Tag: Writing

October!

Three-quarters of 2025 is over! Where did the time go? I swear, as I get older, the days, weeks, and months go by faster and faster. I never have enough time in a day to do everything that I want to do.

I have been busy packing in events to attend through the rest of the year. I missed out on a few but I’m excited for the ones I have signed up to do.

  • October 6th – Harvest of Books – Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, Baker City, OR – 9 AM – 3 PM
  • Nov. 8th & 9th – Bruneau Cowboy Christmas – Bruneau, ID 10-5 & 10-4
  • Dec. 5th & 6th – 4-H Christmas Bazaar – Baker City, OR – 12- 5 PM & 9 AM -5 PM
  • Dec. 13th – 2025 Authors & Artists Fair – Atrium at Lane Events Center Eugene, OR – 10 AM – 5 PM

The 4-H Christmas Bazaar, I still have to sign up for. They aren’t taking applications until October 6th. But I plan to be at their door to sign up that day. These are all new events that I’ve not attended before. The Bruneau Cowboy Christmas is HUGE! My daughter is sharing the booth with me and selling her fudge, lip balm, and pork gift packs. We are also taking her oldest daughter and my oldest daughter to help with stocking and selling. They say they get 20,000 people to the event.

Then the other big event will be the Authors & Artists Fair. It’s in conjunction with a big Christmas Bazaar at the Lane County Fair. I was invited to this because of being at the State Fair book event. Happy! Happy!

Other good news on the writing front, Wolf Moon has been released, and so far, the reviews are good and people are purchasing the book! In case you are interested:

In the remote, snowbound wilderness of Oregon’s Eagle Cap Mountains, a sled dog race turns deadly.

State Trooper Gabriel Hawke is teaching winter survival to Search and Rescue recruits when he’s called in to find a missing musher. Arriving at the race camp, he discovers the musher isn’t just a name on a list—she’s someone his friend Justine cares about deeply.

As Hawke searches rugged trails and icy backcountry, the case quickly shifts from a rescue to a murder investigation. Then a second body turns up, and it’s clear the killer is hiding among the racers, handlers, or volunteers. The deeper Hawke digs, the more he uncovers buried secrets and dangerous rivalries.

Now, with a killer on the loose and Justine possibly in the crosshairs, Hawke must navigate blizzards, betrayal, and bloodshed—before the race ends in even more tragedy.

Available in ebook and print. My narrator, Larry Gorman, is working on the audiobook.

Ebook from my website for $1 less https://www.patyjager.net/product/wolf-moon-ebook/ or the Universal buy link: https://books2read.com/u/bWO1dD

Print from my website: https://www.patyjager.net/product/wolf-moon/

And releasing on October 10th is my new cozy Cuddle Farm Mystery series, book 1, Merry Merry Merry Murder:

This book is doing a Blog Tour from Oct. 10th – 23rd. You can find out all about the tour here:

Merry Merry Merry Murder (Cuddle Farm Mysteries) by Paty Jager – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – Great Escapes Book Tours

If you would like to be one of the first to get an ebook copy of Merry Merry Merry Murder, you can purchase it now at my website. https://www.patyjager.net/product-category/cuddle-farm-mystery-ebook/

Where comfort and cheer meet scandalous secrets—A holiday mystery set in a small town.

In the close-knit town of Auburn, Oregon, Andi Clark’s therapy animals bring comfort to the community, especially during the holiday season. When a young girl seeks solace from Athena, Andi’s therapy dog, after witnessing an unsettling scene behind the sleigh, it marks the beginning of a much darker holiday.

As the town gathers for the Tree Lighting Ceremony, a scream shatters the festive atmosphere. Cocoa, Andi’s loyal Border Collie, pulls her toward a chilling sight: a woman standing over the lifeless body of the girl’s mother, strangled with Christmas lights.

Determined to help the grieving girl and her town recover from the shock, Andi, her therapy animals, and her niece, a county deputy, take it upon themselves to investigate. As they uncover secrets and untangle clues, they stay one step ahead of the new sheriff and worry that the killer lurking in their midst could be someone they know.

Preorder here: https://books2read.com/u/mZ6qpJ

Two reads to keep you indoors as the weather turns colder. I am currently working on the next Spotted Pony Casino Mystery. Full House is turning out to be harder to write than I thought. When I came up with the plot, I knew it would complicate Dela and Heath’s wedding. What I didn’t realize was that by making Heath the suspect of a murder in a town an hour and a half away, it would make it difficult for Dela, Heath, and Quinn to investigate. Especially since Quinn was pulled from the investigation because of his past with Heath and Dela.

And that, my friends, is what I’m doing these days. Attending book-selling events and writing. Enjoy Fall!

My Fun Filled Year

It’s hard to believe that this year is nearly over. It was filled with fun, new friends, new books, and great opportunities.

We started off the new year with a trip New Mexico and Texas to visit family. Might as well go where it’s warmer in the winter. 😉

photo from our trip

I attended a new author event in Lebanon, Oregon, held by the Lebanon Library. It was a fun event and one I’m doing again in 2025.

I joined an authors group who promote audiobooks, trying to get more sales of my audiobooks. I think it’s helping and we’ll be even better in the coming year when I can sell the audiobooks direct from my website.

In April I attended the Left Coast Crime conference in Seattle. It is always fun seeing author friends and meeting new readers. I’ll be headed to Denver this March for this same conference. They move around every year. I also had a wonderful week-long Oregon Coast trip with my friends. I write and then we go out and have fun. I like to do this twice a year but because of my Europe trip this year we only made it to the beach the one time.

May was a busy month promoting books and selling books. I attended the Beaver-con a mini comic con held for the first time in Central Oregon. I manned a booth for NIWA (Northwest Independent Writers Association) selling my books and those of other NIWA members. Then the end of the month I attended the Memorial Weekend Sumpter Flea Market as author Mary Vine and I have done for nearly ten years. This year it was poorly attended. We managed to sell books but not like normally.

June was another busy month with manning a NIWA booth at the La Pine Rhubarb Festival, promoting and writing books, and being one of the speakers at a conference in Beaverton.

July was a writing month. I sat down and wrote every day to get a book finished so I could attended the Tamkaliks Powwow in Wallowa Oregon. And July started my trekking around Oregon judging at county fairs. The categories I judge are sewing, crocheting, knitting, cake decorating, foods, art, photography, writing, and various other things like leathercraft and pottery. If it’s a small county with only one or two items then I do my best to judge the items.

fishing platforms on the Deschutes River

August more county fairs and the state fair where I judged writing. The month ended with our Labor Day Flea Market in Sumpter. It was poorer attended than Memorial Day. We are rethinking whether or not to continue with this event. They have started a new one on July 4th that sounds like it is gaining in popularity and we may switch to that once a year.

September is the month I waited for all year! My oldest daughter, a granddaughter, and I set out on my bucket list adventure. We started in the Netherlands where we stayed with one of my husband’s cousins. She and another cousin took us around the Amsterdam area. I’ve been writing about the trip on posts here. You can go back and read about them and continue reading about them as I will have several posts. From Netherlands we went to Spain where we stayed with one of my nieces. From Spain we went to England, specifically Bath. And then the train to Scotland.

scenic Ireland view

October found us in Ireland. We had a week in Ireland and enjoyed every minute of it. When I returned from my trip, Hubby and I looked at houses that interested us in Baker City. OR. We found one that ticked off all buy one box and decided to go for it. We now own the house we will be moving into in a couple of years when he retires from his current job. We rounded out the busy month of October with a family reunion.

November was all about writing and selling books at two large holiday events. I had a booth with another author at the Redmond Holiday Market and then manned a NIWA booth at the Portland, OR Expo for their Holiday Market.

This month was all about finishing book 13 in the Gabriel Hawke series. And celebrating the holiday with family.

This month I have audiobooks, Yuletide Slaying (Shandra Higheagle Mystery) Poker Face (Spotted Pony Casino Mystery) and Murder of Ravens (Gabriel Hawke novels) on sale for $0.99 through Kobo. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the books or start listening to the books in audio, now is your chance! I even have the second books, House Edge and Mouse Trail Ends, on sale for $1.99 through Kobo.

That Week Between

We had a wonderful Christmas! Hubby and I bought a new mattress, the old one was OLD! It had dips no matter which side you turned it on. Now we are getting used to a mattress with no dips. I like the bed, but it is taking some getting used to. They make them so many different ways these days. This one arrived rolled up in a box. Hubby had a hard time getting his head around the fact your bed was in that small box. It was heavy which convinced him.

I enjoyed setting up a table and my books at two local craft bazaars during December. I like being able to visit with the readers and make a connection with them.

As always, my favorite part of the whole season is going out in the woods and walking in snow to find the perfect Christmas tree. I love the hiking, the fresh air, and the fun attitude of nearly everyone involved. For some reason husbands think we should cut down the first tree that catches our eyes. My daughter and I have the opinion we need to see more than one to make a decision. And sometimes we do end up going back to the first one. 😉

Getting the sleds out to ride up to the trees.

The whole adventure wouldn’t be any fun if you exited your vehicle walked a short distance into the trees and picked one. It’s the hunt for the perfect one that makes the event thrilling and fun. Also, the sledding or sliding down an incline and the hot chocolate and cookies afterwards.

This week in between Christmas and New Years is a hurry up and finish projects and get things ready for the coming year. I have a book I’m trying to finish but it won’t be done by the time the ball drops at midnight on New Year’s Eve. It will take the first week into January 2024 to get it ready to go off to critique partners and beta readers. 

I have my writing and personal goals all mapped out.

2024 goals

Professional

Publish The Pinch (book 5 in Spotted Pony Casino Mystery) write and publish Book #6 

Write and publish Gabriel Hawke books #12 & #13

Write short story for Windtree Press anthology – 3,000-8,000 words

Get the last Shandra Higheagle book, Vanishing Dreams, in audiobook

Get Hawke books into audiobook box sets.

Put audiobooks up direct to Kobo. Add more books to my bookfunnel account to do more cross-promotions with other audiobook authors.

Put up YouTube videos of me reading short stories and audio of my books with photo galleries.

Personal

Continue walking 5 days a week

Watch my carb and fat intake

Traveling

Keep up my personal blog

Do more horseback riding

I don’t make resolutions I make goals. That way I can tick them off the list as I accomplish them. And resolutions are more a change of lifestyle which isn’t a challenge so much as a mindset where I am a bit competitive and prefer to accomplish a specific goal.

Are you a resolutions maker or a goal maker? And why?

Half of a Prophesy

I had an epiphany this week as I stood in the shop petting our male cat, Cautious.

Over forty years ago, in high school our English teacher asked us to write about what we would be doing in, I think, ten years.

I wrote about my barn renovated into a house that I lived in on the coast. I was a writer and I had a tiger for a pet. Tigers have always been one of my favorite animals. The stripes, regal heads, intelligent eyes… They have just been a favorite, right up there with horses and dogs.

As I stood there, petting Cautious I noticed he had striping like a tiger, intelligent eyes, and a tail that liked to sway back and forth.

Cautious

And that’s when I remembered the English assignment and thought, “I am living half of my prophesy. I am a writer- 50 books published. I have a cat that looks like a tiger. And that’s where it ends. I live in a house that my husband and I built and we are a six hour drive from the Oregon Coast.

The interesting part about that assignment written so long ago, at the time, I hadn’t a clue what I wanted to do as an adult. I grew up in a small community before the internet and more than a few channels on the TV. There were few careers that I thought would be even close to what I would like to do. I had wanted to be an artist, but my dad told me I’d never make a living at it. That I needed to go into the medical profession.

If you know me, you know I am not a good fit for the medical profession. I don’t deal well with wimpy, whiny people. But I wanted out of the community where we live and my dad was willing to pay for me to go to college. I signed up to be an x-ray technician. Long story short, it didn’t work out and I ended up moving in with a friend from school and worked many odd jobs until my marriage.

As a young mother, I read voraciously. As I had all through school. I was always reading a book or two. 😉 When the kids started school, I took a writing and art classes at the community college. It was through those classes I began to think I could be a writer. That and the English class I had in college when I went off course of my objective. Anyway, I had an inkling to try writing. I’m not sure how I knew back in high school that was what I would end up doing, but I’m glad half of what I’d dreamed of back then has come true.

I’m pleased with my newest release, Stolen Butterfly, book 7 in the Gabriel Hawke Novels. Here is the info and cover for that.

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.  

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.

Universal Book Lnk:https://books2read.com/u/baZEPq

All Emotions are Universal by Paty Jager

As I am flowing to the end of the next Gabriel Hawke book, my mind has already started “stewing and brewing” the next book on my list. It will be another book where I write about an ethnicity not my own. It will require some reading and research. But as was said at the Diversity Conference I attended last year.

All emotions are universal. As long as I portray the correct emotions and bring the character to life as a human being, I will have done my job.

My next book is Freedom– Book 3 in the Silver Dollar Saloon series. Freedom is an African American woman who was born after the Civil War but still suffered at the hands of man who whipped his workers and withheld food if he thought they weren’t giving their all to their work.

She’d been caught visiting with her employer’s son when she was supposed to be doing the laundry. The man whipped her, leaving scars across her back, and put her on a train to North Dakota with only a few dollars. He didn’t want his son to be friendly with girl like her.

When she’d run out of money and couldn’t find anyone who would hire her, Beau Gentry came along. He told her he owned the Silver Dollar Saloon in Shady Gulch, ND and she could work for him. Unsure if she could trust another rich White man, she declined his offer.

Within an hour of declining his offer, a man of color walked up to where she stood on the street, asking the women who passed by if they needed help. He told her he was partners with Beau Gentry and if she came along with them, she wouldn’t have to beg or ward off advances from men.

And that is how she ended up working at the Silver Dollar Saloon. Her book will be about how she finds love and the life she’d been hoping for that matched the name her parents gave her- Freedom.

The research I’ll be working on is how African Americans were treated in the late 1880s and how to use a scenario I started with her in the other two books to work in her book. She is the best Shoo-fly pie maker in North Dakota which caught the eye of a trapper, but do I want him to be the man who sweeps her off her feet, or, do I want more conflict and her discovering he is a lot like the man who put her on the train?

If you have suggestion for books that would help me learn more about the life of African Americans settling the West, I’d appreciate it.