Guest Author -- Paty Jager

It is my great pleasure to have  award-winning author Paty Jager on my blog today! Thanks so much for being here, Paty.

Please introduce yourself. Tell us a little about the person behind the pen.

Howdy! I’m Paty Jager. I’ve lived a rural lifestyle most of my life. From living 2 ½ miles upriver from a town with the population of 200 to marrying and raising our children on 10 acres with animals, increasing to 70 acres, and now as empty-nesters, we have 280 acres and are 40 miles from a town that has most of our shopping needs and 10 miles from a small town that has a boarding school, four churches, and one café/market. Our community where we live has a post office, no other businesses or buildings and I love it!

Why did you decide to write historical western romance? What is the appeal?

Historical western romance wasn’t my first love to read and I stumbled into it because I couldn’t find help crafting a mystery book. I ran out of mystery books to read at the local library and picked up a Nora Roberts book. It was contemporary romance, but I liked how it was character driven. Then I picked up LaVyrle Spencer’s Hummingbird, which was also character driven and had a lot of elements in it that I could relate to, having lived rural with a root cellar, outhouse, and wood cookstove.  And I found a writing organization that welcomed me and helped me hone my writing craft.  The appeal to me now to write historical western romance is the fact I’ve been told many times my writing voice fits the genre and I have lived or done a lot of the things characters in a historical western would do. It helps me bring authenticity to the stories.

How much research goes into your books, and how do you tackle that?

I love the research part of writing a book. Especially, a historical book. I’ve always loved American history. I have two bookcases full of the books I use while writing. And usually when I start a new book, I add a couple more on a place or subject I need for the current work in progress (WIP). I like to purchase used books so I can stick post-it notes on the pages where I find my information and I can use highlighters if I want.  I usually read two to three books that have some kind of connection to the book I’m writing before and while I’m writing the book. I like to use factual events and information in my books. It’s my way of imparting some history to the reader without them knowing it. ;)

What is the best comment you ever received from a reader? The worst or weirdest?

I’ve received emails from readers that started out, “Darn you Paty! I started [insert one of my book titles] and I had to read it to the end. I didn’t get to bed until three in the morning.”  The worst or weirdest was on a blog tour I did for the first book of my Native American Spirit Trilogy.  Even though I’d had Nez Perce tribe members and the Nez Perce council say my books were factual, I had a Nez Perce member following my blog tour and saying mean things like I didn’t know what I was talking about and making a bad name for the Nez Perce. I contacted the council and I no longer had trouble with him.

Tell us a little about your writing style? Do you plan and plot your stories, or do you just plow through them?

My writing style has changed over the years. The first five or six books I wrote were totally off the cuff. I knew my hero and heroine and that was about it other than the research I did and that usually made up the plot of the story. Now I write up bios on the hero and heroine, I jot down the main secondary characters, do a conflict grid, and know the beginning, middle, and end of the book before I write it. I don’t do an outline because characters and events that arise usually take me on little side trips that later turn out to be useful to the story. I love when my subconscious does that.

Can you tell us a little about your current work, Claiming a Heart? Is there a story behind the story?

Claiming a Heart is the third book in the Halsey Homecoming Trilogy and the last book that is part of the Halsey Brothers Series.  When I finished the Halsey Brothers Series of five books, readers wanted more. So I came up with the trilogy of the three boys, now young men, who joined the family either through marriage or friendship.  Claiming a Heart is about the blind boy, Donny, who was befriended by Clay Halsey in Doctor in Petticoats. He’s grown now and works for Clay in a business that makes wooden tablets that allow blind people to write in a straight line. The first two books of the trilogy were easy to figure out. Jeremy in Laying Claim had been mentioned in the last Halsey Brother book, Logger in Petticoats, as having gone to Alaska. So his story started in Alaska and the Yukon. It had to do with him wanting to get back to Sumpter and his sister and the Halsey family. The second book again, was easy to decide how the story would work. Colin, the son of Aileen, the heroine, in Miner in Petticoats, went to England to reclaim the estate he inherited from his father, Aileen’s first husband. He is coming home and discovers his English cousin wishes him dead to take over his estate. I had to stretch my imagination to figure out what Donny’s “coming home” story would be. I had taken the underground tour in Pendleton, Oregon a couple years ago and that stuck with me. What if a woman was hiding in the tunnels with the Chinese? What if she was wanted for a crime?  What if she went to the aid of a blind man, not knowing he was blind?  And that is how Claiming a Heart starts. With Callie witnessing Donny being beaten. She drags him into the tunnels under the city and finds him a Chinese healer to tend to his injuries.

What sets your heroine, Callie, apart from all the other women in your hero, Donny’s, life? Why is she perfect for him?

Callie is different from other women Donny has met because she dresses like a young man and passes herself off as one as she hides in the tunnels. She is distrustful of males. But she is perfect for Donny because she doesn’t treat his blindness as anything grotesque or a disease. She allows him to do for himself and doesn’t give him any slack when his blindness could hold him back. Her learning to trust him, helps him to discover truths about his past that help him release the rage that has been simmering in the back of his mind.

Have you ever had writer’s block? How do you deal with it?

To me writer’s block isn’t an obstacle and I don’t believe in muses. When I find I’m stuck with a work in progress it usually means I’ve taken the story in the wrong direction or made a character do something that was out of character for no apparent reason. I take a walk, think about the story from different angles and discover where I went wrong. I don’t have a muse. I sit my butt in the chair and write whether I have an idea or not. Once my fingers start taping the keys and I let my mind go, the story will start flowing.

Can you give us a little background on your hero Donny that’s only in your author notes, and not found in your story? What inspired you to create this character?

Donny started out as a secondary character in Doctor in Petticoats. His first scene on a page, he trips over Clay Halsey who is blind feeling self-pity. Clay stretches his legs across the hall of the blind school.  But later the boy, Donny, is Clay’s salvation from having to take music and other classes that he had as a child or didn’t feel he needed. Through Donny teaching Clay, the two became good friends. When Clay returned to Sumpter, Oregon he took Donny with him to help in his business, making him family. I don’t think there is anything about Donny in my author notes that isn’t in one of the two books.

Describe a favorite scene in your current novel?

A favorite scene in Claiming a Heart is below. At this point of the story Donny only knows Callie by the name Mac. She uses this name so no one knows her real identity.

Donny heard Mac speaking to the doctor before he caught the scent of lye soap. Her footsteps entered the room along with the clank of dishes.

“Is it dinner time?” he asked.

“Yes, how did you know?” Her skepticism made him smile.

“I can smell the soup and hear the clank of the dishes.”

“Did you know it was me?” she asked.

“Yes. I smelled lye soap. The doctor smells like herbs.” He wanted to ask her about the cook who asked to marry her. But he knew better than to blurt it out.

“Soup,” she said.

He held out his hands, palms up. She placed the bowl in them.

“I see you finished the bandages.”

Donny swallowed the soup in his mouth. “I also tied knots in string. Makes me wonder what he’ll give me to do after a couple weeks.”

Mac laughed. “I’m sure Mr. Cai has all kinds of things you can do.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” He finished his soup while Mac chuckled.

“Are you going to eat?” he asked when he didn’t hear sounds of her eating.

“There isn’t enough for me and you. I’ll have Mr. Cai bring me something from the kitchen.”

Was she avoiding the cook? “I can be trusted to eat alone. I won’t drown in my bowl of soup.”

“No. I’ll wait.”

“Are you avoiding the cook because he wants to marry you?” He mentally slapped himself for saying exactly what he’d planned to wait to ask.

“No! How did you know he—and what business is it of yours!” Her footsteps paced the room. Six across, six footsteps back. As tiny as she was, she must be pacing at a lengthened stride.

“I heard the doc and some man talking. Then the other man got loud and left. I asked Doc what they were talking about. He said the man asked him to arrange a marriage between you two.”

The pacing stopped. “He what?” The pacing resumed. “That low-life pot scrubber. What the heck makes him think I’d agree to an arranged marriage? I’m not Yi. Why the lousy, no-good—”

 “I’d think you’d be flattered a man wanted to marry you.” Donny held out the bowl. It whipped from his hands, and he was left holding air.

A loud thunk echoed through the small room.

“What woman would be flattered to have men decide who they should or shouldn’t marry?” Her tone held more anger than the topic warranted.

“Is that why you’re mad? Cuz he didn’t ask you?” Was she sweet on the Chinaman?

“No! I don’t want him or anyone else to ask if I’ll marry him. I’m not marrying anyone. Men can’t be trusted. They leave or they carouse. There’s not a faithful bone in their bodies.”

“Wait a minute! Not all men are unfaithful. I know seven men who have always been faithful to their wives.” Donny had witnessed the kindness and love the Halsey men had for their wives. Just being in the room with one of the happy couples left a person feeling happy.

“Seven out of how many in the world!” She grasped his hand and shoved the teacup in his palm.

Liquid sloshed onto his bare chest. “Hey! Don’t burn me with tea because some other man hurt you. We aren’t all bad.”

“Says you! A man!” A rough cloth rubbed the wet spot on his chest.

“Stop. Just stay back so I can drink the tea instead of wear it.”

“Hmmph!” The lye scent disappeared and the swish of the curtain left the room silent.

What else do you have in store for your readers?

I’m currently brewing up a new historical western romance series that brings the hero and heroine together via letters. The tentative series title is Letters of Fate.  Each book will start with a hero receiving a letter that changes his life and brings him together with his future wife.  I also have the Shandra Higheagle mystery series. This is a contemporary cozy mystery series set mostly on a fictitious mountain ski resort in Idaho. Shandra is half Nez Perce who discovers clues to murders when her deceased grandmother visits her dreams.

Blurb for Claiming a Heart

Book three of the Halsey Homecoming historical western romance trilogy that is a sequel to the Halsey Brothers Series.

Callie MacPherson - or Mac - is hiding from the law. When she witnesses a group of lawless thugs beating a newcomer, she drags the innocent man into the underground tunnels of Pendleton. Caring for the man, Callie discovers she hasn’t become as hard-hearted as she’d feared.

Donny Kimball’s loss of sight didn’t blind his heart. It can see far more than his eyes ever could. His heart tells him Callie MacPherson needs him as much as he needs her. If only he can convince her of that before they both get killed.

Windtree Press http://windtreepress.com/portfolio/claiming-a-heart/

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012BOU05M

Nook http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/claiming-a-heart-paty-jager/1122371912

Kobo  https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/claiming-a-heart

Apple https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1022242727

About Paty Jager

Award-winning author Paty Jager and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. On her road to publication she wrote freelance articles for two local newspapers and enjoyed her job with the County Extension service as a 4-H Program Assistant. Raising hay and cattle, riding horses, and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Her penchant for research takes her on side trips that eventually turn into yet another story. She recently returned to the genre of her heart- Mystery.

You can learn more about Paty at

her blog; Writing into the Sunset 

her website; http://www.patyjager.net 

Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paty-Jager/132536633482029

Newsletter: Paty’s Prattle: http://eepurl.com/1CFgX

Paty’s Posse: https://www.facebook.com/groups/402519373168442/?ref=bookmarks

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1005334.Paty_Jager 

twitter  @patyjag.

I'm a Sucker for Lawmen, by Paty Jager

Peggy, Thank you for exchanging blogs with me today. I’m excited to be in an 

anthology with so many talented authors.

When the subject was brought up, by the western romance authors on the Amazon forum started by an avid western reader, that we should make an anthology, I was ready to hop on board. Any time so many talented writers put together a sampling of their work is has to turn out as a win/win. Readers get great reads in one book and 

authors can cross promote.

The only catch—I couldn’t think of what to write. Then the very same avid reader who brought us together on the forum tossed out one of her monthly challenges to write a paragraph or more using five words. Marshal, Preacher, School Teacher, 

Undertaker, and Baker.

I was in the middle of two other projects but the more I thought about those words the opening for my short story, Bluffing the Marshal, came to me:

Nellie Preston stood at the top of the family cellar gnawing her bottom lip. What would Pa do when he discovered she had the preacher, school teacher, undertaker, and baker tied up in the cellar? Even more important—she hoped kidnapping the men would not only clear her brother’s name but show the handsome marshal she had the grit to be married to a lawman.

By-the-book Marshal Barkley should be charging down the road any minute. By now word would have spread she’d taken the missing men.

Her sour stomach rivaled the guilt eating away at her good sense. This had been a brash move to get the marshal out of town, but her brother’s life and her future depended on his arrival. She’d made the four men as comfortable as possible in the cellar. She’d even explained why they were here, but they hadn’t taken kindly to being kidnapped by Marcus Preston’s sister.

Dust plumed into the air a mile down the road to town. Nellie squinted, staring at the dust, hoping the marshal came alone. He’d be harder to convince if he brought a posse and his deputy. They’d say she was just like her brother—a no-good-killer.

She picked up the rifle leaning against the cellar door and prayed her parents and the younger kids didn’t come home early from visiting their grandparents two counties over. She wanted Marcus out of jail and things back to normal by the time Pa came home. Marcus was her twin, and she loved him dearly, but he did tend to get in fixes that most young men knew better to stay away from.

Pa always said of the two; she had the brains and Marcus had the muscle.

Some of her agitation fled when she spotted one horse and rider running hell bent up their lane. Marshal Tate Barkley had come by himself.

She smiled. He probably figured he didn’t need a posse to bring in one young woman.

Nellie cocked the gun and waited.

~*~

I have several books that have lawmen in them. The first book of my Halsey Series, Marshal in Petticoats has an accident prone young woman who is made marshal and the second book in the series, Outlaw in Petticoats has the two main characters ending up in law enforcement by the end of the book. All five of the Halsey Series books are available in an ebook box set.

You can read about or purchase the Halsey Brothers Series box set at:

Windtree Press             Kindle                    Nook              Kobo     

With sixteen published books, four novellas, and two anthologies, award-winning author, Paty Jager is never at a loss for story ideas and characters in her head. Her rural life in central and eastern Oregon, and interests in local history and the world around her, keeps the mystery and romance ideas flowing. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it. 

You can learn more about Paty at her blog; www.patyjager.blogspot.com  her website; http://www.patyjager.net or on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/#!/paty.jager and twitter;  @patyjag.

Guest Author - Paty Jager

I'm thrilled to welcome award-winning author Paty Jager to the blog today. She's here to tell us a little bit about the Nez Perce Indian culture, and her Spirit Trilogy.

Welcome, Paty!

Peggy, Thank you for having me here today.

Here is some insight into being a Nez Perce woman in the 17 and 1800's I learned while researching for my Spirit trilogy set among the Nez Perce(Nimiipuu).

The children of Nez Perce families were taught by their grandparents. The grandfathers taught the boys how to make weapons, hunt, fish, track, and fight. Grandmothers taught the girls how to take care of their families, do the chores, and help their men. The elders passed down the stories of the trickster coyote and how "The People" came to be. By reading books of their legends you see how the legends taught the children basic truths about life and how to conduct themselves to be good Nez Perce.

Grandmothers also taught the girls about the coming of age and were by their sides during marriages and the births. When a girl began her menstrual cycle she would stay in the menstrual lodge for the duration of her bleeding. They believed the women carried strong powers during this time and were susceptible to getting pregnant.

This isolation served a purpose. They held private discussions about personal problems and conditions of health, exchanged views on herbal medicine, and composed songs. They cooked their own meals in the lodge and did not touch anything outside nor could they attend any ceremonies during this time.

They used buffalo hides with the fur still on for menstruation pads or buckskin and milkweed. The pads were put in a hole in the middle of the dwelling and buried. 

After puberty girls were no longer allowed to play with boys and stayed in a lodge with their grandmothers and aunts who taught them the ways of women.

To help make the premise work for my heroine in Spirit of the Mountain, she is the daughter of the chief and is allowed to live with her parents even after she is of age to be in the women’s lodge.

This information also was helpful for the second book, Spirit of the Lake, as the heroine in that book was attacked by a Whiteman and became pregnant. This is a case where the information I gathered for one book worked for the second as well.

The third book, Spirit of the Sky, required more research on the army chasing the Nez Perce and about how they(the Nimiipuu) survived along the route.

Blurb and Excerpt for Spirit of the Mountain.

Wren, the daughter of a Nimiipuu chief, has been fated to save her people ever since her vision quest. When a warrior from the enemy Blackleg tribe asks for her hand in marriage to bring peace between the tribes, her world is torn apart.

Himiin is the spirit of the mountain, custodian to all creatures including the Nimiipuu. As a white wolf he listens to Wren’s secret fears and loses his heart to the mortal maiden. Respecting her people’s beliefs, he cannot prevent her leaving the mountain with the Blackleg warrior.

When an evil spirit threatens Wren’s life, Himiin must leave the mountain to save her. But to leave the mountain means he’ll turn to smoke…

Excerpt

Wren’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. “My gift is to save The People. The weyekin who came to me in my vision quest said this.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if staving off a cold breeze.

Himiin hated that they argued when they should relish their time together. He moved to her, drawing her against his chest, embracing her. The shape of her body molded to his. Her curves pressed against him. Holding her this way flamed the need he’d tried to suppress.

He placed a hand under her chin, raising her face to his. The sorrow in her eyes tugged at his conscience. To make her leaving any harder was wrong. But having experienced her in his arms, he was grieved to let her go. Even for the sake of their people.

Her eyelids fluttered closed. Her pulse quickened under his fingers. Shrugging off the consequences, he lowered his lips to hers. They were softer than he imagined. Her breath hitched as he touched her intimately. Parting his lips, he touched her with his tongue, wanting to see if she tasted as sweet as she smelled.

Honey.

She tasted of sweet honey straight from the bosom of a bee tree.

One taste was not enough. He pulled her closer, moving his lips across hers, tasting and savoring the feel of them.

Her mouth opened and she sighed.

 His body came to life. The sensations transcended anything he’d experienced before. How could one woman make him feel powerful and vulnerable at the same time? Why did he wish to crush her to him and never let go and yet feel compelled to treat her with the tenderness

one would give the tiniest of creatures? He couldn’t continue this way.

To hold her, to touch her soft skin. He would never be able to let her go.

He must.

He released Wren and stepped back, avoiding her eyes. How could he show her the sensations she brought to him then turn around and tell her they couldn’t see one another anymore?

This spirit trilogy is my proverbial book of my heart. I spent countless hours on research to make sure the Nez Perce culture is correct in the books and the historical information is accurate.

Bio: Wife, mother, grandmother, and the one who cleans pens and delivers the hay; award winning author Paty Jager and her husband currently farm 350 acres when not dashing around visiting their children and grandchildren. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

Paty is a member of RWA, EPIC, and COWG. Wild Rose Press has published nine of her books. Spirit of the Mountain won the Lorie Award for Best Paranormal. Spirit of the Lake was a finalist in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence contest.  Perfectly Good Nanny, won the 2008 EPPIE for Best Contemporary Romance. 

You can learn more about her at her blog; www.patyjager.blogspot.com  her website; http://www.patyjager.net or on Facebook.