No matter how hurried your life, you’re probably not as busy as Todd Tornay.

A married father and an emergency room physician at St. Charles Bend, Tornay, 51, found time to research and write the ambitious, self-published historical novel “Nor’westering.”

Even growing up in San Diego, Tornay had a fascination for the history of the Northwest. It’s taken a few decades, but that interest eventually led him to write “Nor’westering” over a period of two years. Those many alarms at 4 a.m. — the only time he could find a solid hour or more to write uninterrupted — have resulted in a 636-page tome about a guide for botanist David Douglas and fur trapper and explorer Peter Skene Ogden, both of whom came through the Pacific Northwest in the 1820s.

“When you read their journals, they mention their guides — ‘their guide did this, the guide did that,’” Tornay said. “So I came up with the idea of taking the anonymous guide and creating a character so that anything that happened in the book could be traced to things that really happened to someone … the word ‘guide’ functioned as a person that could have been in that situation.”

In his historical notes in the book, Tornay writes that “Nor’westering” is an attempt to meld together, as a writer, the two kinds of books that compete for his attention as a reader: “something of real stuff and value, such as true-to-life history, or something more facile and frivolous, like the fluff of a story or novel.”

Tornay says that back in college, he received encouragement during writing class with award-winning novelist and short story writer T.C. Boyle. “I knew someday I’d try to pen a book of my own,” he said.

Like many, if not most, new writers, Tornay found the publishing industry “less than welcoming,” he said. Lacking the time and inclination to track down a literary agent — a task that can be as daunting as finding a publisher, some writers say — Tornay decided to self-publish it. He used Create Space, one of many companies offering options for writers who go it alone rather than face the gatekeepers at traditional publishers.

The number of locally produced self-published books that arrive at The Bulletin, or whose authors we hear from, has surged with the rise of self-publishing. According to an October 2012 report by Bowker, the company that provides International Standard Book Numbers on books, the once small area of self-publishing has grown a whopping 287 percent since 2006.

A handful of popular self-published books go on to more conventional presses and more success: “Youth in Revolt,” “50 Shades of Gray” and “Eragon” were all self-published books that went on to be picked up by traditional presses such as Knopf and Vintage Books.

Tornay wouldn’t object if a big publishing house came knocking. “I’d still like to see if a traditional publisher might pick it up,” he said.

In the meantime, Tornay notes the local connection of “Nor’westering.”

“It is truly a local book,” he said. “The subject matter is local, written by someone locally, and the distribution of the book is thus far only local.”

At least anecdotally, it seems that self-published books about Central Oregon, or by a writer living in the area, may stand a good chance of finding traction with area readers.

Sue Fountain, who wrote and self-published “Too Cold to Snow,” a memoir about growing up in Bend in the 1950s and ’60s, tells The Bulletin she’s sold 300 copies of her book.

Here’s a rundown of some of the other books recently released by Central Oregon writers. Look for these books at area book retailers such as Sunriver Books and Music, Paulina Springs Book Co. in Sisters and Redmond, and Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe in Bend, as well as online at Amazon.com.

“On The Road from Burns: Stories from Central Oregon” by Ted Haynes ($13.95)

A resident of California, Haynes studied fiction writing at the University of California Berkeley and Stanford University. He first visited Central Oregon in 1975, and spends summers in his home on the Little Deschutes River south of Sunriver.

“On the Road from Burns” has 16 stories set anywhere from the 1850s to 2030s, written in styles from literary and coming of age to Western and science fiction. The book is peopled with cowboys, pioneers, Indians, lumbermen and aliens.

“Out of the Woods” by Bruce M. Jaqua ($14.95)

Jaqua, a single father from Sisters, set his novel about a father-son hunting trip gone awry in Central Oregon in the early 1980s.

“This book is meant to capture the excitement a boy feels when his father acknowledges him as a fellow man, and not just as his son,” Jaqua is quoted in press materials for the book. “However, the loving bond between father and son is not tossed aside for the sake of growing up. The catalyst for the son’s maturation process, although not ideal, is greater than any sink or swim test a father can give his boy.”

“Secrets from Cheyenne” by Dana Burnett ($19)

Burnett, who’s worked in the horse industry for four decades and has three decades of experience as a freelance reporter, says she opted to self-publish her young adult novel “Secrets From Cheyenne” after she heard the chances of a first-time fiction writer being accepted by a New York publisher was about 1 in 20,000.

The book is the story of Jessie, a rebellious 17-year-old cowgirl who understands horses better than she does people. While it is a horse/youth adventure, Burnett notes that the book is also about “learning to make greater connections with a kind of spirituality that is directly linked to nature and, some might say, to God.”

“Fish, Hunt and Trap a Little: True Tales and Tactics,” vols. 1 and 2 by Wesley Murphey ($13.50 each)

Murphey moved to Central Oregon in 2003 and lives on five acres near La Pine. In the 1990s, he wrote two books about beaver trapping and blacktail deer hunting, and a revised and updated version of the latter, “Blacktail Deer Hunting Adventures,” is due out Sept. 1. In recent years, he’s written four suspense books, including two historical novels based on crimes that took place in Oregon, all through his own Lost Creek Books concern.

For the recently self-published “Fish, Hunt and Trap a Little: True Tales and Tactics,” vols. 1 and 2, he turns his sights on his true adventures in nature.

On his website, www.lost creekbooks.com, Murphey promises these “stories will charm you, entertain you, teach you, make you laugh and … inspire you to grab your fishing rod, rifle or shotgun, or even a few traps and get out in the woods and waterways to experience nature at its finest.”