Category: Paty Jager

Thankful

~ patyjag ~ 6 Comments

It’s November the month when we have a small thing called Thanksgiving. Whether you sit down with family, friends, or just yourself it seems to be the day when we think about all we are thankful for.

Of course, Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that has been spun to make us be grateful for what we have. Which is wonderful, but we, well I know I wouldn’t be here, if it hadn’t been for the Native Americans who back in 1621 helped the pilgrims make it through that first winter in North America. According to my grandmother, I have an ancestor who came over on the Mayflower. If they hadn’t lived, who knows who I would have turned out to be. Which makes me grateful that the people who lived here were willing to share with the ones who invaded their land.

I’m thankful to have been born in the decade where we have lived through so many good inventions. But lately a few too many that I’m not so excited about. I feel their need to “help us or make things easier” is making use dumber.

Being a kid in the 60’s & 70’s was like being a feral animal. LOL During the summer, I could do my chores, saddle up my horse and be gone all day riding on the mountainside. As long as I made it home to do my afternoon chores and have dinner ready when my parents got home from work, they didn’t care what I did all day. And they didn’t worry harm would come to me or my brothers as we rode cardboard boxes down a long, steep hill, fished in the stream in the cow pasture, swam in the river, and sat out at the county road trying to sell lemonade to the summer tourists.

What I’m the most thankful for is my husband who early in our marriage realized that I needed to write to not be grouchy. There were times he’d come into the house and say, “When was the last time you wrote something?” When I’d say, “A few days ago.” He’d tell me to go write. I’d drop whatever household chore I was doing and write. It is my happy place and my therapy.

I finished the 9th book in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series, Santa’s Beard, last week. It’s with my editor while I’m on a short vacation with hubby. I hadn’t planned on working on the next book in the Gabriel Hawke series until after the first of the year because I have a lot of “marketing” things I need to deal with. But not writing isn’t in me. While I was walking my dog the other day, the beginning of the next book came to me and I’ve written it down. I know it will change several times before I actually start the book, but that’s how my mind works.

Now that the starting point for the next book came to me, I’ll be running things over in my head to find the best beginning and figure out suspects. 😉 One of my favorite parts is putting together the cast of characters who might be the killer. I like to have 4 options for the killer and yet, many times it ends up being someone who I pluck out of the air and don’t realize they are the murderer until I get near the end of the book. I love it when I surprise myself! Especially, when I go back to add in the clues and realize I had added them already. That’s when I’m thankful for my subconscious!

One of the things I’m the most thankful for are the Ladies of Mystery. The authors who post on the blog monthly and share about our guest spots with other authors. Without all their wonderful posts about writing and life, this would be a boring place. Our guest bloggers are mystery and thriller writers from all over and different careers. I love learning about other writers and picking up some good reads.

What I am thankful for the most are the people who follow and read this blog and who purchase our books. Our fans are what keep us writing. Thank you to everyone out there who reads and purchases books whether they are print, ebook, or audio.

If you’d like to stay up to date with my writing or learn about how I became a write, you can subscribe to my Substack. I post all the blog posts from the Ladies of Mystery there, share author friends and their books, and of course, my newest books and sales. https://substack.com/@patyjag

Have a wonderful month and fabulous Thanksgiving!

Would Someone Slap Me!

~ patyjag ~ 5 Comments

It seems like lately my brain makes decision without consulting my day planner.

First I was stewing and brewing up book 2 in my Cuddle Farm Mystery series and after writing two chapters, my brain decided that book shouldn’t come next. That I needed one in between to make the storyline of that book make more sense to the reader. (After all I know why a sister is acting they way she is, but no one else does, not my main character or any of my readers.)

I wrote a short story about the scene that is causing the trouble for Andi and Nina, the Weber sisters, in the Cuddle Farm Mysteries. After book 3 releases, I can put it in my newsletter for my readers. But they will have already learned why there is a conflict from the end of book 3.

Back to my brain. It decided that what I was working on was book 3, which meant I had to come up with another murder to solve in book 2. That’s where I incorporated my trip to 1912 Opera House and came up with Monologued to Death. It was a fun book to write, giving some of the secondary characters more color and starting a slight truce between the sisters.

Making the premise of what I thought was book 2, book 3, has made this a stronger series, I think. I hope the readers see it that way as well.

My process is I usually know what the next book I’m writing in a series is by the time I finish the current book in a series. I kind of had an idea of what the next Spotted Pony Casino Mystery book was going to be, but not really. Then I audited classes given by a Nez Perce Professor about Nez Perce History. The real history, not what is sugarcoated by history books. I have learned a lot and will continue to sit in when he starts up another class later this month.

Something he talked about seemed like a good topic that most non-tribal people don’t know about and is still a problem. I decided to make the murder in the book around fractionated allotments. (If you don’t know what it is, you’ll have to read the book. 😉 ) But I wanted the book to be not too far after the main characters were married, (the last book Full House).

Since Heath found out about a son, he didn’t know he had in the last book, I decided that they would have their first Christmas together in this book. Great! Except, I either have to get it written quickly to get out this holiday, or wait a whole year. I’m pretty sure my fans won’t like waiting, and I don’t want a book in between this one and the last one. Part of this story deals with what Heath and Dela did on their honeymoon. Which happened at the end of Full House. What they did and found out on their honeymoon was always going to be part of the next book.

The other stuff all changed.

Sooo, long post short, I am busting my fingers and my fanny to get this book, Santa’s Beard, finished, through beta readers and my line editor so I can get it released, hopefully, either the end of November or first of December. Would someone just slap me for letting my creative side of the brain take over and not even ask the logical side if it could happen.

Finding or Making Time To Write

~ patyjag ~ 6 Comments

As we head into the busy time of year, meaning the holidays and shorter days, I am feeling a bit frazzled. My goal was to have one more book out before the end of the year. Preferably in November where, it being a story set around Christmas, would be in demand.

At this time I have only 13k words written in said book, and feeling the pinch to get it done having just spent 6 days on the road selling books at the State Fair, came home with a cold, then headed 2 hours away to attend an event for research that will be in my next Gabriel Hawke book, then home for two days and I’m headed to another book selling event 7 hours away for 6 days.

When am I going to find time to write?

After talking to half a dozen writers at the last event I attended, I’m glad I am a persistent person who likes to hit my goals. Those writers either can’t find the time to write, or have written but weren’t sure of the next step, or they have ideas and don’t know what to do with them.

Finding time to write: I took my laptop with me with my WIP on it. I managed to write 5000+ words on it while sitting in the Fair Building waiting for the doors to open and people to arrive every morning. I plan to take it with me when I go to the Mt. Angel Oktoberfest, and when there are enough authors in the booth, I’ll leave and go write. I don’t believe it’s about finding time to write, it’s about making time to write.

If a writer truly wants to write, they will sit down and do it, if it means getting up at 4 a.m. or staying up past midnight, if they have day jobs or a family to attend. It’s kind of like the people who say, I do like to read but I don’t have the time. I read when I’m eating my lunch and right before I go to bed. I read paperback books, so the screen doesn’t keep my brain racing. If they truly wanted to read, they would make the time to relax and read.

Those writers I spoke to who have books, poems, or stories written that don’t know what to do next, I suggested they connect with a couple of writer’s organizations that I am a part of in Oregon. I told them to reach out to me if they have any questions. There were people, writers and authors, along the way who helped me out with writing, publishing, and promoting. I’m all about paying it forward.

And the people who had ideas. I told them to get a notebook and write down their ideas for when they do have time to explore them and begin writing. I have ideas hit me a couple times a day. If it’s something that keeps coming back and won’t leave me alone then, I take it seriously and figure out how to work it into a book, or in the case of the Cuddle Farm Mysteries, a new series, I didn’t really need to start.

Which segues me into, book 2 in the Cuddle Farm Mysteries is now on pre-order with a release date of 10/10/26.

Monologued To Death

When Andi Clark and her therapy dogs are invited to audition for a play at the historic Auburn Opera House, she expects a fun evening of helping local children build confidence. Instead, she meets a director whose razor-sharp tongue leaves a trail of hurt feelings wherever she goes.

Then, during a rehearsal, the director plunges from the theater’s balcony.

While Sheriff Skala follows the evidence, Andi and her best friend, Betty, trust Cocoa’s instincts. The gentle therapy dog had witnessed someone on the theater balcony before the fatal fall and caught the scent of something behind a locked door no one else thinks to question.

Between therapy animal visits to the local retirement home and hospital, Andi, Betty, and Cocoa discover a second body, proving the killer isn’t finished yet. As the suspects multiply and the danger grows, Andi realizes someone is determined to silence anyone who gets too close to the truth.

Can Cocoa sniff out the truth before the final curtain falls on another victim?

Pre-order Link: https://books2read.com/u/49zJyJ

Finding Ideas in Odd Places

~ patyjag ~ 8 Comments

It always amazes me when I’m listening to something or see something, and it triggers a book idea.

I just finished book 2 in the Cuddle Farm Mysteries, Monologued to Death. It’s with my beta readers, and I’m gathering the information and doing the research for the next Spotted Pony Casino Mystery book. I’m on the fence with the title. I decided to make it a holiday-time-frame book because it will release in November. If it wasn’t a holiday book, then I’d need to wait until January to release it, or it would get lost in the holiday reads.

So, I’ve been tossing around titles with gambling terms and holiday words. Because the Spotted Pony Casino books all have gambling terms in the titles. Right now, the frontrunner is Santa’s Beard– beard being a term for someone placing a bet for someone else. The premise is I have a person who is high up in the tribe and is known as a “Santa” type of person having someone else buying up allotments on the reservation for him.

Another author I was talking to thought the title sounded like something readers couldn’t figure out. But I’m betting, pun intended, that most readers will get it by the end of the book, and I will make sure the victim is referred to by the title at the end of the book when it is all solved.

The premise for the story came about from an online class I’m taking from a Nez Perce Professor who is teaching us the history of the Nez Perce. It’s a non-credit class I sit in on every Thursday night. It started 6 weeks ago, and we have about 2 more weeks to go.

I’ve learned things I didn’t know, and I’ve had things I’ve read reinforced. I found the information about the allotments given to tribal members on the Lapwai reservation informative. Learning how only 18% of the reservation is actually owned by tribal members because when the Whites wanted more land in the reservation, they bought allotments from tribal members for far less than they were worth. Or the Indian Agents sold to the White people they liked. When the Nez Perce couldn’t get the hang of farming, they leased the land to their White neighbors who eventually purchased it. And through the generations, it isn’t always handed down to the tribal members in the family.

Learning all of this, I started researching the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, where my Spotted Pony Casino books are set. They also had allotments assigned to families through the Slater Act of 1885. They have some similar situations that have made the tribe and tribal members land holdings at 52% of the reservation land. They are better off than the Nez Perce, but there is always ongoing animosity and people who are non-tribal who want the land.

There have been a couple of other points and reactions of the person teaching the class that will end up in either more of the Spotted Pony Casino books or the Gabriel Hawke novels. Because while I enjoy writing murder mysteries, it is the characters and how they live and what they think that I am the most interested in enlightening the reader about. As the professor said at the last class, “I am 60 years old, have multiple BAs and my PHD, I still respond fearfully to law enforcement, even though I have never been in trouble with the law, but they will pull me over because they see I’m Indigenous.”

This class has been helping me learn more about how my Native American characters should feel. It is also giving me more inspiration for stories that I can use to enlighten readers about the culture.

That is why I write indigenous characters and try to shed light on the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women). For me it is a passion to show the culture and the people who were here before anyone else and treated so poorly.

I HATE to miss deadlines.

~ patyjag ~ 6 Comments

I’m an Indie author. That means I make all the decisions from characters to plot to the endings of my books and when they will be published. I have a whiteboard that I use to keep track of a year’s work/publishing schedule. When I get behind or have to erase and change the dates, it makes me edgy and angry. I like to stay on schedule.

I knew the move I made in March would mess up my schedule. I made concessions for it on my whiteboard. Fast forward to June when I had expected to have a good chunk of the next Cuddle Farm book written and I was slogging in indecision.

Sorry about the reflections in the middle of the photo.

From the moment I finished book 1, Merry Merry Merry Murder, I knew what book 2 would be about. I’d run some scenes in my head and had already researched what I needed to know. I started the book, but it wasn’t flowing. Things didn’t feel right.

I took a break and went to a play with my daughter in an opera house built in 1912. I fell in love with the building and the ambiance, and then my height-conscious daughter walked along the balcony railing and was scared. The railing didn’t come to her knees, and the balcony felt as if it were pitching you forward onto the stage.

After that visit, I couldn’t stop thinking about that opera house. A story was forming in my mind and I had to go back. I bought tickets to the next play and dragged my daughter along again. The play was good, I paid more attention to the stage, the exits, and the short railing. When the play finished, we waited for everyone to leave the balcony and I did some experimenting and then we went down and I took pictures of the balcony from the stage. I wanted one for the cover the next Cuddle Farm book.

Yes, I set the book I’d been working on aside, realizing I needed more time (another book) in between book 1 and the book I’d been writing. It has to do with the discord between the main character and her sister. I wanted to show a bit of a change there before, what is now book 3, is written since it deals with the reason for the discord.

Back to my switching books. Because what had started out as book 2 was now book 3, and I had been brewing that story in my head for almost a year, I was switching to a book I hadn’t even thought of until 4 months ago. As I’d glance up at my whiteboard and see the looming date for the release of book 2 in the Cuddle Farm mysteries and I was still trying to pull all the suspects, the motive, and everything else into place so I could start writing it, my tension grew that I was going to miss the publish date and it would throw off all of the release dates through the rest of this year.

When I was complaining to a friend, she asked me, “But will it be a better book for the series if you write it now?”

My answer was yes.

“Then that’s the book you need to write and move the other publish dates out. They aren’t made in stone.”

Oh, but they are chiseled in my head. My greatest flaw is my greatest strength. I don’t like to be late for ANYTHING. It makes me nervous when I think I’m going to be late. I purposely give myself extra time for everything. And I had for book 2 in the Cuddle Farm Mysteries. But I had to wipe off my whiteboard and redesignate publish dates for this book, the next Spotted Pony Casino book, and the next Gabriel Hawke book. I wasn’t happy, and it made my stomach twist as I erased the dates and reset them.

However, this is going to be a good book and will hopefully pull more readers into this series. It also gives me more time to decide the direction I’m going with the next Spotted Pony Casino book. I’ve been back and forth on how to approach it, and hopefully by the time I am ready to start, I’ll have that story ready to rock and roll.