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Hi All! We got home last night and spent today–our wedding anniversary–checking on the buffalo, making sure everyone was okay. We have one slightly lame calf, who probably stepped in a prairie dog hole, but otherwise all is well. We had a grand vacation. We spent a few days with Kathy’s sister and husband in Kerrville, Texas, where Karen made the most spectacular carnitas we’ve ever eaten, and Richard taught Mike how to make professional quality video and audio productions. Simultaneously, Karen taught Kathy how to navigate Pinterest (CHECK OUT OUR NEW PINTEREST SITE!). Then we went to hear our old friend and award-winning songwriter, Mike Blakely, play music in Marble Falls, and spent a lovely evening with his wife Annie. The next day we had lunch with writers, W. C. and Laurie Jameson. Laurie made a sweet potato and chili soup that was to die for, and a jalapeno cold slaw that was too wonderful to believe. W.C. had us laughing so hard with his stories that we felt all of our cares vanish. Then we drifted to the Badu Wine Pub in Llano, Texas, to hear W.C., Blakely, and Duke Davis play music. What a great few days. Just one small glitch on the way home, the front disk brakes on the motorcycle fell apart. Had to leave the bike in Ft. Collins, Colo. for repairs and rented a car for the rest of the drive home. Gosh, we had a fun two weeks! Hope everyone is seeing a brilliant autumn. Our buckeyes, cottonwoods, and aspens are aglow. Quote of the Day from John (Fire) Lame Deer: Artists are the Indians of the white world. They are called dreamers who live in the clouds, improvident people who can’t hold onto their money, people who don’t want to face reality.”

For the first time in over two years we’ve taken an actual vacation! The deal was that when we had a complete manuscript for PEOPLE OF THE SONGTRAIL we would load the BMW with tent and bedrolls and ride south. From Wyoming, he had a great ride down through Utah and New Mexico. Periodically we’d hit rain, but we’ve got the gear for it. When you’re dressed right, riding in the rain is fun! Had breakfast with our old friend Win Blevins in Bluff, Utah. Good to see you again Win! New Mexico was splendidly green! Haven’t ever seen that stretch from Albuquerque to El Paso look so verdant and alive. Then we had a phenomenal sunset between Van Horn, Texas, and Fort Stockton. The road to our campground was flooded out, so we “camped” that night at a Holiday Inn. Which brings us to the Twisted Sisters: the whole purpose of the ride. Motorcyclists collect roads. The Tail of the Dragon, 129, in North Carolina; Highway 50 in Nevada, 141 or 550 in Colorado, Beartooth Pass in Wyoming, the list goes on. The big draw in Texas is the Twisted Sisters: Farm Roads 335, 336, and 337 just north of Uvalde. They’ve been on our list for years, and this was our opportunity. So, yes, we rode them. Oh, and of course, we got the t-shirts!

We have completed the manuscript for People of the Songtrail. It’s a whole book! Now we have a couple of weeks of revisions, polishing, reading, thinking, and editing before we send it off to New York and our editor. Who will have suggestions for other revisions, thinking, and editing. We expect it to land on bookstore shelves sometime in 2015. This has been a tough one to write. Having gotten used to North American archaeology, and familiar with the research and environment, the Viking research really surprised us. Not only is there a wealth of information, but we kept running into oddities that no one has really considered, like seidur magic. Norse archaeologists make mention of the seidur magic artifacts in Viking burials, but rarely interpret them. Turns out that seidur magic (which became the foundation for most modern fantasy) was in conflict with early Christianity. We all know the story, right? Eric the Red was chased out of Iceland for murder, and found and settled Greenland. Leif Erickson looked west, and wondered if anything was out there, so he sailed off and found Vinland–North America. Turns out it wasn’t so simple. First off, Irish monks had voyaged all over the north Atlantic looking for solitary religious retreats, which was a kind of penitential exile. People knew there was land out there across the sea. Norse ships had already reported seeing it. The Norse and English were fighting a nasty civil war with factions at each other’s throats. Plagues were ravishing Europe. And mandatory conversions to Christianity sent numerous Vikings fleeing to find religious freedom. All of the above motivated people to look for distant, and perhaps friendlier shores. Nor was all Viking/Native interaction hostile since long-term trade was initiated, women were married off in both directions, and thousand-year-old Native American mitochondrial DNA has recently been found in Iceland. Finally, recent archaeological research in the Arctic demonstrates that Norse/Eskimo contact was a long-term, three hundred and fifty year, process that only ceased after the end of the Medieval Warm Period. Had the North Atlantic not frozen over during the Little Ice Age, which lasted from roughly 1,300 to 1,800, Columbus wouldn’t have had to make his voyage of “discovery.” He’d have had detailed maps at hand (which he may have had anyway) and already known that native peoples had been living here for a long time before Vikings explorers “discovered” them.  

We’ve put together a forum/workshop on archaeological fiction for the 79th Annual Meetings of the Society for American Archaeology in Austin, Texas, April 23-27, 2014. The session chair will be Dr. Kevin T Jones, author of SHRINKING JUNGLE, a novel about the Ache Indians in Paraguay and a long-time friend. Michael will co-host and help keep rein on the discussants in the two hour session. We don’t have a date or time scheduled yet, but will post as soon as we do. When it comes to writing prehistoric fiction, most authors do it poorly. In the late 90s, a host of authors, mostly from the Romance genre attempted to write archaeological fiction, spring-boarding from the success of Jean Auel, William Sarabande, Sue Harrison, and our work. At a trade show, one such aspiring author, a Romance novelist of some note, happily told us, “I just love writing prehistory! You can make up anything you want because no one knows anything about it!” Um, okay. Her book flopped. And that’s the problem. Most novelists aren’t archaeologists, and most archaeologists aren’t novelists. Two very important masters must be served in order for prehistoric or archaeological fiction to be well written. First, the author has to be intimately familiar with the archaeological data and well grounded in anthropology. Second, he must understand the basic construction and form of the novel. Both fields take in-depth study. Nor, in these days of MFA (Master of Fine Art) literature, is the craft of good fiction taught at the university. In the publishing world, MFA is considered to be its own genre like Western, Thriller, Romance, or Mystery. It has its own rules and very limited readership. The only way these days to learn how to write a successful novel is to read novels voraciously, study the construction, and go to writers ‘conferences where established novelists talk about the writing process. In our two-hour session, we’ll attempt to at least lay the ground work for archaeologists who want to write fiction about their research and findings. Why is it even important? Because ultimately the public pays for archaeological research. John Q. Public doesn’t care about the latest statistical package for the analysis of ceramic rim sherds; he wants to know about the people and culture who thrived at places like Chaco Canyon and Cahokia. Who where they? How did they live? What did they feel? Were they really that different from him? Archaeological fiction is the best way to make those cultures come alive. When the past lives, and the story is told, archaeologists can communicate the wonder and magnificence reflected from their research. And what better justification in an age of dwindling resources can there be?

Quote of the day… In an op-ed piece opposing the National Security Administration’s metadata collection program, the author of the USA Patriot Act, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, wrote: “This is how freedom is lost — bit by bit, one secret decision at a time, out of necessity or for some higher purpose that we later come to regret.” Amen.