Redmond writer Jane Kirkpatrick has penned more than 40 books that have been printed more than 2 million times. She is now working on a new challenge — a screenplay — and the possibility of adapting one of her stories for the big screen for the first time.

But for Kirkpatrick, writing has not always been a glamorous endeavor filled with literary awards and film options. Her prolific career blossomed late in life and from a dry patch of Central Oregon desert.

Her first book, a memoir called “Homestead,” came years after she married her now-husband of 47 years, Jerry. The couple first lived in Bend, where he worked as a contractor and Jane as the director of mental health services for Deschutes County. The sudden death of Jerry’s oldest son jolted the couple from their suburban comforts.

“It was … almost an obligation that we live as fully as we can because life is short,” she said. “Did we want to be 85 and sit around and say, ‘Remember when we almost did that?’”

Jane was 37. Jerry was 16 years older. Both quit their jobs, sold their Bend home and in 1979 bought unimproved property along the John Day River. There was no house, no electricity, no irrigation.

Their goal was to do what a generation of white settlers had done in Oregon a century prior: Build a working cattle ranch out of 160 acres of sand and sage.

Ranch life

The Kirkpatricks’ attempt at homesteading on what Jane called the “Rattlesnake and Rock Ranch” did not get off to a good start.

A year after they took the figurative plunge, they took a literal one. While piloting a small plane that she had just learned to fly, Jane crashed. The couple was seriously injured — and progress on the ranch came to a screeching halt.

They had to recover from their injuries on the back porch of their under-construction ranch home. All the bones in her foot were broken, her shattered wrist was held together with metal pins. Her husband sat nearby, using a walker to move on two broken ankles. Their bodies were so bruised, Jane said their skin turned “the color of eggplant.”

But that’s when the community came to their aid. Sherman County ranchers and farmers showed up by the tractor load, dropping off meals and laboring in their fields.

Jane said she felt pathetic, sitting helplessly in her casts. She admitted to Keith Thompson, a farmer who had come to help her, that she’d never be able to pay him back.

“The best you can hope to do is pass it on,” he said.

The comment unlocked something in Kirkpatrick. She saw that community and togetherness had just as much to do with success on the frontier as the rugged individualism of Western mythology.

“If you dig down in there and you (listen) to some of the stories that are carried on down … yeah they were persistent, but they also lived well with their neighbors.”

She decided to write her story — 1,000 words at a time.

“I would try to write a memoir about this decision about taking risk,” she recalled. “I called it stepping out on the cloud of faith, believing I wouldn’t fall through.”

About a year later, she sent it blindly to a publishing house. They bit. “Homestead” published in 1991 and, more than 30 years later, it’s still in print. The book won awards, slipped into book clubs and found an audience — not an easy proposition for a first-time author.

“I think that began a real love affair with the power of story,” she recalled. “There can be a bajillion approaches to a story, but if you get a story and it won’t let you go, then you need to pay attention to that story.”

Soon she found other stories calling to her. She was drawn to fictionalizing the Sherar family that built a bridge and hotel over the Deschutes River and had a long, respectful relationship with the Warm Springs Tribe. It was titled “A Sweetness to the Soul,” and it again found readership.

Her editors starting pestering her for more and Jane got serious about writing. She told her publisher that she could write three more stories about frontier couples.

“The good news about that is that I convinced somebody this was a great story,” she said. “And the bad news is … I never know if I can actually write it.”

But now decades after jumping into a second career, Kirkpatrick has finished dozens of books. Some have been set in Central Oregon, others on the coast and elsewhere in the west. Some are set in the past while others take place in modern times. Many deal with themes of faith, community and personal courage that, she sees now, were at the crux of her earliest works.

She writes from 5-7 a.m. each day and does not demand any word count — just that she work at it consistently for two hours each morning.

Her latest work, “Beneath the Bending Skies,” was named a finalist in the Women Writing the West historic fiction category.

Connections to community

For many writers in Central Oregon, Kirkpatrick offers a template for how to turn a passion for the craft into a way to make a living.

Mike Cooper is president of the 150-member Central Oregon Writers Guild. The guild helps support writers via workshops, public readings, financial resources and more. Cooper marveled at how prolific Kirkpatrick is, and how she uses her relationship with audiences to bring in more readers and keep them connected to her work.

“A lot of writers are introverts,” said Cooper. “Jane is definitely an outgoing person and a great speaker and a great model for success in the writing world.”

Cooper said that writers can learn from her work habits and that her strong relationship with her customers is commendable. Kirkpatrick writes a popular monthly newsletter that her regular readers devour. She is also popular on the speaking circuit, traveling the U.S. and abroad to talk about writing, creativity and seeing projects through to completion.

“What Jane is doing with writing workshops and encouraging people is great,” he said.

Steve Forrester, a former Oregon newspaper publisher and part of the family that owns the EO Media Group, recently collaborated with Kirkpatrick on a book titled “Eminent Oregonians.” Forrester said he knew he was working alongside a writer who connected with readers.

“The enthusiasm of Jane’s fan base became clear to me when I realized that my aunt, Amy Bedford, had an entire shelf of the Kirkpatrick books in her Pendleton home,” he said.

He also recalled hearing Kirkpatrick speak at the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals marked the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

“Jane was invited to speak about Abigail Scott Duniway,” recalled Forrester “The two other speakers — Judge Susan Graber and a Portland State University professor — spoke from notes. Jane spoke for 20 minutes, without note. Speaking from a lengthy script in one’s mind is a rare intellectual capacity in a writer.”

Returning home

A few months ago, the Kirkpatricks returned to Central Oregon. They bought a home in fast-growing West Redmond neighborhood — a far cry from the homes of the pioneers, or even the Central Oregon houses that Jane first saw in the 1970s.

Jerry, now 93, has slowed down. But Jane still writes for a few hours each morning. She’s working with her film agent to adapt some of her work. And though she finds it slow going, she’s still plugging away.

“I would love to be able to say I have a script, even though it would be reworked a hundred times,” she said.

Even after finishing the writing and the rewriting, there are plenty of hurdles to navigate between page and screen. They must try to secure funds, court producers, work through another creative process.

But after decades at her desk, Jane said she’s learned to keep the faith. There’s a chance she might one day see her story made into a movie.“That would just be one more wonderful little adventure,” she said.