Category: Uncategorized

My Very Excellent Vacation

Windmill in Ouderkerk

Whoops! I had planned to keep going with a post every two weeks while on vacation. That didn’t happen! To be truthful I was exhausted at the end of each day and while I did keep a journal of what we did each day, I didn’t get into all the details of the places we saw. That will happen here over the next couple of months as I share my Bucket list Vacation with you.

To start, my oldest daughter, Angie, and the 16-year-old daughter, Rietta, of my other daughter went with me. We had to be bright-eyed at 4:30 am the day we left to be on time for the departure of our flight. Which meant spending the night in Boise and taking a hotel shuttle to the airport. I wondered how the trip would go when the hotel shuttle didn’t wait for us because the phone in our hotel didn’t work when they tried to call to say the shuttle was early. The flight to Dallas was uneventful as was the 8 1/2 hour flight from Dallas to Amsterdam, losing one night’s sleep..

Brick streets in Ouderkerk

We were met at the Amsterdam airport by my husband’s cousin, Janneke. She took us to Ouderkerk on the bus. She felt we wouldn’t be stuck in traffic by taking the bus, since we arrived in Amsterdam at 8 am on the 12th having left on the 11th in the U.S. Her mother met us at Janneke’s house with apple pie and we had tea. After the treat, we settled in and took a walk around Ouderkerk. We walked past a windmill being repaired, century old buildings in the town, and bought bread at the bakery.

Back at the house we had bread and homemade tomato soup before going on a car ride around the local area. The roads around Ouderkerk are narrow one-lane roads. When you meet another vehicle the one that has a wider edge on their side pulls over to the let the other vehicle pass. These roads were nerve wracking to me, because I felt many drove too fast for that type of situation.

Back at our cousin’s house we took a nap, visited, had dinner, and visited some more before going to bed.

The second day we went to Zaanse Schans, a small older town with many old windmills. The windmills were built to grind barley, rice, paper, wood, edible oils, mustard, tobacco, hemp, and many other things including the powders to make colors. We walked through several of the windmills to see how they worked and even stood up on top near the blades of one.

The three travelers on the top of a windmill.

After touring the windmills, or molen as they are called in Dutch, we wandered through the shops. Angie enjoyed the Catharina Hoeve building where the Henri Willig cheese company showed how cheese was made using cow, sheep, and goat milk.

They had tasting areas of all the cheeses that could be purchased.

This was Angie’s favorite thing!

Angie in her happy place.

Yes, we bought cheese while we were there. We also went to the wooden shoe factory, and the oldest first market of Albert Heinig.

Me saying “Cheese!”

From there we sauntered through shops and wonderful old houses and gardens. It was a good day and good start to your visit.

Because it was a tourist place, there were plenty of photo opportunities.

Angie and Janneke
Angie and I in front of a heart made of wooden shoes.

Sherars and White River Falls

Deschutes River

This is a short trip I made while waiting to judge day two of the Wasco County Fair. My hubby suggested I wasn’t very far from Sherars Bridge. When I looked it up and discovered it was only 8 miles from where I was staying, I hopped in my car and headed down the road.

The drive was gorgeous. The road followed the Deschutes River. On the opposite side of the river ran the railroad track. I’d sat alongside the river in Maupin the night before and videoed a train going by across the river.  Beyond the railroad tracks was reddish sharp-edged rock on the yellow hills.

Following the river, I was on a barely two-lane asphalt road. Luckily, I only had three vehicles coming from the opposite direction. I saw the platforms and ladders the local Indigenous tribes use to stand on to catch fish. I happened to be there on a day when they weren’t fishing. A sign said they didn’t fish on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to let the fishery people do what they needed to do to take care of the fish and the area.

Sherars Falls isn’t tall but it is beautiful with frothy rushing water pouring down into the crack in the rock made from centuries of water flowing over it.

I took several photos from different directions and angles. I enjoyed walking over the lava rock that led down to the river’s edge thirty feet above the water.

Sherars Falls

From there I looped my way back toward Tygh Valley where I was judging. On the way I saw a sign for White River Falls. It looked inviting, so I pulled into the small day use only park. The trees and inviting green grass in an area that is mostly rock, dried grass, and sagebrush, felt like an oasis. I sat a moment taking in the cool breeze under the shade of the trees.

Then I walked down to the board explaining the presence of a building down in the ravine made by the White River just below the waterfall. It was one of the first hydroelectric plants in Oregon. It was built in 1910 using the water from the waterfall. But the river received its name from the white silt and sediment that flows in the water. A holding pond was made for the water to flow into to allow the sediment to settle on the bottom before the water was put through the hydro plant.

You can barely see the old hydro plant down by the river.

The falls is beautiful and as always, I gain serenity and energy from any for of flowing water. I wonder if it’s due to my sign being Cancer? Something I need to look up.

White River Falls

This little side trip was fun, interesting, and hopefully like many more I take when out and about judging at county fairs. Do you like to side trips when you are traveling? 

Fun Things in July

This month is not as crazy as last month or as crazy as next month will be, but it is packed full of book stuff!

To start off, I am writing a book this month. Yes, all 70k+ words. It is book 6 in the Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries, Down & Dirty. That means I have to write 3k words every day. So far, I’m doing that and a bit more. I would love to have this book finished and ready for my critique partners and beta readers before July 28th.

The goal is to get it published before I head off on my month-long vacation in September. That means I need the full month of August for my support staff ( CPs, beta readers, editor, proofreader) to get through it while I am doing the edits and revisions so it will be ready to release September 6th.

Along with writing the book, I have several promotions rolling out this month.

Right now you can get the first three Shandra Higheagle mysteries in audiobook format for $0.99! Yes! You read that right. For less than a dollar you can get three audiobooks. It’s in conjunction with the Indie Audiobook Deals Not only do you get a great deal on my book other indie authors also have great deals on audiobooks. You can check them out here: https://linktr.ee/indieaudiobookdeals But check them out today because it is the last day for the event. (You can still find my book for $0.99 through this weekend)

And all this month, you can get the first book of my Isabella Mumphrey Action Adventure/ Romantic Suspense trilogy for $0.99 in ebook at Kobo or other ebook vendors.

Secrets of a Mayan Moon

What happens when a brilliant anthropologist is lured to the jungle to be used as a human sacrifice?

Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish, her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys, artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.

DEA agent Tino Kosta is out to avenge the deaths of his family. He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood taking him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle

***

If you aren’t already someone who gets my monthly newsletter you might want to check it out: https://ckarchive.com/b/lmuehmh08zm5lsd7kkm78cdoo5v00hg In my newsletter you learn about my books in progress, what I’ve been up to, get links to free books from authors who write similar books to mine, and I have a fun word puzzle for you to do every month. If you’d like to subscribe you can use this link and receive a free book or short story: https://bit.ly/2IhmWcm

Another way to see what all I’m up to is by following not only this blog but Ladies of Mystery. It’s a blog I started 6 years ago for mystery authors to share their thoughts on writing and their books with readers. I’m proud of how it has grown. I blog there monthly on the 2nd Monday.

Now to get back to writing! Only 42,649 words to go!

The Archeology and Cultural Keepers Roadshow

I may live in a large county with a small population in SE Oregon but there is always something interesting going on. On Saturday, I attended The Archeology and Cultural Keepers Roadshow in the Hines, OR Park.

The opening comments told me it has been happening in Harney County for many years. Why this is the first year I discovered it before it happened, I don’t know. It is the type of event that I like to wander through.

There were booths telling about archeological finds in the area, about rocks, and groups in the area. There were several booths hosted by the Burns Paiute tribe. The people in the Burns area are mostly descendants of the Wadatika Band. They originally roamed 5250 square miles in central-southeastern Oregon, Northern Nevada, northwestern California and western Idaho. They are one of the few tribes who were allowed to keep their language. Because the the Bannock War of 1878 forced the Wadatika from the land the government granted them in 1869 called the Malheur Reservation, when the Paiutes returned after being forced to Washington, they Malheur had been taken back by the government. The Wadatika who returned set up a temporary tribal encampment outside of Burns, OR. The tribe eventually purchased the land and it is now the Burns Paiute Reservation.

Because they are welcomed by the community, the tribal members work with the Harney County Chamber to share their culture with everyone. It was through the Harney Chamber and tribal member Beverly Beers that I participated in the pine needle basket making event.

At the Roadshow, I visited with Beverly at her booth that showcased the methods of baskets and weirs that the Wadatika made from natural resources. Pine needles, tule, and sticks. Another booth showcased the first foods the tribe has lived on for centuries. I learned about the biscuitroot and was even given one to sample. It was small and white and when peeled tasted like a parsnip. I should have taken a photo of it before I ate it! They also had chokecherries. I didn’t realize they were so small! And a blanket made from rabbit skins. It looked warm and felt soft.

Dogbane plant
Dogbane in the various stages

Another booth showed how to make fiber from three plants. The milkweed, Dogbane, and stinging nettle. The woman at the booth explained the whole process to me.

Dogbane is the prettiest in color and I was told is the easiest to work with and the strongest of the three types of fiber.

You removed the leaves from the stems, then she used a rolling pin to crack the stem open by rolling the pin down the stem. She said at home she uses an old wringer machine, like they used to wring out wet clothing that had been washed.

Stinging nettle the next strongest
Milkweed, the weakest of the fibers and the hardest to work with.

After the stem is cracked the center or the plant is scraped out and then the outer layer of the stem is made wet and the “skin” of the plant is scraped off with a table knife or a flat piece of obsidian. All that is left is the fiber.

The fiber can be used to weave cloth or braid to make strings.

braiding made with the fibers.

If you know the plants and know how to extract the fibers from the stems, you can make a shoestring, or a snare, or any number or items to help you if you are out in the wilderness. I am already conjuring up ways Hawke can use this method of making a snare or fishing if he is in the woods and can’t travel back to civilization.

I enjoy events where I can learn something new and possibly put it in a book and enlighten others.

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.

Indigenous Peoples Day

As a writer of Native American characters in my books, and not being Native American, I keep abreast of all the ways Indigenous people are being heard and seen. In fact, that is the main reason for my three mystery series. I started the Shandra Higheagle Mystery series with the desire to write about a culture I have been in awe with my whole life. And have felt have been unjustly treated.

My mystery books are not only written with a twisty mystery, but I also deliver a small amount of Indigenous culture and what they deal with from people who don’t care to understand their culture. Shandra Higheagle had a Nez Perce father and a White mother. I had her raised in the white world and brought her back to her Nez Perce family as an adult. Having her learn about her culture as I did.

My Gabriel Hawke books, I have a character with a Nez Perce Father and a Cayuse/Umatilla mother. He grew up on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla reservation but went straight into the Marines from high school and from there straight into the Oregon State Police, living off the reservation. He as he is aging and seeing an end to his career as a trooper is returning to his culture. Which again, allows me to learn more and bring it to my readers through his eyes and emotion.

The third series, Spotted Pony Casino, is set on the Umatilla Reservation in a fictional casino. My main character grew up on the reservation but with a White mother and she believed a Hispanic father. While she was around the culture, they didn’t embrace it in their home. Once again, I can show the reservation life and the culture through this character’s eyes and the secondary characters in her life. For this series I also subscribe to the reservation newspaper as well as I have contacts that I use to help me keep the lifestyle and culture as accurate as I can while not living there or being of the culture.

Today is a day where we recognize and appreciate the Indigenous People of this continent. But it shouldn’t happen on one day. It should be something that is honored and recognized every day. Their beliefs in nature and how they are trying to preserve it along with their family values are something many of us have lost.

I hope you read a book or watch a movie with Native American characters or discuss this day and keep learning about their cultures today.

Southernmost tip of the U.S.

I can now say I have been the farthest south you can go in the United States. On my trip to the Big Island of Hawaii my friend and I went to the southernmost tip of the island. We were told about this spot by a local when we asked her what places we should see.

One morning we got up, had breakfast and packed a cooler with water and snacks and headed south on the Hawaii Belt Road or Mamalahoa Hwy. When we came to the Point Road, we turned down that and found a dirt area at the end of the road where cars were parked and there were porta-pottys and a snow cone vendor.

We walked over to the forty-foot cliff edge and peered down into the beautiful crystal-clear water. I loved the colors and energy of the sparkling ocean.

A man had just jumped in. I took a photo of him. He looked like a native swimming in the water. And come to find out, my friend started talking to the man’s wife. He was from the island and they were visiting from Seattle. She also dove into the water with him down below to help her swim around the point to climb up the rocks. There was a ladder down the side of the cliff, but she was too short to reach the rope that would get her to the ladder.

Another one of their friends jumped. I snapped a photo of him jumping.

There were also to boys fishing from a hole in the lava that was back about 60 feet from the ocean. The hole looked like it went down forty feet to water that washed in and out with the tide.

A young man and a boy were fishing off the edge of the cliff as well. The boy made my friend nervous. He would stand right on the edge as he cast his pole. They had large black garbage bags tied to their lines to pull the hooks out farther into the ocean. They were trying to catch ahi, tuna.

After hanging around there a while, we followed a trail that took us to the southernmost point. It was a beach made up of dead coral. It was sad to see so much bleached coral broken in pieces.

We didn’t take the hike or the drive around to the green sand beach.

Leaving that area, we ended up at Punuluu Bakery also a place the local woman told us to enjoy. We did enjoy the pastries and the lunch we bought there.

And that wraps up another day we enjoyed in Hawaii.

Book Happenings

My latest Gabriel Hawke book, Damning Firefly, will be releasing the end of this month. If you don’t want to miss purchasing it, you can pre-order it in ebook format.

Book 11 in the Gabriel Hawke Series

A church fire.

An unconscious woman on Starvation Ridge.

Gabriel Hawke, fish and wildlife officer with the Oregon State Police, helps with a fire at the Lighted Path church before heading out to check turkey hunters. He discovers a car wedged between two trees and a woman with a head injury reeking of smoke. Is she the arsonist?

Hawke encounters the county midwife gloating over the burnt church and learns she and the victim in the car know one another.

Two seemingly separate events lead Hawke to a serial rapist and a county full of secrets. 

Universal link to pre-order: https://books2read.com/u/bQeBDZ

Hiking the Edge of a Crater

Our next stop was the Kilauea Visitor Center for the Kaluapele volcano caldera. Here we entered the park and strolled through the visitor center learning about the Kilauea Caldera which is an active shield volcano. Meaning it is a low-profile volcano looking like a warrior’s shield sitting on the ground. It is formed by highly fluid lava. Steady eruptions are what make the dome like volcano due to the slow of the fluid lava.

After leaving the visitor center we drove to a trail that went along the edge of the caldera. There were a lot of different foliage, and we struck up conversations with people from the states as well as other countries. The trail was dirt with lots of roots sticking up to catch a toe on.

We also saw a couple of cracks in lava tubes that ran under the path where we walked.

Looking down into the caldera we could see people walking across the crusty floor of the crater.

See the trail where people hike?

We thought we were going to get to a lava tunnel, but we came to another parking lot and thought maybe we missed the tunnel. We turned around and walked back only to discover we hadn’t missed it. We drove on and found the parking lot that we’d walked to and found the tunnel across the parking. Only there were so many cars there we couldn’t find a place to park to explore the tunnel. So fair warning, when you get to the end of the path from the first parking lot, cross the second parking lot and you will find the tunnel.

Tamkaliks Ceremony

The third week of July, I attended the Tamkaliks Ceremony held in Wallowa, Oregon. My brother, sister-in-law, and I arrived Saturday morning before the horse procession. This is where members of tribes who once lived in Wallowa County ride horses around the dance arbor. A riderless horse is led by one of the riders. This symbolizes the ancestors who have passed and any tribal members who were lost the past year. They ride slowly around the arbor, and begin singing, until they finally dismount and enter the arbor.

Every time I witness this procession it makes me emotional. The reason I write the characters I do, is to show the world how the Native Americans revered the land that gave them life and how resilient they are to be proving they are the stronger people.

That morning we joined in the Friendship dance and watched the naming ceremony, passing of the pipe ceremony, and gift giving ceremonies from the families of members who had passed since the last Tamkaliks celebration. The princesses who were at the celebration ranged in age from 6 to teens. I enjoyed hearing each of them tell us about themselves in their language and then repeat it in English. I love that the young people are learning more and more about their culture that had been stolen from the grandparents and great grandparents.

Around noon we headed to the Wallowa Historical center to look up information I wanted for the current work in progress. Then we had to go to the Josephy Center in Joseph for my brother to pick up his artwork and that of his daughter and wife that had been on display.

That evening we went back to Wallowa and watched them honor the veterans and the contest dancing. The beautiful regalia was breathtaking. The young men put on a show, with their bobbing, stomping, and twirls. The women’s dresses and shawls were colorful. Many dresses were made of the beautifully tanned deer and elk hide adorned with shells and elk teeth.

A wonderful thing happened that I had hoped for when I decided to go Tamkaliks. That was meeting someone who would guide me with my Native American characters. While sitting and watching the ceremonies in the morning, there was a woman below us who answered questions and taught a young couple how to say her dog’s Nez Perce name. I felt she was so willing to teach non-Indian people her culture she might be a good person to ask about helping me. When I finally got up the nerve to talk to her, she was open and willing to work with me. She said her new job was working with people like me to understand the Nez Perce culture. I gave her my card and she gave me her name, email address, and phone number. I’m excited to start working with her.

It was a wonderful weekend, gathering information for my books and immersing myself in another culture.