Tag: #MMIW

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!

Red Dresses for a Cause

Two years ago, I discovered that artists and people who want to bring more exposure to the problem of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIWP) hang red dresses out in nature and along roads and highways to bring awareness to the problem.

Sharon Davis is one of the artists I contacted. Since seeing her display and learning about the MMIW through my research for the books I write, I have been purchasing red dresses from thrift stores to send to her. Because the clothing hangs in the outdoors they become ratty and weathered in no time. They have to replenish the dresses often.

You can find a write up about these projects at this blog- https://www.vogue.com/article/jaime-black-red-dress-project-missing-murdered-indigenous-women

Before when I’d travel around, I’d look for thrift stores to find baubles and glassware that I thought was a find. Now I go into the stores looking for red dresses that are less than $10. If they happen to be one of the special tagged reduced items for the day, that makes me even happier because I can purchase more dresses.

Here is a photo of my recent purchases. My friend who was with me also pitched in money to pay for our finds.

For those of you who may not know about MMIWP it is a movement to advocate against violence toward Native women. There is also violence against Indigenous children and men, but women and girls are the most affected.

While Native Women are only 2% of the U.S. population their murder rate is 10 times higher than the average woman.

The red hand over the mouth has become a symbol of the MMIW movement. It symbolizes the missing sisters who voices can no longer be heard. And stands for the silence of media and law enforcement. #NoMoreStolenSisters

Because of this movement the Indigenous people have been making headway in getting law enforcement entities to work together when a woman, child, or man goes missing or is murdered. They give support to the family members and help in the searches and making authorities see that the truth is found.

If you would like to help by sending dresses to Sharon Davis, contact me and I will send you her mailing address.

If you’d like to read my book that focuses on the problem, it is Stolen Butterfly.

Stolen Butterfly

Gabriel Hawke Novel #7

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.

You can find this book in ebook and audiobook at this universal link: https://books2read.com/u/baZEPq

If you would like an autographed print copy, you can purchase it through my website: https://www.patyjager.net/product-category/gabriel-hawke-series/

Top 2 photos source: Sharon Davis

What a Month!

Every May I talk about the same thing, but you know what? It’s because May is a wonderful month for me!

Forty-two years ago, I married my always entertaining husband in May. Which makes this an anniversary month.

It is also the anniversary month of my first published book. In 2006 Marshal in Petticoats was published by Wild Rose Press.

And now 15 years later, it is my anniversary month of publishing my 50th book! Stolen Butterfly, book 7 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels series is book number 50. I’m please to say that it is available for pre-order and is publishing on May 18th. Here is the information about the book and pre-order/buy link.

Stolen Butterfly

Gabriel Hawke Novel #7

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.

https://books2read.com/u/baZEPq

The proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the non-profit Enough Iz Enough. This is a community outreach organization that advocates for MMIW on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation.  

Because of my 50 books, I am hosting a 50 Book Bash event at Facebook all month. You can come join the fun and maybe win one of the daily prizes. Here is the link to attend. https://www.facebook.com/events/887343232080078

I love May not only for it being an anniversary month but also because it is when all the wildflowers start popping up. I enjoy my hikes on the hill to capture their beauty. Here are a few photos.

Desert paintbrush
Bluebells

Showy Larkspur

Luck or Fate

I don’t know if it’s luck or fate.

Fate: the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are believed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do: Destiny

Luck: a force that brings good fortune or adversity- the events or circumstance that operate for or against an individual.

Over the weekend I was able to connect with a young woman who is part of the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) movement. Through a series of emails to first authors I knew in the areas where my next Hawke book will be set, and then people who work in the domestic violence program at the reservation I was able to connect with this woman.

She filled me in on things I didn’t know about the movement. Yes, it is a movement and not an organization.

Movement: a series of organized activities working toward an objective; an organized effort to promote or attain an end.

Organization: an administrative and functional structure

These are family members of missing and murdered Indigenous people across the United States and in Canada. This has become an epidemic.

One of the things I didn’t know was how hard it is for families on Reservations to get law enforcement involved in looking for a missing woman or as they also started to use the acronym MMIP- Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person. There are also children and people of the LGBQT communities who disappear or are murdered.

My conversation with her was to help me get started on my next Gabriel Hawke book. In this book he is called to the reservation by his mother to help find the mother of a child she watches. When Hawke’s mother can’t get the tribal law enforcement or the Pendleton City Police to look for the woman, she calls her son who works for the Oregon State Police who has a dogged determination to always solve things that perplex him.

My contact is willing to help me in every way I need. She even has contacts on the tribal police and assured me she is as excited about my writing about this movement and why it’s needed in my book as I was connecting with someone who is so open and willing to help me make my book the best it can be with real facts.

I’m learning so much by writing this book and I hope I open the eyes of my readers while also entertaining them.