Hi all! Not much new stuff on the blog recently? Sorry, but the Mike-and-Kathy-traveling-road-show has finished our sell-in tour through the Southeast. We had a wonderful time reconnecting with old friends at Hastings Books as well as at Books-A-Million. We also met some great folks at various independent bookstores. Note: If you ever get to Square Books in Oxford, Misssissippi, they are turly great people! The same with Books & Co. in Dayton, Ohio, and Davis Kidd in Nashville, Tennessee. Tell them that Mike and Kathy say hello! This last weekend (November 1) the Deleware Book Festival invited us to be featured speakers. Not only did they treat us like exotic royalty, but the local Waldenbooks in Dover, Deleware, conducted a superb signing. We gave a presentation on our work and fielded questions from the audience. They had us in the signing tent for over two hours while a steady stream of fans brought their collections for our signatures. Great people, great times, and perfect weather. If you live in Deleware, please contact your state elected officials and thank them for their support of the festival. Also, for you Delewarians, what a super library association you have! For us the highlight of the Festival was the opportunity to meet Tess Gerritsen and her husband Jacob. Since picking up BODY DOUBLE, we’ve read her entire series, including KEEPSAKE, which is currently out in hardcover. Tess Gerritsen is what we call “an author’s author”, or the kind of writer we don’t wish we could rewrite as we read their latest–or earliest–work. There is aways a risk in meeting the actual author in the flesh. Some of the authors we’ve admired and worshipped have turned out to be real skunks in person. Both Tess and her husband Jacob, we’re happy to report, are solid gold. For us, it was a delight and honor to share supper with them. Oh, and if you’re looking for a good read, anything you pick up with Tess Gerritsen on the spine is going to be great! We’re home for a whole month now, which means that coupled with working and testing buffalo, we’re looking forward to locking the gate, telling the world to go away, and working like beavers on our new novels. PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE, like all of the PEOPLE books, is going to be a little different: darker, and more of a thriller than, say PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE and THUNDER. The novel is set during the formative years of the Iroquois Confederacy. At the same time we’re working on the de Soto novel, PEOPLE OF LA FLORIDA editing, revising, and polishing. Our challenge is writing in first person; do we or don’t we include additional scenes told from other characters in third person? As of this posting we don’t have a publisher for the new series yet, but have offers from four different publishing houses as of Halloween. Trick or Treat? The final contract will probably be decided by the middle of November. We’ll keep you posted. Interest in the YA novel, CHILDREN OF THE DAWNLAND, continues to amaze us. The story is set 13,000 years ago just before a comet exploded over North America. Yes, such an event really did happen. You can read about it in THE CYCLE OF COSMIC CATASTROPHIES by Richard Firestone, Allen West, and Simon Warwick-Smith. During the entire sell-in tour and at the Deleware Book Festival, people were really excited about the book and expressed irritation at having to wait until next June to get it. For all you teachers out there, it will come with a teacher’s guide, too. Mike went through an approved the latest blog entries. Those of you who peruse them will notice a number of questions about Dusty and Maureen. Here’s the real story on the Anasazi mystery series: We would love to do more of the novels. We’ve got a slew of ideas for additional books. Forge Books, however, doesn’t want us to write Anasazi mysteries. Meanwhile, Dusty and Maureen show up in occasional PEOPLE books, and Maureen plays a huge role in our latest thriller: COMES A GREEN SKY. It will be available next year in German from Leubbe. And, yes, you have to read German. Suffice it to say that everyone on board a large cruise ship is found dead in the Atlantic Ocean. Maureen is called in to ID the dead and discover the cause. Security analyst Skip Murphy seeks to determine the source of a mysterious gas and ends up providing security for Maureen. So, dear fans, there is suddenly a new man in Maureen’s life, but will she choose him? Or stay with Dusty? Hmm? Currently no American publisher has stepped up to the plate. We’ll keep you informed of everything but Maureen’s choice. Other book news! Mike’s LONG RIDE HOME has just been released in trade paperback as the 20 year anniversary edition. This was the first novel we ever sold, published in November 1988 by Tor Books, and in print ever since. For you collectors out there, the ISBN is 978-0-7653-2256-2. The novel retails for $14.95 and, as with all of our books, if you’d like it autographed, send it with a stamped self-addressed envelope to P.O. Box 1329, Thermopolis, Wyo, 82443. Mike will sign it according to your instructions and mail it right back. December is the release date for PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE in paperback, and PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER is out in January in hardback. Don’t forget to read WEEPING EYE before you order THUNDER! Finally, we would like to thank all the people who wished us well in our recent travels. We’re home safe and wish all of you the very best. Until then, good reading, and we hope the Thanksgiving holidays are a success!