Guest Paty Jager
Welcome everyone. It's scorching here in the garden, make sure to pour yourself some water. Of course, there is a lot of tasty goodies also. Once you're ready we'll begin. I have a guest today, we're in for a treat.
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.
Harvesting Hay by Paty Jager
My newest release should fit in with Mary’s Garden well. It’s Brody: Letters of Fate. The premise of my new historical western romance series, Letters of Fate, started out with the idea of writing a Mail Order Groom series. As I pondered the idea, I decided rather than an agency or newspaper announcement bringing a woman and a man together, I’d have a man receive a letter that changes his life and brings him to the woman he can’t live without. This element also made the books in the series standalone. One book doesn’t have to be read before the other as they are only connected by the hero receiving a letter.
In Brody, the hero, Brody Yates is taken from working the docks of New York City in 1891 to working on a cattle ranch. He’s never ridden a horse, or dealt with the daily chores of keeping a ranch running. He’s also part of the haying crew. I did extensive research into how they harvested hay at that time.
There were horse or mule drawn mowers that required two animals to pull it. The wheels turning made the sickle bar move back and forth cutting the grass. Mules walk faster than horses and make the mower cut better. Then a buck or dump rake was used to pull the cut grass into windrows. A sweep, a piece of machinery that was pushed by the horses, had long timbers that scooped up the windrows and hauled the hay to the stacker. The sweep shoved the hay onto the long timber tines of the stacker. Horse walked forward pulling a rope through a pulley that lifted the stacker tines and tossed the hay onto the stack.
The process was hard work. All of the equipment required arm muscles to pull on levers and lift parts of the equipment. The process would have been even more labor intensive if not for the use of horses and mules.
Blurb for 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:
Amazon Nook Kobo Apple Windtree Press
blog / Website / Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter
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.
My newest release should fit in with Mary’s Garden well. It’s Brody: Letters of Fate. The premise of my new historical western romance series, Letters of Fate, started out with the idea of writing a Mail Order Groom series. As I pondered the idea, I decided rather than an agency or newspaper announcement bringing a woman and a man together, I’d have a man receive a letter that changes his life and brings him to the woman he can’t live without. This element also made the books in the series standalone. One book doesn’t have to be read before the other as they are only connected by the hero receiving a letter.
In Brody, the hero, Brody Yates is taken from working the docks of New York City in 1891 to working on a cattle ranch. He’s never ridden a horse, or dealt with the daily chores of keeping a ranch running. He’s also part of the haying crew. I did extensive research into how they harvested hay at that time.
There were horse or mule drawn mowers that required two animals to pull it. The wheels turning made the sickle bar move back and forth cutting the grass. Mules walk faster than horses and make the mower cut better. Then a buck or dump rake was used to pull the cut grass into windrows. A sweep, a piece of machinery that was pushed by the horses, had long timbers that scooped up the windrows and hauled the hay to the stacker. The sweep shoved the hay onto the long timber tines of the stacker. Horse walked forward pulling a rope through a pulley that lifted the stacker tines and tossed the hay onto the stack.
The process was hard work. All of the equipment required arm muscles to pull on levers and lift parts of the equipment. The process would have been even more labor intensive if not for the use of horses and mules.
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:
Amazon Nook Kobo Apple Windtree Press
blog / Website / Facebook / Paty's Posse / Goodreads / Twitter
Comments
Mia McKimmy
www.miamckimmy.com
The Sacrifice
Leaving Sivadia
Hi Melissa! As hard and hot as haying is these days I don't know if I could have managed it back then.
Hi Mia! Thank you for stopping by.
Hi Judy, True, working outdoors is good for a body in so many ways. We have an alfalfa ranch and use big machines to harvest the hay. I wouldn't want to think about how much work it would be to do it all by horse now.
Thank you for having me, Mary!