Every time I start a book, I research. I’m looking for information about the area where I’m setting the book, events during the time of the book, and about occupations of the characters in the book.  And every time, I end up with way more information than I need and find something so interesting I start thinking up scenarios for other books. It seems to be a curse. 😉

Not really, I enjoy learning and exploring. I think that is one of the reasons writing makes me so happy. I get to research so many fascinating things.

For my latest book, Brody: Letters of Fate, the setting is a ghost town I discovered while doing historical research on the area we moved to permanently two years ago.  Locals kept telling us about a cave that was big and I mean huge, that had a mile long lake in it. I dug up the information on the cave and have visited it half a dozen times, taking visitors to see it. This was something I had to put in the book. The other thing I discovered was a town or community that had the stage coming to it until the railroad bypassed the town, leaving it to dwindle away to a sign and a house.  The town is Venator, Oregon. A gentleman by the name of Alphena Venator started a cattle ranch in 1884 in SE Oregon. Family homes were clustered together and before long everyone called the area Venator. A post office was established in 1895 with Louella Venator as the first postmaster. There wasn’t a whole lot more than this that I could find out about the town other than the stage coach arrived daily. But I liked the way it grew and used it as the stage stop and town closest to my make-believe ranch.

Other unique and interesting things I discovered to write this book dealt with how hay was put up in the late 1800’s.  I watched videos using horse drawn equipment to harvest the hay. From the websites I browsed, I discovered there were several different horse drawn mowers. The first one having been made in England around 1845. The horse drawn hay mower took hold in the U.S. in the 1860’s after the Civil War when manufacturing took off. As one would figure some of the first and best models were made by John Deere, Jerome Case, and Cyrus McCormick, well-known names even today in farm equipment. The amount of strength it took to pull levers and lift parts of the early-day machines is eye opening.

Having researched the equipment and the discipline it took to stay with the project until a crop was harvested and stored, I’m even more excited about an idea I have for a book that I’ve been kicking around for several years. It will be set in wheat country with a family of girls running the wheat ranch.

Right now you can pre-order Brody: Letters of Fate at a reduced price of $2.99. When the book publishes on July 16^th, the price will be $4.99.

Brody: Letters of Fate

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’d 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.

Historical western filled with steamy romance and the rawness of a growing country.

Buy links: Amazon / Nook / Kobo / Apple

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! …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