Monthly Archives: April 2011

Hi Everybody! We just finished final revisions to both THE BROKEN LAND, the third book in the PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE quartet, and A SEARING WIND, the third book in the Contact: The Battle for America series. SOOO…today we decided to go relax for a while. The end of May we’ll be spending two weeks wandering around some of the great archaeological sites of Europe and Africa. Part of the trip will be research for our next thriller for our wonderful German publisher, Luebbe. We’ll be exploring ancient Ephesus in Turkey, the Acropolis in Greece (can’t wait to see the golden mask of Agamemnon), Corinth and Mycenae, the Parthenon, and we’ll camp out in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens (actually, well try to camp, but they’ll probably find us and throw us out at sunset), then off to Tuscany to drown in Etruscan civilization, next to the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. We are, naturally, also looking foward to drowning in great Italian wines. If we’re lucky, and the revolution has somewhat stabilized, we’ll head to Tunisia and the Roman and Punic ruins of Carthage. We’ve wanted to see the legendary collection of Roman mosaics housed there for much of our lives. Lastly, we’ll head to Barcelona for a few days of mucho cerveza con mi esposo, y sol, y Espagna linda, y mi esposo, y mas sol, y mas mi esposo! y mas cerveza. Si…por dos weeks…es una vida dulce. We hope everyone has a beautiful Spring. Kathleen

Dear All, Buffalo and coyotes have an interesting relationship. The coyotes love to hang around the herd because as they move, buffalo hooves send field mouse, voles, and rabbits scurrying for cover, and the coyotes have a chance at breakfast. But the two species also play all the time. We spent the morning watching one young male coyote tease the buffalo into chasing him. The buffalo love the game. They wait for the coyote to sneak up close and wag his tail, then the buffalo toss their heads and charge him, chasing him out of the meadow. The coyote flies away at top speed, leading them on a twisting path toward the fence. Once on the other side, brother coyote leaps around, as though to say, “Ha! I beat you again.” An hour later, the game starts over. …they look like they’re having so much fun.

Dear All:

For all of those who have been asking, PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER has finally been put on Amazon as an ebook for $7.99. Downloads can commence at your leisure. Special thanks to our associate publisher Linda Quinton and the good folks at Forge Books. You can take the following link to arrive at the appropriate page.

http://www.amazon.com/People-of-the-Thunder-ebook/dp/B001QREWOQ/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Meanwhile, Graphic Audio has released Part One of PEOPLE OF THE WOLF. We’re awaiting our authors’ copy and will let you know what we think. Meanwhile, Google “Graphic Audio” for a rundown on all of their wonderful titles.

Now, back to Black Shell, Pearl Hand, and that despicable de Soto as we finish the third book: A SEARING WIND.

Dear All: Every year when we attend the SAA it’s always a shot in the arm, a kick in the… well, you know. Call it a great time that massages the intellectual, the spiritual, and provides a motivational high. The meetings also feed the need for companionship–the kind that comes from sitting with old friends and discussing the latest archaeological research, fascinating new finds, and where the discipline is headed. The only thing missing was Kathy. She was back at the ranch wiping puppy pee off chair legs and cleaning carpets. Oh, and finishing the final revisions to the third book in the Iroquois quartet, THE BROKEN LAND, A People of the Longhouse Novel. Mike, however, took in some marvelous sessions on prehistoric Southwestern agriculture, on Great Basin paleoarchic, on buried Chaco-era sites in the San Juan River bottoms, and on burials in the Midwest. In all he came home with thirty some pages of notes. All of which had to be reread for Kathy. Jake, the puppy, started out listening intently, then went to sleep. Perhaps not all individuals get a high out of uncalibrated radiocarbon dates? But then, not all of us pee on chair legs, either. Mike’s forum on archaeological fiction was a blast! Initially worried that the 6:00 pm time frame was a killer (most archaeologists at these meetings eat about then) we had eighty some people in the sesssion. Sponsored by Linda Scott Cummings of Paleoresearch Associates, we had thoughtful comments by Dr. David Anderson, Dr. John Whittaker, Dr. Laura Scheiber, and even SAA president, Dr. Meg Conkey. David, bless you for fixing Mike’s slides into your Powerpoint presentation. Buying you dinner and beer was well worth it! And the companionship was also great. We’re used to having our own work reviewed. Fans vent or rave on Amazon and B&N.com, and we suffer the scrutiny of New York Journal Review of Books, Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly and other industry stalwarts. We don’t always get an analysis of the genre from professional archaeologists. Having the input of so many thoughtful archaeologists created an opportunity to look at fiction in prehistory through a different lens. As we all know, changing lens changes perspectives. By the end of the forum, the consensus was that more archaeologists need to be writing fiction. The biggest problem is that most novelists are not archaeologists, and conversely, those archaeologists attempting fiction, are not novelists. Either way you approach the task involves research and hard work. And the single most salient observation in the session was made by Dr. Conkey: “Good prehistoric fiction asks the same kinds of questions that good archaeology does.” We can’t wait for next year!