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On New Year’s Eve our favorite place to be is sitting upstairs in the Safari Club restaurant looking down at the deer eating out of the bird feeders, and out across the Big Horn river where bald eagles perch in the winter-bare cottonwoods.  We had a magical evening saying goodbye to 2014.  Hope you have a wonderful 2015!

We just saw the cover for our next hardcover, coming out in May, 2015, and love it!  What do you think?  PEOPLE OF THE SONGTRAIL is a First Contact novel, set around A.D. 1,000, and chronicles Viking exploration of the New World and the responses of  North America’s native peoples.  The story takes place a few years after the end of PEOPLE OF THE MASKS.

Hope you enjoy it.  We had such fun researching the Viking tradition of Seidur magic.

 Snow is supposed to come in tomorrow, but given the sky today, it looks like it may get here a little early…

This is a great post that lets you see how humans have shaped the world in their image.  Thanks to Theresa Hulongbayan for sending this to us!

http://science-junkie.tumblr.com/post/104095128707/theolduvaigorge-see-how-humans-have-reshaped#.VHz46zHF_kU 

Hi All,  we just returned from the Western Bison Association Meetings in Ogden, Utah.  This is our favorite conference.  The WBA is filled with people who genuinely care about the health, safety, and happiness of the buffalo in their herds.  One of the biggest disease threats right now is an illness called mycoplasma bovis.  As archaeologists, we can trace this bison disease back to about 17,000 years ago in North America to an ancient ancestor of modern bison, Bison priscus.  So, it’s been around for a while.  Unfortunately a vaccine for it has not.  Just last year, the bison industry developed the first ever bison vaccine for this disease.  Now if we could just get people to use it!  

Also, just a reminder, only two days left to register for a chance to win a copy of PEOPLE OF THE MOON at Goodreads.com.  Just go to Goodreads, do a search for the title, and below the image of the cover, you will see ENTER TO WIN.  Good luck!

Love this video!  Of course, Ben Starr has found an archaeological site known to the native peoples for around 800 years, and to archaeologists for around a century.  Many of the “rooms” that Ben finds are actually Anasazi granaries, and this remote,  high elevation site, suggests it may have been a signaling location.  The Anasazi build and staffed signal centers, then used polished pyrite mirrors, or smoke, or if it was night, fires, to transmit messages across the Four Corners Region.  What Ben captures in this video is the same sensation of excitement that keeps archaeologists exploring to learn more.  Enjoy.    

Hi All,

It’s been a beautiful day here. After subzero temperatures for over a week, we had a whopping 40 degrees today, though we did see some snowflakes this afternoon.  Just wanted to remind you that this is the last day to register on Goodreads for a chance to win a free copy of PEOPLE OF THE RIVER. Good luck!  

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday filled with warmth and happiness.  We’re preparing our usual feast that takes us until five days after Thanksgiving to finish eating.  We’re looking forward to a day with family and lots of laughter and stories.

Mike and Kathy

Here’s the link:

Last day to enter on @goodreads for a chance to win a copy of PEOPLE OF THE RIVER, by @GearBooks: http://t.co/jAqCLjyTdS

— Tor Books (@torbooks) November 23, 2014

We first wrote about cannibalism in the Southwest in PEOPLE OF THE SILENCE, but at the time we were not convinced that it was a form of terrorism.  In the early ’90s it still looked like to might be survival cannibalism, meaning they ate people because they were starving.  By the time we wrote PEOPLE OF THE MOON, there was so much evidence that the cannibalism among the Anasazi was a part of the brutal warfare that encompassed that culture during the 12th and 13th centuries, that the terrorism link was undeniable.  More videos on this subject to come…

For those who might be interested, you can register at Goodreads.com for a chance to win a free copy of PEOPLE OF THE MOON.  And don’t forget that you can still enter to win a copy of PEOPLE OF THE RIVER until November 24th.  Good luck!

Well, it’s 7 p.m. and the temperature is already down to 5 below zero here. We got about 10 inches of snow today, but managed, thank goodness, to get the walks shoveled off before the deep cold set in. We’re supposed to be in the deep freeze for another five days, then snow again next Saturday.

Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day and we want to thank everyone who has ever served this country. Thank you for keeping us safe. Without you, there would not be an America. Bless you all.

Mike and Kathy