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Dear All: We’re just back from Jackson, Michigan where we signed 6,000 copies of DAWN COUNTRY, PEOPLE OF THE NIGHTLAND, PEOPLE OF THE RIVER, and PEOPLE OF THE RAVEN for the good people at News Group Midwest in Spring Arbor. For those of you living in the upper midwest–and looking for an autographed copy–you can find them in Krogers, at the airports, and various truck stops, and convenience stores. Meijers won’t have signed copies–they’re served by a different distributor, but they will have copies of DAWN COUNTRY in their bestseller racks starting around Thanksgiving and for a couple of weeks into December. The autpgraphed books can be recognized by a black sticker on the cover that says…uh, “Autographed Copy.” How much more direct can we be? While we were at News Group, Marianne and Angie treated us wonderfully. Thanks so much to the good folks at Macmillan for sending us. Also, the ebook situation is continuing. Amazon is converting some of our earlier titles, including the LIGHT books, the SPIDER series, DARK INHERITANCE, RAISING ABLE, and some other science fiction titles to Kindle format. They should be available by Christmas. Check here or on the fan club periodically and we’ll appraise you of when the titles will be available. Meanwhile, we’ve got light snow today at the ranch, and the temps are in the low teens. For morning magic, we looked out and Krystal, one of the buffalo cows, was completely snowy white. But then, she’s magical even when she’s brown!  

Dear All, As many of you know, Mike and I co-author in a specific way. One of us drafts out a chapter, then the other moves along behind, editing, correcting and rewriting, which often proves to have amusing consequences. For example, yesterday I finished drafting the ending to THE BLACK SUN, and Mike immediately started reading it. This morning, I got chapter 46 back with a note at the top of the page that said, “You must have been writing for the Pulitzer committee. This totally sucks.” …And it reminded me of the time he had his leading character writing a ten page suicide note at the end of LONG RIDE HOME. I got the wrinkled, tear-soaked pages, read them, and wrote in the margin, “Good God, Michael, we really want this guy dead now. Toss this and kill him!” One of the fascinating things about co-authoring is you have to have no ego, or you’re dead. Fortunately, we had shock-training twenty five years ago when we had a magnificient editor named Harriett. She used to write in the margins, “This is f…ing garbage, guys. You can do better.” Ah, the good old days. Harriett taught us to write with all our hearts…and without a shred of ego. So, back to the drawing board on Chapter 46. Regards, Kathy

Kathy and I have the ability to delude ourselves with great regularity. For example, we have an office building in town that we no longer use. Back in the day it was our distribution point for the buffalo meat business, bulk book storage, and our office on those occasions when we did radio interviews as books were released. Our fax was also stationed there, and FedEx and UPS could drop packages since they can’t make it out to the ranch. Times change. Mom accepts our packages now, publishers don’t do much in the way of promotion for authors these days, and no one sends faxes. Now the place just sits, packed full of books, furniture, and old motorcycles. So we thought we’d sell it. But before that we have to build bookshelves, move out the books, fix the ceiling panels, re-tile the counter, and attend to some flooring. When we made the decision last November, we figured we could take a month, maybe February, and get it done. In February we thought maybe we could get it done in May, in May we thought we could get it done in September, in September… Well, you get the idea. We currently write for three different publishers, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Luebbe. Each wants a book a year minimum, but with the crisis in retail sales, they want more. Most hardback books are only on sale for three weeks now before they’re pulled and returned to the publisher. Publishers, therefore, want more books so they can keep their space on the shelves. In our lives, the publishers come first. Everything else, including doctor visits, vehicle maintenance, friends, family, and of course the office, gets put off. But not fixing fence. Without good fences, we can’t keep the Arapaho cattle off the place. And if the cattle break out, we’re always worried the bison will wander out through the holes they leave. Arapaho cattle are relentless, and they’ll eat up our buffalo pasture. Not to mention what a hassle it is to get them off the ranch once they’re on. When Mike checked the fence on Sunday, it was in bad shape. So, the day was spent fixing wire, testing electrical charge, and finding faults. Generally fencing is a rancher’s greatest bane. But Sunday, after days of writing, editing, revisions, contract negotiations, and being trapped indoors, the process of fixing fence was a marvelous relief. And when will we get to the office? We’re thinking maybe in March? Ah, the joys of self-delusion!

Summer Henderson, our magical, mystical, fantastic web site guru has fixed the fan club problem. Go to our home page, scroll down, and you will find a link that takes you directly to the fan club. No typing, no addresses, just push and go! Thanks, Summer. And if any of you need web site services, please try waveswebdesign.com!

Here’s the link to the fanclub: http://www.facebook.com/board.php?uid=54987233824&status=512