The excitement of starting a new series by Paty Jager

Having always had a creative mind, I'm not sure if everyone gets excited when they come up with something that they think will be fun and challenging to make or do. However, I swear, little skyrockets go off in my head when I get excited about a project. 

That's the way it was when I wrote a short story for an anthology contest (it didn't get picked) and after I'd formulated my main character, I knew she would have to have her own series. The skyrockets went off and I started writing down everything I knew about her and what I didn't know. Where she would live and work. How she looked, her temperament, what made her the way she is.  

And before I knew it, I had secondary characters popping into my head. I saw where she worked. That was fun spending half a day sketching the Indian owned casino where she works. I made it fictional, but in a setting where there is an Indian Casino and Reservation. I'm using the real reservation. I hope I can make this book as authentic as possible without offending anyone. 

There is that downside, but I feel confident this series will be as well liked and hopefully bring more of the Native American culture to people who don't really understand it. Just with talking to one woman who has been helping me with a Gabriel Hawke novel which introduces my new character, I have learned a few things that are stereotypes and hope to enlighten more non-Natives while entertaining them with a good mystery.

Starting a new series comes with lots of fun things to consider. I've named the series The Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries. My cover designer and I have been working on a logo for the series and how I want the covers to look like. Since the series is about a casino I've decided the titles will have gambling titles.  I've already figured out the first three books- titles and premise for the stories. The titles are: Poker Face, House Edge, Double-down.  

Let's see, I have my character, some of the secondary characters, the setting, the vibe, the series title, book titles, oh! Since in my other mysteries the main characters have pets, I decided the other day that in the first book, my character will find an injured dog, and it will have to have a leg amputated. Because my character is an amputee, she decides to adopt the dog. I've been going through dog breeds and trying to decide what breeds her mutt might be mixed with. I haven't decided what size yet. I tend to like large dogs, but at the same time, I could see her relaxing with a small fluffy dog on her lap. But she's an outdoors kind of gal, so she would need a dog that would go on hikes and jog with her. So who knows, maybe down the road she'll adopt a lapdog or a cat. 

As a reader have you every wondered how an author comes up with new books or series? As an author, do you do this much before hand information or do you just come up with a character or a story and go for it? 

The first book in The Spotted Pony Casino Mysteries will be out in June. In May, my character Dela Alvaro will be in the Gabriel Hawke Novel, Stolen Butterfly. 

  

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 49 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. 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. This is what Books a Plenty Book Reviews has to say about the Gabriel Hawke series: "The blend of nature tracking, clues, and the animals makes for a fascinating mystery that is hard to put down."

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