Category: Writing life

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.

New Release, Audiobook Deals, and an Event!

I’m excited to say that book # 13 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels has been released and you can get it in ebook and print. My narrator Larry Gorman is working on the audio version this month.

This book marks my 60th published novel-length book! I might just make 100 published books by the time I can’t write anymore.

Wolverine Instincts was a book that I found hard to write, only because most of it is up in the Eagle Cap Wilderness and I had to rely on Google Earth and photographs to try and get the setting as realistic as I could.

Here is the cover and blurb:

“In the heart of the wilderness, the hunter becomes the hunted.“

Gunshots shatter the quiet of Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness, drawing Oregon State Trooper Gabriel Hawke into action. Following the sound, he stumbles upon a shredded cage, the sharp musk of a wolverine, and a dead hiker.

Tracking footprints through the rugged terrain, Hawke uncovers a second victim. It’s clear—he’s hunting a killer who’s hunting humans.

With Dog by his side, Hawke’s search leads to two brothers, one gravely injured. Enlisting the help of pilot Dani Singer, he gets the injured man to safety before returning to the wilderness.

Teaming up with a reclusive, disabled veteran who knows the Eagle Cap as well as he does, Hawke pieces together the killer’s twisted game. They suspect a poacher—one as ruthless and elusive as the wolverine he’s still chasing.

In a deadly wilderness where survival is the only rule, Hawke must outsmart a predator who knows no bounds.

Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/m2yARG

Purchase the ebook directly from me: https://www.patyjager.net/product/wolverine-instincts-ebook/

Purchase the print book directly from me: https://www.patyjager.net/product/wolverine-instincts/

Today, 2/5/2025 is the last day you can purchase House Edge in audiobook for the low price of $1.99 at my website or $2.99 at major audiobook vendors as part of the Indie Audiobook Deals that I’ve been participating in. We are a group of Indie Authors with audiobooks that are distributed wide, not only at Audible.

Starting tomorrow, Feb. 6th you can purchase book 1 of my Shandra Higheagle mystery series, Double Duplicity in audiobook for $0.99! Either at my website or the Indie Audiobook Deals. Stay tuned for more of these Indie Audiobook deals. I’m thinking about making my Gabriel Hawke audiobook bundles only available through my website at a great price. I’ll have more about that next month.

If you happen to live on the west side of Oregon, I’ll be at the Friends of the Lebanon Library Author Fair on February 22nd. Not only will I have my books there for sale, I’m giving a talk about conjuring up a mystery. Some of the things you need to write a mystery and how I use them in coming up with mystery stories. My talk starts at 2:30pm.

I finished book 1 in the upcoming Cuddle Farm Mysteries that will be released in July. Merry Merry Merry Murder was fun to write. I enjoyed coming up with the therapy animals and the fictional small-town setting. Here’s the logo for the series. The cover isn’t quite fine tuned yet.

We had snow dumped on use yesterday! The winter had been fairly mild other than a couple of weeks below freezing. Now we have 16 inches of snow and they say more is coming. It makes chores a little harder but it is pretty to look at! This snow is so wet that when you look at it, you see blue in the in the indentions. Like you would see looking at a glacier. It’s pretty. I need to try to take a photo of it.

Stay safe and warm and grab a good book to get you through the winter.

Fun New Things for a New Year

2025 is here. There was a time when I thought that year was a long way in the future. And now, here it is!

I’m excited to get this year rolling. You can now purchase my books in print, ebook, or audiobook direct from my website! It took a few months at the end of last year for me to get it all set up and my web guy to set it up on my website but you can now purchase any book or version of the book you want direct from me.

If you buy a print book, I will autograph it, add a couple of pieces of swag, and ship it to you for free.

The perk of purchasing the audiobooks from me is the price is lower on my website than on the vendors, unless I’m doing a specific sale. Because I cut out the middleman I can make more by giving you a deal on the audiobooks.

And the ebooks are the same price, but if you subscribe to my newsletter, you will be able to get new releases before anyone who purchases from a store and they will be a dollar cheaper for a limited time.

So if you aren’t already signed up to get my monthly newsletter which by the way, also gets you a free book or short story from an author who writes similar books to my Gabriel Hawke series, and you get a chance to win a mug. Each month I’m giving away a coffee mug. This month it’s a Gabriel Hawke mug. February is one with artwork from a local artist.

This month I am starting a new series and first book. I may be crazy but the idea came to me for a cozy mystery that I haven’t been able to figure out how to bring in the Native American element I have in the other mysteries, but I’m hoping the crazy cast of critters will be enough to draw readers in.

The title of the new series is Cuddle Farm Mysteries. The main character, Andi Clark, is a widow who owns a group of therapy animals. She goes to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, shelters, parties, and events with her van and animals. During the course of these adventures they will get caught up in a murder some way or another.

Here are her therapy animals:

 LULU – a dapple brown and black female Chiweenie with long hair who barks at men but loves women and children.

COCOA – a brown and white female border collie who herds the other animals into the van.

ATHENA – Golden Retriever/Pyrenees mix. She keeps watch over the other animals.

SPARKY – a male mini donkey who likes to steal things.

CUPCAKE – a female black and white pygmy goat who eats anything she can get between her lips.

FLOPPSIE – a female brown and white dwarf lop-eared bunny who can get out of any cage she doesn’t want to be in.

CHICKLET – a female checkerboard silky chicken with crazy head feathers and eyes that hide behind her feathers but she sees everything. 

While I’m writing the first book now, it won’t be out until next October. It will take a while to decide on the cover and what things I want to focus on for the cover elements going forward as a series.

So stay tuned to learn more about this new series, the Gabriel Hawke and Spotted Pony Casino books I’ll be writing this year.

An Anthology, a New Release, and How to Stay Informed

I have a short story in a newly released anthology by Windtree Press. The title of the anthology is Imagine and my story is Another Life.

The story is about a woman, with an abusive husband, who wakes one morning to find him dead on the kitchen floor. As police, forensics, and the medical examiner move about and she is questioned, she begins to wonder if this is just another one of her fantasies or if she finally killed him.

This is a story that was the brainchild of my son-in-law. After spending the weekend with us and listening to my husband being a pest to me, he asked if I ever fantasized about doing something to my husband. And then he went on to say I could write a story about fantasizing I’d killed my husband only to have him be alive. When the title for this anthology, Imagine, came up, I knew what I was going to write about.

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

I think I mentioned this book before, but I have the 6th book in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series published. You can purchase the book in ebook and print. I’m working with my narrator to get it out in audio.

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

If you are interested in getting new releases before they show up on bookstore websites, you’d like to know more about the writing process, get a fun word game each month, and a link to a free book, you can sign up for my newsletter. It is the best way to stay informed about my books and writing and to learn about more authors and books you might like. To join click on this link: Paty’s Newsletter

Where you can find me at events this month:

Nov. 9th & 10th Old Fashion Christmas, Deschutes County Fairground, Redmond, OR

Nov. 15th-17th Portland Holiday Market, Expo Center, Portland, OR

Family, Flowers, Beach, and Poffertjes

On the third day of our Europe trip, another Dutch cousin, Wanda, picked us up. We visited with an aunt and uncle on my husband’s paternal side.

The dahlia farm

After the visit, we drove to a Dahlia farm that had 600 varieties of dahlias! All the colors, sizes, and shapes were gorgeous. Rietta cut some with visions of drying them to put in the journal she kept of the trip.

From the Dahlia farm, we drove to the beach.

We had a nice walk along the water’s edge. Rietta was excited to find so many full shells. On the Oregon coast, you are lucky to find a whole shell.

By this time, we were hungry. We came across a café on the beach that had swings for the chairs at the picnic tables. Rietta was excited about this discovery.

We enjoyed listening to the sounds of the ocean and watching the waves as we ate.

After eating, we wandered back toward the lighthouse. We climbed to the top and took photos of the views. From the lighthouse, we wandered a bit through the shopping area adjacent to the beach.

Back in the car we headed to Ouderkerk, we mentioned that Rietta’s mom wanted her to purchase 52 packages of hagelslag – it is a pure chocolate sprinkle the Dutch eat on buttered bread. Her family loves the treat. Her mom wanted her to get 52 packages so they would have one for each week of the year. Wanda felt a large supermarket would be the best place to get it. And so she took us to one. We counted out 52 packages and went to the cashier. She saw the heaped basket and asked how many. We told her and she put that number in the till. Rietta paid and we scrambled to find boxes to carry it out of the store.

When we arrived back in Ouderkerk, Wanda suggested we eat at the Panakoke Restaurant that Angie and I had seen on our first walk around the town. We agreed and we were happy we had. The poffertjes we had for dinner were delicious and filled us up. Poffertjes are small Dutch pancakes the size of a ping pong ball. They puff up when cooked and are served with butter and powdered sugar, or syrup, or fruit. I had the cinnamon apples with mine. Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water! It was the perfect way to end our third day in the Netherlands.

To make the poffertjes they use a special pan that has indents in it. But you can make the small pancakes at home in a fry pan if you like. Here is a recipe I found for them.


Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups milk 375ml / 12.68floz very warm but not hot (1 1/2 minutes on high in microwave), sub oat or almond milk
  • 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast 7g slightly heaped
  • 2 cups plain flour / all purpose flour 280g / 9.87oz sub buckwheat flour or half and half
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp butter 25g, softened or melted to grease pan
  • 1/2 tbsp icing sugar / powdered sugar to dust

Instructions

  • In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar and yeast, giving it a quick mix and making a well in the center.

                       2 cups plain flour / all purpose flour, ¼ cup sugar, 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast

  • Pour in the warmed milk and egg, then whisk into a batter. Cover with a tea towel or silicone bowl cover, and leave to rise for an hour. The batter should be double in size and look very bubbly when ready. Note: If in a colder climate, allow extra time and pop the bowl in a warm location.

                       1 1/2 cups milk,1 egg

  • Grease a poffertjes pan or frying pan with the butter over a medium heat. Once warmed, add heaped tablespoons of batter into each well in the poffertjes pan. Make sure to leave space if using a frying pan.

                      2 tbsp butter

  • Once bubbles start to pop on top (1-2 minutes), flip using a single chopstick or skewer (similar to making takoyaki). Allow to cook for another minute or two, once puffed up and cooked through, then remove from the pan. Repeat until all batter is used up.
  • Serve while hot, sprinkling icing sugar / powdered sugar over the top to dust.

                    1/2 tbsp icing sugar / powdered sugar

Recipe from https://www.wandercooks.com/

A Chance Meeting Leads to a Character

Have you ever met a person who made such an impression on you that you couldn’t shake it even days, weeks later? I had that experience this past summer while manning a NIWA (Northwest Independent Writers Association) booth. Myself and another member of NIWA were in charge of a booth at the LaPine Rhubarb Festival for a weekend.

On the second day, a woman walked up to the booth while the other member was on her phone. I stood up, ready to answer any questions. The woman smiled a broad smile and her eyes lit up with the smile. I thought what a lovely woman. She was dressed in a midcalf colorful, flowing skirt, matching shirt, and a sweater. It wasn’t very warm that weekend.

I welcomed her to the booth and gave the spiel about this being a booth with books from the members of NIWA. She nodded asked about a book that was in front of her then smiled again and said, “Elon Musk and I are spreading love all over the world and we would love to have you join us.”

Her words intrigued me. Did she really know Elon Musk? She was dressed in nice clothes. She held herself like someone who could move in those types of circles. “How are you doing that?” I asked.

She went on to say they believed in spreading love because the world needed it badly right now. As she talked I took in everything about her. Then all of a sudden her eyelids fluttered, her eyes kind of rolled back and I thought, she’s going to have a seizure. I was getting ready to get out of the booth and grab her when she looked at me with the fiercest gaze I’ve ever seen and said in a deeper voice, “I know where the bodies are buried.”

This took me by surprise and frightened me. I don’t watch scary or horror movies. I don’t deal well with the evil side of things. She said this statement two more times and then her eyelids flickered and she smiled and said, “Elon and I would love to have you join us.” Then she walked away.

I looked over to see if my friend had seen or heard any of it. She was still on her phone. I sat down, grabbed a notebook and started writing down everything I saw and experienced during the encounter.

As was in the beginning stages of writing the next Spotted Pony Casino Mystery book. I thought maybe I’d put the woman in the next Hawke book, but he kept coming to my mind and I put her in Down and Dirty, book 6 of the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series.

If you would like to see what I did with this character that was a real person in my life for a few minutes, you can grab a copy of Down and Dirty.

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.

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

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.

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!

Fun and Not so Fun

Since the beginning of the year. Jan 1, 2024, I pushed to get the next Spotted Pony Casino book finished. And it is off with my line editor and will be released February 22, 2024. So far my critique partner and beta readers have enjoyed it. 😉

The Pinch

Book 5 in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery

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.

pre-order link: https://books2read.com/u/38Y787

Now that is fun to see the cover and read the blurb! It means that this book is wrapped up all but the edits and uploading it to vendors. Which means… I’ve started gathering research for the next Gabriel Hawke book. As yet, untitled, but I had a good conversation with an Oregon State Police officer with the Fish and Wildlife who is helping me with this particular book.

Hawke and Dog will be patrolling the Snake River with biologists. While helping the biologists with their work, Dog will come across a decades old body or should I say skeleton. It’s what they find with the body that helps Hawke follow the clues to its death and others. So stay tuned for that!

I also have a YouTube channel where I have been putting up samples of my first in series audiobooks so far. You can find them here: Paty Jager – YouTube

If you are an audiobook listener, I am setting up audiobook specials with different vendors for the coming months. As well as I have a Special coming up in February for Double Dupilicity in ebook and audio formats. It has a new cover and I’m having a “New Cover Special.” I’ll be posting about it in my next blog post.

I have been trying to get my newsletter signup form and thank emails set up and synchronized in the new format my newsletter provider has upgraded to. It is a pain! As soon as I get it figured out and set up, I’ll post it here so you can get my newsletter if you would like to have a fun puzzle to solve each month and have access to free short stories and specials.

And here is a photo of my writing partner. She has discovered she can go from the back of my chair to the window and snooze in the sunshine.