. The ones I saw this trip had bright colored insides.

My first full day here was gorgeous with sunshine, warm weather, and activities all over the town and beach.

There was a show of kites flying at the center of town beach. The synchronized kite flyers were also there practicing. I have a video of that but I can’t figure out how to get it from my phone to here.

Today, my second day started out rainy and foggy, but is turning into a beautiful evening. There were kites being flown today as well.

I love the Oregon coast and my bi-annual trips here to write and soak up the ambiance.