ENTERPRISE — A Wallowa County author, who returned to the region a few years ago, has recently put out her latest series of books.

Joyce Reynolds-Ward has self-published “The Martiniere Legacy” — “Inheritance,” “Ascendent” and “Realization” — all of which were released in October and November, with the third book of the trilogy coming out Nov. 15.

The books, which are based in the near future in Northeast Oregon’s “Thunder County” — which bears resemblance to Wallowa County — “explore a future where debt leads to indentured servitude and ranchers and farmers compete on a game show, the AgInnovator, to fund high-technology agriculture prototype projects,” she said.

At the same time, the books contain a thread between two of the main characters who are dealing with the fallout of a broken relationship.

“The protagonist, Ruby Barkley, is an ex-rodeo queen,” Reynolds-Ward said. “Her ex-husband, Gabe Ramirez, is on the run because of bad stuff he did. He was hiding out as a low-level saddle bronc rider. Ruby is big on her horses, she loves the ranch, loves the land. That was an element I wanted to bring into the whole story, a character like Ruby that loves the land and horses.”

The exes, who are competing against each other in the AgInnovator contest, realize their son, one of the show’s producers, is in trouble and in danger of indentured servitude, Reynolds-Ward said. Efforts to keep their son free lead to the couple revisiting what led to their divorce and to Ramirez being called on to help reform the Martiniere Group, a family-held, international tech conglomerate. Ramirez actually is a member of the Martiniere family, and is running because he previously testified against human trafficking that was taking place within the group.

The series is a return into a genre Reynolds-Ward has written in before — science fiction — but more specifically a new dive into a sci-fi offshoot called agripunk (agricultural technology) where she delves into mind-control technology.

“I’ve been looking at poking around at agricultural technology for a while. The John Deere right-to-repair issue caught my eye,” she said. “I’ve had kind of a fascination for biological robots — bio-bots. This got my attention more strongly as I started looking at how varied the field was.”

The book also ties in one of Reynolds-Ward’s own passions.

“I like mixing my horses and my sci-fi,” said Reynolds-Ward, who is a horse owner.

The set was not intended to be a trilogy, but as she wrote, that is what came about.

“It was originally going to be a standalone book,” she said. “The original idea was I was going to try to pitch it to New York.”

In fact, she is working on a fourth book for the series, and has a Christmas story tied to the set — “A Belated Christmas Honeymoon” — which is out now.

The author took about a year to write the set, and tried a new approach in releasing all three books in short order. She said that not only gets copies to readers quicker, but also helps maintain continuity in writing as opposed to working on books over a longer period and releasing them one at a time.

”One of the things with self-publishing that is recommended is what they call rapid release. You write a whole series and then release (it),” she said. “The e-book buyers can get everything all at once and are not sitting around waiting.”

”Somebody who has a mild interest in near-futuristic, wants to read about relationships, wants to get that rural feel in an agriculture or high tech setting might enjoy it,” she said.