Greetings All: This post is being composed on January 18, the Sunday after PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER finally went on sale. To our absolute delight the New York Times Bestseller list placed THUNDER at number 35 after only four days on sale! We’ve never had a hardback place this quickly. We can’t thank each and every one of you who bought the book in person, so we’ll do it right here where the whole world can read it: Thank you all! Hopefully THUNDER has been worth the wait. So far the critics all seem to enjoy it, and several have called PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER the best story we’ve written in years–it’s as if they’ve forgotten that THUNDER’s the sequel to PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE. Many of you know that we worked, sweated, and labored on this story for years. When the good folks at Forge told us they’d have to break the story into two parts, we were heartsick. No other work in the PEOPLE series had a first and second half. And then they changed the cover concept. After all the waiting, all the worrying, you can imagine the feeling of relief to hear that our readers got it, that they were willing to wait, and that the conclusion was all they had hoped for. Sometimes it’s really stressful to be an author. Yeah, yeah, we’re supposed to just hang around and think weighty thoughts, be profound, and kind of flakey and dissassociated with reality, right? Well, okay, we do pretty well with the flakey part, but beyond that, each novel is like a roll of the dice. And no matter what we’ve written, or how well we’ve written it, each book must sink or swim subject to the winds, currents, and eddies of the publishing industry, national economy, retailers, distributors, peculiarities in the art department, and how the reps are feeling that month. One of the largest paperback lay-downs we ever had was with THE SUMMONING GOD. The lay-down date was September 9, 2001. On September 11, just as the book was reaching its widest distribution, well… You know. 80% of the books were returned and the Anasazi mystery series never really recovered. With PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE and PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER, we just had the feeling that it would become a classic in the PEOPLE series along with LAKES and SILENCE. I guess now we’re going to see if Old White, Trader, Morning Dew, Smoke Shield and the rest speak as loudly to others as they did to us. And, of course, if you get the opportunity, go and visit the Moundville Archaeological site south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Hopefilly the characters will make it come alive for you. Never believe the stuff you hear at writers’ conferences: “Talent will always win out.” “If you write magically and lyrically, you will eventually be successful.” “If you write a better novel than the next guy, you’re going to sell it.” The fact is, Fate does play a role. We’ve known some very fine writers who didn’t make it because the publisher put a crummy cover on the novel. Or their first novel was published the same day a major war began. And, just because a novel is great, doesn’t mean the publisher “gets it” either. The evil fact is that even a dynamite novel will not, cannot, break out if the publisher doesn’t manage to ship enough copies to cover the potential market. If a first novel isn’t in a pocket, the consumer can’t pick it up as an impulse read. So, is there a rule that dictates who will become a successful writer? Yep. It boils down to this: Success is based on 2% talent, and 110% tenacity. And there, children, you have it all in a thimble. We have had some questions about the de Soto series. We can actually let the cat out of the bag and announce that Simon & Schuster has bought the first three books of the series, to be called, CONTACT: THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA. We’ll know more after we travel to New York in February for our annual publisher meetings, but it sounds like Book One, will probably be published in spring of 2010. This is really delightful for us since it marks the 20 year anniversary of the publication of PEOPLE OF THE WOLF. Think of it, we’ve been doing the PEOPLE books for 20 years now, and we’re starting our first spin-off series. Tor/Forge will continue to publish our traditional PEOPLE books, with PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE coming out sometime in 2010. We can write about American archaeology for the rest of our lives and never cover it all. The same is true for the CONTACT series. De Soto is just the beginning, and many of the myths about who did what to whom need to be taken head-on and demolished. At the time of our last blog post the temperature here at the ranch was five below 0; today it’s almost 60 on our porch, and probably in the low 50s in the shade–and it’s January 18! We’re delighted with the weather since we’ll be loading buffalo Tuesday morning at 4:00 am. With the warm weather the road out of the canyon is melted out, and we can drive out with the big trailer. By mid afternoon on the 20th, we should have our animals down to the National Western Stockshow in Denver. This will probably be the last showing of animals by Red Canyon Ranch at the Gold Trophy Show and Sale. We are cutting back on numbers to more of a hobby herd, while our ranch manager, John Gerrells, is leasing the land for his own buffalo operation. Any of you needing buffalo meat, tanned hides, or skulls, should call him at 307-921-1219. After the show in Denver, we are taking the last of our sale animals to the Dakota Territory Bison Association sale in Rapid City on the 5th thru 7th of February. If you’re looking for Red Canyon bison, that will be your last opportunity. Thereafter, we will only own 6 head: Pia, Nebi, Evening Star, Caffrey, Christal, and Sun Chaser. This has been a tough decision. We’ve been in the bison industry for sixteen years now, and selling down to six animals has included grieving, sadness, and worry. The good news is that most of the cow herd went to live with Boyd Meyer at Cold Creek Bison just south of Cheyenne. Many of you who have driven between Denver and Cheyenne have seen his bison just behind the Terry Ranch off I-25. Boyd is one of the those bright lights in the buffalo community, and he’s given Red Canyon animals a great home in the past. The last time we sold him cows, he brought their calves to the Rocky Mountain Buffalo Association’s Peak to Peak sale and thrashed us at the winner’s podium. In our next blog we’ll let you know how we did in both Denver and Rapid City. In the meantime, thanks for your support and helping to make PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER a success. We hope that you enjoy the way the story is concluded and how Morning Dew managed to outwit friend and foe alike. Oh, and should you ever go to Moundville and look down over the river, don’t forget to take a little piece of copper with you!

December 19, 2008 Hi Everybody! We just returned from the Western Bison Association meetings in Ogden, Utah, where we had a great time with old and dear friends. There’s something special about people who love animals, and we’ve found this to be nowhere more true than with people who care for buffalo. Probably because associating with untamed animals like buffalo rubs off and creates wild human characters. We also had the pleasure of spending five days looking at some of the most beautiful buffalo in the world. Our three-year old bull, Clovis (yeah, like the paleo-Indian culture), won Grand Champion male, which was a delightful surprise. Our next buffalo conference will be the National Bison Association meetings in Denver in January–that’s like the Superbowl of the buffalo world. We’ll let you know how Folsom (yeah, yeah, okay), Snowy Girl, and Chickadee, fare with the judges. On the book front, we’re having fun working on People of the Longhouse, the Iroquois book set in A.D. 1425. For those who’ve asked, yes, you will find some familiar references from People of the Masks–about the False Face Child, and great heroes like Rumbler and Little Wren. People of the Longhouse deals with the warfare and strife that led the Iroquois to form the first Confederacy, one of the truly monumental moments in American prehistory, and follows the lives of four children who’ve been captured as slaves by enemy warriors. An inside clue here, one of those children will grow up to be called the “Heavenly Messenger,” and will plant the Tree of Peace. But you won’t find out which child until People of the Forests! We like to keep you guessing… People of La Florida, about the De Soto expedition, is almost finished. This morning, our heroes Black Shell and Pearl Hand are squarely in the middle of Napetuca–the horrific battle that turned the tide for the Native peoples. By ‘turned the tide’ we don’t mean they won. They lost big time. But the horror created such a backlash that De Soto would not have long to enjoy his victory. We have so many amazing Native heroes in our history, and in the case of De Soto, they were fighting true evil. And to those who’ve asked about our first childrens’ book, Children of the Dawnland will be out in July of 2009. We just saw the final cover, and it’s wonderful. Well, we’re off to go break the ice out of the water tanks for the buffalo. Our high today was five degrees below zero. The only people happy about that are the buffalo, they’ve been running and playing all day. Happy holidays to all! Mike and Kathy

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!

Hi all: We wanted to give a quick update of the sell-in tour for PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER. We had a great show at Southeast Independent Bookseller’s Association, introducing many booksellers to the series. Several days later we attended the Hastings Manager’s Meeting in Amarillo, Texas, and reconnected with many old friends as well as made new ones. As part of the PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER tour we will be appearing at select Hastings stores, demonstrating artifacts, and Mississippian artwork and giving a slide show on the archaeology. If you have a Hastings in your area, contact them as we get closer to the release date. The last day in Amarillo we were up at 3:00 to make a 5:00 am flight to Birmingham. That afternoon we arrived at the Moundville Archaeological site south of Tuscaloosa. This is where PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE and THUNDER are set. All the tension of book tour evaporated to be replaced with a feeling of joy. Moundville was alive with the 20th anniversary Indian Festival. We talked to old friends, ate Choctah hominy, and prepared for the film crew’s arrival. On Saturday we did a filming for a web piece that will eventually be placed on this website, then signed books for the rest of the day. We ran out of WEEPING EYE hardbacks in the early afternoon, but managed to get everyone one of the paperbacks of earlier PEOPLE titles. On Monday 5th we drove to Birmingham for the Books-A-Million managers meeting. Again, it was filled with old friends as well as new converts to the PEOPLE series. At least we assume we converted them, every last one took an autographed book with them. While at the meetings we talked with the Books-A-Million people in anticipation of the THUNDER tour. As we get closer to January, we will be updating our list of up-coming appearances. This writing comes to you from Jackson, Mississippi, were we will meet with the local Barnes & Noble managers, sign their stock, and talk about THUNDER. Then we’re off to Greenville, Oxford, Tupelo, Memphis, and Nashville. Along the way we may be able to stop off at Winterville Mounds, Pinson Mounds, and the Shiloh battlefield mounds for pictures. Meanwhile we are delighted to drive through the south. For us the land comes alive with old familiar characters. Who can forget Green Spider, Black Skull, and Otter from PEOPLE OF THE LAKES? Just across the river from us is Poverty Point, home of Salamander and Anhinga in PEOPLE OF THE OWL. At Shiloh we will walk where Trader played Born of Sun for his very life and freedom. Meanwhile, new characters speak. This is, after all, the country that foul beast de Soto is going to cross with Black Shell and Pearl Hand hot on his tail! Just north of Jackson, oh about a ninety miles, is where the Chickasaw came withing a whisker of wiping out every last man of de Soto’s party. Magic lies everywhere for those of us who spin tales for a living. There are, it seems, worse ways of making a living than this author business. Until next time, may your way be happy and healthy.

Greetings All: This is our first blog, and, like all things tackled as firsts, there have been a few teething problems. We have finally managed to work most of the bugs out, and invite your comments on our posts. With a few exceptions, most of the incoming comments have been spam. What’s with these people? Why would we want to post an insurance or loan ad on our website? In a recent post we introduced our new spin-off series on European contact with North America. The idea is that while the original PEOPLE series will continue as always, depicting North America’s pre-contact cultural heritage, we will also write about the arrival of the Europeans from the Native perspective. The first books will center on the de Soto expedition and the conflicts that it engendered among the Native Peoples. Contact books have been written before, but always from the European perspective. Think of John Smith and Pocohantis. We’ve always enjoyed poking holes in long accepted myths, and the de Soto you’ll find in the first contact book is going to be very different than the one taught in schools. The perspective of many modern American Indians is that de Soto marks the beginning of a “five-hundred year resistance.” What are your thoughts on the subject? We’re looking for a thoughtful and cogent discussion, but please, no profanity. All the best, Mike and Kathy

Hello all: Somehow our blog from Alaska vanished into internet who-knows-where. Fact is we wrote it aboard ship and thought it had gone through. Alas, when we checked, it wasn’t on the blog. At the time we were raving about the scenery, food, great people, and wildlife. We’re home now, but Alaska remains on our minds. Wow! We only got to the southeast, Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, but what mythic land. We could see ourselves living there, and perhaps, sometime down the road, we’ll try to spend a couple of months. It’s great to be in country that gets rain. That, and, well, we had a cold one in a bar in Juneau where a delightful dog occupied one of the bar stools. Anyplace that lets dogs sit at the bar is all right with us. The trip accented climate change since we were seeing the country from an archaeological perspective. For those familiar with our novels PEOPLE OF THE NIGHTLAND, PEOPLE OF THE SEA, and PEOPLE OF THE WOLF, you know we’ve always been fascinated by melting glaciers. Climate change plays an important role in many of our novels, but riding up sixty-five miles of Glacier Bay that have melted out in the last two hundred years really brings it into focus. As anthropologists we were also fascinated by the local Tlingit and Haida cultures. What a rich land. Having heard and read about the Salmon runs was nothing like seeing it first hand. All in all, it was one of the most memorable weeks of our lives. We rode our BMW motorcycle both ways from Wyoming to Seattle and back, and had a wonderful ride. We hit rain between Missoula and Butte both times. The scenery was super. It’s tough to decide which is better, traveling by motorcycle or big cruise ships. We returned home for two whole days of packing in preparation for our next book tour. This is what the publishers call a “sell-in”, where we travel around the Southeastern U.S. visiting book sellers meetings, talking to bookstore owners, and attending managers conventions. A great deal of anticipation has been building for the release of PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER since readers are curious to know how Old White, Two Petals, Trader, Morning Dew, and Heron Wing are going to overcome the obstacles in their path. For those of you who don’t do hardbacks, the paperback of PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE should be in bookstores and on store shelves Thanksgiving week. THUNDER lays down in hardback in January. While most events are closed to the public, we will be making a couple of public signings. The first occurs on September 28 at Page and Palette, located at 32 S. Section Street in Fairhope, Alabama, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm. For more information you can contact them at 251-928-5295. Following that we will be at the Moundville, Alabama, Indian Festival, set, of course, in Moundville, Alabama. We’ll be signing PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE ON all day on October 4. Little Professor Bookstore will be providing the books. For more information, contact Sara at Little Professor Bookstore, 2717 18th Street, Homewood, Alabama, 205-870-7461. If you have read, or will be reading PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE, and plan on the sequel, PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER, we can show you the places where our characters walked. Moundville is a stunning site, and the Festival is well worth your time. It’s even better than the opening of WEEPING EYE suggests. Two new novels are in the works. We’re over 300 pages into a Contact period story about the de Soto expedition in the Southeast. We’re hoping to launch a People series spin-off that details different stories about European contact with the Native population of North America. The first novel, written in first person, follows our hero Black Shell as he finds Pearl Hand, the love of his life, and encounters de Soto’s Spaniards. As you can guess, Black Shell immediately runs afoul of them and dedicates himself to de Soto’s destruction. To finally do so will probably entail four or five more novels since de Soto’s expedition survived four years, crossed 16 states, and bailed out in complete disarray. Our next PEOPLE book is set in New York and deals with the foundation of the Iroquois confederacy. PEOPLE OF THE LONGHOUSE tells the story of Koracoo, a woman warrior, who for reasons of her own, has foresworn men, and risen in the ranks. Gonda, her best friend, is madly in love with her. Together they have to solve a brutal murder that will cost each of them what they both hold dear. Archaeologically, this is a time of intense warfare, with great villages, and longhouses over four hundred feet in length. The powerful Iroquois confederacy was born during this period, and if you want to know how Koracoo and Gonda achieve this, well, you’ll have to wait for the book. We should deliver the manuscript to Forge Books by February. That’s about it for this installment. We wish everyone well and hope to see you somewhere down the road. Latest good read: C.J. Box’s BLUE HEAVEN. If you think he can just write Joe Picket, think again. This one’s great.

We just returned from the World Science Fiction conference in Denver, Colorado. This is the first World Con we have attended in thirteen years. The panels were excellent. Our favorite panel was given by Tor Books about the final volume in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. As most of you know, Jordan passed away about one year ago. What you may not know is that he was passionately concerned that the final book in the series be written, and left extensive notes about what should happen and where. His wife, Harriett McDougal, selected a writer to finish that final book. Brandon Sanderson, an outstanding fantasy writer, will be authoring the finale. He gave a heartfelt, and very moving, talk about what the series has meant to him. We can’t think of anyone better to write it. Good luck, Brandon. On another front, there was an interesting difference in this conference compared to the one thirteen years ago. In 1995, many of the costumes were based upon science fiction characters. We loved, for example, riding up in the elevators with Imperial storm troopers, astronauts, Hani, Vanye and Morgaine, Berzerkers, and robots. There were also, of course, a few fantasy characters. What we noticed this year is an almost total lack of “science fiction” characters, and an abundance of fastasy characters: wizards, fairies, witches, elves, trolls, etc. Obviously, this difference reflects recent successful movies like the Lord of the Rings. Our question for you, is does this shift also represent something more interesting in our society. Does it represent a shift from an interest in futuristic hard science to an interest in magic? This concerns us because in the past decade there has also been a shift more toward religious fundamentalism in the world. Is there a connection? Happy thinking. Do it while it’s still legal. Mike and Kathy

People of the Weeping Eye Writing People of the Weeping Eye has been a labor of years. Depicting the rich variability of Mississippian archaeology in all of its complexity was a daunting challenge. As the epic of Trader, Old White, and Morning Dew played out, the manuscript grew ever larger. As a result the publisher made the decision to break the story into two books: People of the Weeping Eye and People of the Thunder.

The Betrayal There is an alternate story of the life of Jesus. It is a very human story, one that has been suppressed for nineteen centuries. The early Church fathers found the books that chronicled this story so menacing that they outlawed them, ordered them burned, and threatened anyone found copying them with death. Based on actual documents recovered from archaeological sites in the Middle East, or respected repositories of ancient literature, like the Vatican library.

When we reintroduced bison to Red Canyon Ranch we had an emotional as well as intellectual interest. Humans came within a whisker of exterminating the bison. There might have been two thousand left when General Phil Sheridan lobbied the Texas legislature in the late 1800s to kill a bill that would have protected the bison. Somewhere around one thousand bison survived in the United States and Canada. From them we have rebuilt the North American herds until over three hundred thousand are living — mostly on private ranches — in the U.S. and Canada.