One Foot In and One Foot Out with @Patyjag #Historical #Western #RB4U

I can never do just one thing. I always have to try this new thing or that new thing even though I may already have something like it that makes me happy.

I’m the same way with my writing. It started way back, when I decided I had to get some of the events and characters in my head down on paper. The first two novels I wrote were mysteries. They were what I read and what I felt the most comfortable writing. But back then, I had a hard time finding a mystery writing group who would take you in and help you master how to hide clues and mold a good villain.

One day I picked up a historical western by LaVyrle Spencer and then checked out every one of her books in my library. This was what I would write. Historical western romance. AND I found a group, Romance Writers of America, who welcomed me with open arms and friendly advice.

That was the start of my writing career. I sold my first historical western to a small romance publisher and I was on my way.  But alas, historical westerns weren’t selling and someone suggested I write a contemporary western. I pooh-poohed that idea at a local RWA chapter meeting, two hours from my home. On the drive home, a talk show comment sent my gears a turning. I had a story thought up by the time I arrived home. And that book was published. It also won an award for best contemporary romance. So I wrote another one while still writing historical westerns. After all, I had readers wanting more of my Halsey Brothers. How could I let them down?

But I wrote two contemporary westerns, then wrote a Native American paranormal romance trilogy, swung back to finish the Halsey brothers series, and launched an action adventure trilogy, I’d hoped to make a series, but my readers didn’t latch onto it even though the first book won an award and received great reviews. 

Readers wanted more historical westerns. I added another trilogy and novella to finish out the Halsey Brother series and went back to my first love- mysteries. Now there is so much online help for writers that I felt confident to write the mystery.

The Shandra Higheagle mystery series was born. My daughter asked me how many books I planned to write in this series. She told me to quit before it got stale. I have plans so far for at least a dozen of these mysteries. But it seems each book I write I come up with an idea for another book, so we’ll see. ;)

Now that the Halsey books are done and readers still wanted more historical westerns, I came up with the Letters of Fate series. The big appeal Mail Order Brides seem to have to readers was the catalyst for this series. Only I flipped the gender. I have men who receive letters that change their fates. The letters bring them together with strong women who capture their hearts. I’ve written three books in this series and my readers are happy with my choice.

But as you can see, I tend to jump from genre to genre, which in some instances hurt my momentum as an author of one genre while following my shiny new genre. Now I have one foot in mysteries and one foot in historical western romance, though I am thinking about resurrecting two contemporary western romance books ideas I’ve been sitting on. But I’ll stay true to my tagline: Steamy western romance and murder mysteries starring cowboys and Indians. 

As a reader, do you mind if a writer you like writes in more than one genre? Would you rather be signed up for a newsletter only in the genre you prefer from an author or receive one that talks about all the books in the various genres?

My newest release:

Brody: Letters of Fate
Historical western filled with steamy romance and the rawness of a growing country.

A letter from a grandfather he’s never met has Brody Yates escorted across the country to work on a ranch rather than entering prison. But his arrival in Oregon proves prison may have been the lesser of two evils. A revenge driven criminal, the high desert, and his grandfather’s beautiful ward may prove more dangerous than anything he’s faced on the New York docks.

Lilah Wells is committed to helping others: the judge who’d taken her in years ago, the neighboring children, and the ranch residents, which now includes the judge’s handsome wayward grandson. And it all gets more complicated when her heart starts ruling her actions.

Buy Links

About the Author

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 25+ novels and over a dozen novellas and short stories of murder mystery, western historical romance, and action adventure. She has a RomCon Reader’s Choice Award for her Action Adventure and received the EPPIE Award for Best Contemporary Romance.  This is what reviewers says about her Letters of Fate Series: “What a refreshing and well written love story of fate and hope! Very well written but sometimes sizzling love scenes!”

All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.
blog / website /  Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter

Guest Blog: Paty Jager shares her stories and characters #RB4U #Holiday #Romance

Thieves, Artisans, and a Good Story

By Paty Jager

My love of the west and the area where I grew up, led me to write the Christmas Novella in the Silver Belles and Stetson Western Christmas Anthology. Christmas Redemption came about from my reading a story about a man from Joesph, OR who robbed a bank as a young man and twenty-seven years later became the vice president of the same bank. 

Van Donovan, the hero in Christmas Redemption, doesn’t become the bank president, but I used that premise as the catalyst for the story. At the age of fifteen he thinks being a lookout for a bank robbery would be exciting and knows it will infuriate his father. Van’s lark was soon over when an innocent man is killed and Van ends up in prison without one word from his family.

Van redeems himself by learning a trade while in prison and having the courage to come back home and prove to the town and his family he is a changed man. 

I gave Van an occupation you don’t see very often in westerns. He’s a boot maker. I spent several hours in the shop of bootmaker DW Frommer II, who specializes in teaching the art of boot making in the 1800s. While I spent all the time learning about the pine pitch that is boiled down and rubbed like wax into the threads that sew the boots together, hair from the back of a boar’s neck that can be split and used like a needle, and how the hole patterns the bootmaker makes with an awl can distinguish his work, I ended up using very little of this information. That is the way of most research, several pages of information are carefully written down and that is boiled down into a sentence or a paragraph in the book. Hopefully, learning about the different types of leather, the different threads and what is pitched and what isn’t helps the authenticity show through in what I do have about boot making in the story.

Christmas Redemption

Van Donovan returns to Pleasant Valley, Oregon where twelve years earlier as a boy of fifteen he left in handcuffs after standing guard for a bank robbery. He's learned a trade and excelled at it and is ready to prove to his father and the town he can amount to something.

Upon his return he learns the fate of the daughter of an innocent man who died in the robbery crossfire. To make amends he takes her out of the saloon and gives her a job, not realizing she'd been squatting in the very building he'd purchased for his business.

Can two battered hearts find solace or will the past continue to haunt their lives?

Silver Belles and Stetsons: A Western Christmas Anthology

Available as a $.99 boxed set for a limited time 

Bestselling and Award-Winning Authors bring you ten western romance novellas featuring alpha-cowboys from the past. This boxed set will take you back in time when 

men were rugged and handsome and the women who loved them, courageous and 

daring. 

Amazon

Paty Jager

www.patyjager.net

www.patyjager.blogspot.com

Guest Blog: Paty Jager: Building a Family One Book at a Time

Thank you for having me on your blog during my blog tour.

The Halsey family wasn’t even in my head when I started writing Marshal in Petticoats. It was the sixth historical western romance book I’d written and happened to be the first book to get published.

Marshal in Petticoats was about an accident prone young woman, Darcy Duncan, who ended up in a down-on-its-luck town in the middle of gold country. I was hunting for a place to put this story when I read a book about gold mining in eastern Oregon. I discovered a town that had its post office, building and all, stolen in the middle of the night by disgruntled miners who didn’t want to walk down the mountain to check for mail. This one event made my mind up that this had to be the setting for my accident-prone heroine.

After establishing the heroine and the town, I gave the heroine a younger brother so that her actions had merit for why she dressed like a young man and accepted the job of marshal. She had a strong family commitment, which meant the hero, Gil Halsey, wouldn’t, or at least thought he didn’t deserve to be in a family. He’d left home at a young age believing his brothers blamed him for the deaths of their parents and younger brother.

Gil had been a drifter until he met Darcy. When the subject of his brothers came up as I was writing the story, I thought a minute and gave them each a name: Ethan, Hank, Clay, and Zeke. And the next thing I know, Darcy drags Gil home and a reunion takes place. The four older brothers are determined to help Gil clear Darcy’s name, and they all ended up as secondary characters in the book. Once readers had a taste of the brothers, they asked for more Halsey books.

Since Zeke was mooning over a school marm in the first book, he and the school marm were the main characters in the next book, Outlaw in Petticoats. To keep Ethan, the oldest from being shut out of married life, I wrote the third book, Miner in Petticoats. Ethan as the eldest is determined he has to make the family mine take care of all the growing families. He’s come up with a way to make money for the family and help the other miners, but he needs land from the Widow Miller. She’s not about to sell. In Miner in Petticoats, Clay is injured and that sets him up for his story with Dr.Rachel Tarkiel in Doctor in Petticoats.  And last, poor Hank.  He had to wait until everyone else was happy before he could go after his dream and in the process fall in love with a very unlikely match. Not only is Kelda handy in the kitchen, but she’s handy with a whipsaw as well. At the end of Logger in Petticoats, I set up the possibility of continuing the Halsey saga with younger members of the cast, by mentioning Jeremy, Darcy’s younger brother, had gone to Alaska to seek his fortune.

When I finished the five books, I took a break from the Halsey family, but I kept receiving emails asking for more Halsey books. I thought on it a bit and decided I could do a trilogy with the young men who were brought into the Halsey family through marriages. First Jeremy Duncan, Darcy’s brother, then Colin Healy Miller, stepson to Ethan, and the third the blind boy, Donny, who was befriended by Clay and brought to Sumpter to help him with his business. 

These three books are the Halsey Homecoming Trilogy. In each book the young men have been away from home and are coming back. Jeremy’s story is, Laying Claim. Colin’s story is Staking Claim and Donny’s story, to release in late June is Claiming a Heart.

There will be a short Christmas story coming out in November with Shayla, Colin’s sister. This story will be the finish of the Halsey stories. In it, all the couples and their children will appear and help Shayla celebrate her Christmas wedding. If you want to know when that story is available sign up for my newsletter. I only send them out when I have a new release. And if you are a newsletter member you learn how you get the latest release at a reduced price. ;)

This month, I’ve set Marshal in Petticoats permanently FREE. I’m giving all romance and historical western romance readers the gift of this first book free so they can begin their journey with the Halsey family.

Marshal in Petticoats blurb:

After accidentally shooting a bank robber, Darcy Duncan becomes marshal of a town as accident prone as herself.  Darcy’s taken care of her younger brother the last five years, and she’s not about to take orders from a corrupt mayor or a handsome drifter, whose curiosity could end her career as a marshal and take away their security.

Gil Halsey is looking for his boss’s son who is riding with outlaws. Taking the young man back to the ranch will seal the foreman’s job. When he discovers the town’s new marshal is a passionate woman with high regard for family and being framed for a bank heist, he has to has to decide which is the better future—the feisty woman or the ranch.

Links to FREE download.

Windtree Press http://windtreepress.com/portfolio/marshall-in-petticoats/

Kindle http://www.amazon.com/Marshal-Petticoats-Halsey-Brother-Book-ebook/dp/B004W9C2II/

Kobo https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/marshal-in-petticoats

Apple https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id858169882

This book is also available in:

Print - $12.99 http://www.amazon.com/Marshal-Petticoats-Halsey-Brothers-Series/dp/1940064481

Audio - $17.96  http://www.amazon.com/Marshal-in-Petticoats/dp/B00IX3F0QA

Bio:

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.

She has published twenty novels, three anthologies, and seven novellas. 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.

You can learn more about Paty at her blog; Writing into the Sunsethttp://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/  her website; http://www.patyjager.net or on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/#!/paty.jager , Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1005334.Paty_Jager  and twitter;  @patyjag.

Guest Blog: Paty Jager: A Series is More Than Connecting Books

When I came up with the idea of Isabella Mumphrey a high IQ anthropologist who not only is single-focused in her studies of Native American cultures, but also becomes a Worldwide Intelligence Agent, I had the dream of it becoming a series. I envisioned her traveling to North, South, and Central American discovering new evidence about the cultures and working with her Venezuelan lover to uncover villains. There are so many different Native American cultures she can investigate as ruses to travel and uncover wrongdoings I could see this series lasting for a dozen books.

I had experience writing a series. Well, really writing five connecting books. The Halsey Brothers Series of five historical western romance books, hadn’t started out as a series. I wrote the first book, Marshal in Petticoats, which introduced four brothers of the hero. When that first book was published and readers wanted more Halsey stories, I one-by-one wrote each brother’s book. They weren’t thought out or planned other than the titles had to show a woman in a (at that time) man’s occupation. That was it. All the series plotting I had ever done.

With the Isabella Mumphrey Adventures, I knew I had to have the stories thought out and see a vision of how I wanted her to proceed not only through the books, but through her life. I sat down, researched the Native American cultures that I had always been intrigued with and penciled out the first four books, giving Isabella an overriding character arc and planning where she would be with each book and even coming up with the titles.

For the most part I stayed with the overall arc for both Isabella and the hero, Tino Constantine. But there were things that changed as I researched for each book and worked on the overall arcs. The main thing being that my original idea of four books to launch the series wouldn’t work. The third and fourth books subplots were weak. Once I discovered that, I merged parts of book four into book two and parts of book four into book three. Those mergers made books two and three stronger and got rid of the weak plot for book four.

Secrets of a Mayan Moon, the first book in the series set in Guatemala, shows Isabella’s determination and love of her occupation, her dysfunctional family life, and her social awkwardness from having been a child genius. It also brings her into the arms of a Venezuelan DEA Agent out to avenge his family’s deaths.

Secrets of an Aztec Temple, book two set in Mexico City, again uses Isabella’s occupation to bring her to the city to work with a museum, but this time in her capacity as a Worldwide Intelligence Agent. An occupation she took up to be closer to her parents. In this book her emotions for Tino and her desire to right wrongs is a subplot and Tino’s need for revenge is his subplot. This book has him undercover working for the very man he wants dead to avenge his family.

Secrets of a Hopi Blue Star, book three set in the desert of Arizona, re-connects Isabella with estranged family members and shows her the reasons behind her dysfunctional family while she is searching for a sacred kiva that could explain the exodus of the Hopi to the third world. Tino’s subplot deals with doing his new job as a border patrol agent and keeping Isabella alive. While this book gives Isabella a look at her past she hadn’t known, it also opens up new questions and a desire to bring justice to her family.

My goal with continuing the series is to keep that quest of family justice alive for a while and bring it into play in subsequent books. She and Tino will travel on more steamy adventures through South and Central American countries as well as a few more in the Southwest United States. The connecting factor between all the books in the series will be Isabella and Tino, her IQ and survival tin and vest that gets her out of tight spots, and her need to right wrongs whether it is in anthropology circles or crime. Also her Indiana Jones/MacGyver approach to problems.

Are you a reader who likes series? What draws you to a series?

All three books are available now as single title books, however, for a limited time June 15th -30th they will be available during my Birthday Bash Sale in an ebook box set for $.99. So watch Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Nobles, and Apple ibooks for the sale.

Buy Links:
Isabella Box Set
 http://windtreepress.com/portfolio/adventures-isabella-mumphrey/

Secrets of a Mayan Moon
Windtree Press
Kindle
Nook
Kobo

Secrets of an Aztec Temple
Windtree Press
Kindle
Amazon
Nook
Kobo

Secrets of a Hopi Blue Star
Windtree Press
Kindle
Nook
Kobo

BIO:
Award winning author Paty Jager is a member of national and local writing organizations. She not only writes the western lifestyle she lives it. With seventeen novels, five novellas, and two anthologies published, she continues to have characters cavorting in her head and enjoys teaching other writers. You can learn more about Paty at her blog, her website,  or on Facebook, Goodreads, and twitter; @patyjag.