Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear, Author Newsletter, Historical Fiction Novels, Native American Noveslists, Wyoming Authors

March 2023 Newsletter

We are just back from the Tucson Festival of the Book. Wow! What a trip!

Three days of blowing snow, ice, treacherous highways, closed roads, and an edge-of-the seat crossing of South Pass in Wyoming. The morning we drove into Tucson, the city had three inches of snow! But we made it, partly because our truck, a Ram 3500 named “The Bullet” negotiated every challenge. The Bullet? Yes! A special thank you to our good friend Craig Johnson and Sheriff Walt Longmire for the inspiration.

Our appearance in Tucson was at the request of Wolfpack Publishing, and specifically for the official launch of After The Eagle Has Fallen, book three of the Wyoming Chronicles. And, dang, did we ever send it off with a bang! Sold over a hundred copies of our books over the two days we spent in the Wolfpack booth. Met hundreds of great people in the process, and enjoyed some of the finest writers we’ve ever been privileged to work with. Afterward, we concluded that this was the finest book event we’ve done in thirty-five years!!

Gear Holiday Newsletter

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Yo Saturnalia, Joyous Soyal and many other traditions.

December is a sacred time around the world. In North America, many of the native peoples celebrate the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, and the return of the sun the next day, which is their New Year’s Day. More ceremonies occur on December 24th and 25th.

For example, the Salish say that long ago a great and good man came among their forefathers and performed miracles of all kinds. Upon leaving them, he said he would return in the form of a big white coyote. At Isleta Pueblo, they celebrate the Buffalo Dances on December 24th and early morning on Christmas Day, and at Nambe Pueblo the buffalo dancers come out in glorious horned headdresses to dance by a light of a great bonfire. The fragrance of piñon smoke drifts through the darkness as the dancers cast enormous shadows over the pueblo walls.

October 2022 Newsletter

Happy October to All!

The mountains around us are a patchwork of gold and green, and our yard is filled with deep red Chokecherry trees and brilliant yellow aspens. In the sunlight, the leaves all seem to glow from an inner fire. It’s all just beautiful.

We just returned from celebrating our 40^th anniversary (sheesh, time to diet) and have been harvesting the last of the potatoes, which are delicious. Also been mourning the fact that the tomatoes we planted needed a much longer growing season than they received in this northern country. Of course, the raccoons sleeping on the plants probably didn’t help. But the fried green tomatoes we picked are excellent, especially as an accompaniment to buffalo burgers. By the way, the buffalo are looking shaggy, losing their summer coats, and preparing to grow a heavy, winter undercoat, which consists of some of the finest cashmere in the world. They always seem relieved that cold weather has returned. When the biting flies vanish and the dust of summer fades, they run across the pastures kicking up their heels and bounding through the tan grasses.

September 2022 Newsletter

HAPPY SEPTEMBER!

It's a quiet beautiful day in Wyoming. The aspens and cottonwoods have their first touches of yellow, heralding the arrival of autumn a bit early, but it's been a cool summer here.

We were just informed that we will be the recipients of the 2023 Frank Waters Award.

"The Frank Waters Award stands for exemplary literary achievement, as well as a canon of writing that communicates a deep understanding, celebration, and love of our human nature and peoples of all races." Previous recipients are: Barbara Kingsolver, Tony Hillerman, and John Nichols.

In college, we read several of Frank Waters’ books—MASKED GODS, BOOK OF THE HOPI, PUMPKIN SEED POINT—all classics, and each left an indelible impression on us. His dedication to conveying difficult Native American spiritual concepts, the haunting beauty of the western landscape, and the character of its people, was an inspiration. Each was described in some of the most beautiful prose we’ve ever read. It's a great privilege to receive an award that bears Frank Waters' name. We are deeply grateful to Friends of the Pike’s Peak Library District for this honor.

August 2022 Newsletter

“Jean Auel meets Nora Roberts in this exciting new series.”

- Doug Preston, New York Times bestselling author of TYRANNOSAUR CANYON

Happy August!

I wanted to let you know about the beautiful new reprint of IT SLEEPS IN ME. This is the first time the book has ever been in hardcover and I’m excited!

The novel is based upon one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read, which was published in 1632 and written by a member of the Recollect Order. Father Gabriel Sagard arrived in New France in 1623 and had been living and ministering to the Huron tribe when he witnessed what is certainly one of the most extraordinary healing rituals in the history of North America. Darkly erotic, the andacwander so shocked him that he thoroughly documented it in his book The Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons. I knew I had to write about it, and The Black Falcon series was born.

July 2022 Newsletter

NEWS UPDATE!!!

Hello Everyone,

Well, it's been a stressful day today. Fans have been notifying us from around the world that their orders for RECKONING (coming in October) and THE ICE ORPHAN (coming in November) have been cancelled by retailers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others. This is one of those glitches that's very frustrating for everyone concerned. Here's what happened...

Our wonderful publisher, DAW Books, just sold the company to Astra Publishing. The unanticipated consequence is that Penguin Random House (which distributes DAW books) cancelled all orders for DAW Books scheduled to be published after September 1st, while PRH transitions the ISBNs to Astra. DAW was not made aware of this consequence beforehand, so it's as much of a surprise to them as it is to all of us.

It means that our fans must reorder RECKONING and THE ICE ORPHAN. We are so sorry for the inconvenience. But both books WILL be published on schedule in October and November!