THE RANCH

It’s a cold cloudy afternoon here, 38 degrees. We’ve seen several days of sub-zero temperatures this month, which means the buffalo are growing long thick coats. Out the window in front of us, they are using their heads as snow shovels to get to the grass beneath the crusted ice. If you listen, and the wind is just right, you can hear them talking to each other in deep-throated rumbles. Like the echo of thunder in your dreams, buffalo voices seem to call to human beings, as they have for hundreds of thousands of years, promising that springtime, warmth, and renewal are not too distant. It’s a comforting sound. Probably because somewhere deep in the human consciousness, their voices mean food is near, and you and your children are safe.

October, 2013

HERE AT RED CANYON RANCH…

It’s snowing hard in northern Wyoming, our second snow in the past ten days, and a sure sign that summer is over. In anticipation of the storm, this morning we picked the last of our green tomatoes, as well as the tomatillos, tiny squashes, and squash blossoms. After dredging slices in egg and flour, we fried them in olive oil for lunch. They were delicious, more so because we knew they represented the last gasp of summer.

We woke up to a cool morning, 52 degrees, which is unusual for the first of August in northern Wyoming. As we sat on the porch with our cups of coffee, the sun rose over the red cliffs and shone out across the meadow where the buffalo were grazing. It’s always a quiet moment for us. The sight of grazing animals seems to touch something deep in the human soul that generates a sense of peace. Maybe it’s just the presence of the Wild so close. Maybe it’s because everything is connected to everything else and, for just a few moments, the boundary between animal and human ceases to exist, and we share the land and air as One.

Greetings All!

It’s been a busy summer.  Last autumn, when we realized that THE DAWN COUNTRY--published in March of 2011--would be our 50th published novel, we decided to grant ourselves a special holiday. Not every author publishes fifty novels, let alone books requiring the complexity and research that ours do.  Our reward was a cruise that encompassed most of the classic archaeological sites in the Mediterranean. We toured sites beginning with the Cycladian/Minoan civilizations, the Etruscans, Ionian Greek, classical Greek, and the Hellenistic and Roman ruins at Ephesus. 

We walked the streets of ancient Carthage and toured the museum in Tunis, which houses the most extensive collection of Roman mosaics in the world.  It was spectacular.  Being there after the revolution was marvelous and we wish the Tunisian people all the success in building their new democracy. If they pull it off, they will become a beacon for the entire world.

We are delighted to announce!

A SEARING WIND

BOOK THREE OF CONTACT: BATTLE FOR AMERICA
ON SALE
MARCH 6, 2012

     “Had you asked me the morning before the battle of Mabila, I would have told you I was prepared for the horror, the desperation, and the ensuing pain. I would have told you that the chance to kill the Adelantado, Hernando de Soto was worth the coming blood and misery. After all, we were fighting to save our world.”

     “Elder?” The Hopaye’s face swims into her vision, as if through clear water. “Let us help you up.  You’ve had too much sun. We need to move you into the shade...get you something to drink.”

     Hands reach out. She feels her bony body raised; the dank odor of sweaty people who press too close replaces the stench of Mabila.

     Absently, she says, “Black Shell?  Oh, Black Shell, the question still lingers: How many lives is a world worth?”

“I don’t feel my body, just the air cooling as color leaches from the forest, leaving the land strangely gray and shimmering. When the blue sky goes leaden, and the rounded patches of light falling through the trees curve into bladelike crescents, I faintly begin to sense my skin. I have the overwhelming urge to run, but I can’t. My legs do not exist...”

So begins BROKEN LAND, the third book in the PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE series. It has been 12 years since the events you read about in THE DAWN COUNTRY. Odion, Wrass, Zateri, Tutelo, and the others have grown into adulthood. Koracoo has become a Standing Stone matron, taking the title of Jigonsaseh. Cord and Baji have gone back to their people, but the ties forged during the desperate hunt for Gannajero remain. They will become the glue that binds together a small band willing to resist the increasing threat of Atotarho’s brutal attacks.