AJ's Tattered Pages: May 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012

Welcome fellow Contemporary Western Author, Paty Jager!!

I'm thrilled to welcome award-winning author Paty Jager to Tattered Pages, who brings an intriguing post offering a peek inside her world beyond the pages of her books! And don't forget to leave a comment, because she's graciously offered to send a $5 Amazon e-card to one lucky visitor!
Take it away, Paty!!

How my world shapes my writing

I’ve dabbled in different venues of writing over the course of my lifetime. First as a child writing plays for stuffed animals, then at thirteen writing stories of love and lust that my friends and I passed back and forth—adding scenes, to witnessing what words can do when an English teacher read one of my assigned fiction projects to the class, all the way through writing children’s stories for my kids, writing murder mystery when I wanted to kill someone (killed that person off in two manuscripts), writing for the local paper when it fit my lifestyle, and then to settle into historical western romance only to find myself still drawn to mystery/action adventure writing.

Each stage of my writing had to do with what was going on in and around me at the time so it only makes sense that I find myself writing about history—American History, specifically the 1800s has always been my favorite subject. I love museums, historical sites, and finding bits of history that were so integral to life when this country was spreading and growing.

I think having grown up in a semi-isolated part of the state that was slow to get technology brought out the pioneer spirit in me. Until I was twelve, my paternal grandparents lived with us. There were seven people in a three-bedroom, one-bath farmhouse. We had a woodshed where we chopped kindling and stored the wood for the cookstove. When we did get an electric range we still had a wood heating stove and used the wood cookstove when the power went out—which was fairly often. When the power went out we used kerosene and oil lamps, the outhouse, and hauled buckets of water to the house from the ditch. Looking back, it was usually in the winter that the power went out. And on many occasions the pipes from the well to the house froze, and we had to haul water to the house.

My family had a small herd of dairy cows and used an old hand crank separator to separate the milk from the cream. We used the milk for ourselves and the hogs we raised. We made our own butter from the cream and sold the rest to the creamery. We raised 100 chickens every year, butchering all but thirty, which were laying hens. I hated the smell of the wet feathers after I dunked them in the boiling water to loosen the feathers. And disemboweling them and cutting them up—I’d always offer to fold clothes, clean the bathroom, or whatever other chore I could think of, than spend hours smelling the feathers and butchered chickens. My grandmother sold extra eggs to neighbors and the local grocery store.

These are all events in my life that easily happened in the era of the historical westerns I write. I can feel the continuous heat of the woodstove, hear the clank of the metal plates as grandma put more kindling in the fire. Smell the acrid smoke that slipped through the chimney that went through my bedroom. I more or less lived the life I write about in my historical westerns.

And now, ranching with my husband, I've encountered many of the obstacles that I write about in my contemporary westerns.

And I grew up in the land of Chief Joseph's Nez Perce band and have always had a fascination for them and believe I saw an apparition of a Nez Perce warrior one summer day while riding my horse in the mountains. That moment has stuck with me and I believe that to be the catalyst that pushed me to write the spirit trilogy.

Now, I’m drawn to action/adventure and mystery stories. I believe the mystery comes from the fact that as I age I wonder more and more about why people do what they do and find the reasons behind the good and bad things they do intriguing, and this sets my mind up to want to write mysteries for others to unravel. The action/adventure stories allow me to live vicariously through my characters and visit, even if only through research, places I’ve wondered about.

If you are a writer, what shaped the genre you write? If you are a reader, what is your favorite genre to read and why? I’ll pick a name from the comments and send the winner a $5 Amazon egift card.

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

Her Contemporary Western, Perfectly Good Nanny won the 2008 Eppie for Best Contemporary Romance, Spirit of the Mountain, a historical paranormal set among the Nez Perce, garnered 1^st place in the paranormal category of the Lories Best Published Book Contest, and Spirit of the Lake, the second book of the spirit trilogy, was a finalist in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence.

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.

Thank you so much for visiting with me today, Paty! I love your photo...so, so pretty. And everyone else, don't forget to leave a comment to be entered into the draw for a $5 Amazon e-card!

XO AJ XO

Friday, May 11, 2012

Save a Kitty, Keep a Tale

Lionesses and felines in Egypt

Lynxes, leopards, tigers and cheetahs, cougars and jaguars, lions and the common house cat are all members of the Felidae family. :)

In ancient Egypt, both cats and lions were revered.

While the Egyptians chose the cat to represent the love goddess Bast, the fierce lioness shared her nature and her features with the goddess Sekhmet. Just as a cat stalks an unsuspecting mouse (or whatever catches its fancy), the lioness could stalk a stray Egyptian should he or she become lost within the lioness’ territory. Lions roamed the outlying areas of the desert, and it is said they charged with the pharaohs into battle. (1) The Egyptians thought the animals so fierce, the weather might shy away. Lion sculptures were even set at the pinnacle of temples, gargoyle-like, to guard against lightning.

In their pantheon, the lioness was a protector and companion to the god Ra. She accompanied him on his daily journey across the sky in his sun chariot. So, it was to Sekhmet Ra turned when he needed to teach humanity a lesson. In turn, she went on a rampage that nearly annihilated civilization. Ra mixed a sleeping draught with blood and pomegranate juice and tricked his daughter into drinking it. Whatever the recipe, the drink did the trick and calmed her wrath. (2) To this day, festivals are performed in summer to—hopefully—keep the ;) kitty satisfied. Revelries filled with laughter, with dancing, and...beer.

This is the basis for my story What Sekhmet Keeps presented in Dark Things II: Cat Crimes

And don’t forget, all proceeds from Dark Things II: Cat Crimes will be donated to The Cat House on The Kings, a no-kill cat shelter in California. For more information, see their website at: http://www.cathouseonthekings.com/

A collection of tales featuring feline mayhem, murder and dastardly deeds. Vampire cats. Scoundrel cats. Daring cats. Killer cats. Cats you don't want in your worst nightmares and cats you might want on your side against evil. Authors include Mary V. Welk, Patty G. Henderson, Patricia Harrington, Jim Silvestri, Ken Goldman, Shanna Germain, Anna Sykora and dozens more. Intro by Robert W. Walker. All proceeds from sales go to several cat sanctuaries across the USA. Enjoy over twenty-one “cat tales” and support a cat charity!

Sources:
(1) http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/lions.htm
(2) http://www.orderwhitemoon.org/goddess/Sekhmet.html

Buy links: Amazon for Kindle and paperback Lulu (for Epub version)

And now for sneak peek inside

What Sekhmet Keeps

by J.D. Revezzo

Betrayed by a false lover, cat shifter priestess Onfalia Mau lost her lioness soul and freedom to her lover's treachery and the testy goddess Sekhmet's wrath. Now, after three thousand years, that lover, Donkar, has returned with one thing in mind—to steal the goddess's scepter. Onfalia knows that to do so means to unleash Sekhmet’s unholy, bloody Slaughter on the world, and she'll stop at nothing to foil Donkar's plans.

Excerpt:

Claws dimpled his skin, as if she sought attention. She nuzzled her head into his hand and purred.

Chibale tapped her on the nose. “Now, don’t try to charm me, kitty. I can’t keep you. Out.”

She purred louder and nuzzled his chest.

“Oh, hell.” He carried the cat into the kitchen and poured her the last of his milk. “I don’t mind black coffee, anyway. But tomorrow, we’re finding your owner.”

He dropped his jacket onto the chair then sat down before his computer. The cat leapt onto the desk as he went to work. When he misspelled the goddess’ name, the cat reached out a paw and hit the delete key back to the S-e-k. Chibale stared at her. “Did you belong to an English teacher?”

The search engine suggested Sekhmet and he carried on with his work.

The cat slipped into his lap as he read the first promising page.

Goddess of Lions. A daughter of Ra; represented the scorching power of the sun.

“Lion. Sun.” He shook his head. “Never did understand these stupid stories. ‘When mankind rebelled against Ra’s domain, Sekhmet attacked, slaughtering thousands and drinking their blood.’ Sounds like a nice wholesome girl.” The cat shifted in his lap and stretched up, resting her paws against the edge of the keyboard. “You’re so interested in mythology, should I give you to Onfalia?”

She looked at him and he scratched her ears as he returned to his search.

Scepter, Sekhmet. “How does this tie into the stolen scepter? Any idea, kit?”

Two hours into his search, a headline caught his attention: Slaying Uptown. Occult in Nature?

“So obvious.” The cat meowed and Chibale looked down at her, meeting her tawny eyes. “Oh, you think so too, do you?”

Festival to appease Sekhmet’s slaughter.

“Hopefully they won’t do the opposite, eh kitty?”

There you are. I hope you enjoy this fabulous anthology. J

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE TODAY, J.D.! AND FOR GIVING US THE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COLLECTION OF STORIES AND HOW THE PROCEEDS GO TOWARD THIS VERY WORTHY CAUSE!

XO AJ XO