Kathleen O'Neal Gear & W Michael Gear

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Autumn has arrived…

Monday, 05 September 2016 09:48
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Autumn in northern Wyoming is so peaceful. It’s a beautiful cool morning here, 46 degrees. Our chestnuts and aspens started to turn color a few days ago and are now shading red and gold. The buffalo love this time of year, as well. The biting flies begin to disappear, and the calves are big enough–300-400 pounds now–that they can pretty much take care of themselves against the mountain lions, wolves, and occasional bear that comes through.  We love this time of year.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to say how much they like the new PEOPLE OF THE SONGTRAIL cover and style.  We agree.  We’re really delighted with the new look.   And it was so much fun to write about early Vikings in North America.

SUN BORN, The second book in the PEOPLE OF THE MORNING STAR series, is due to be released in about a month.  We really hope you enjoy it.  Cahokia at it’s peak was truly an amazing city. 

We wish you all a happy and serene Autumn.

Mike and Kathy

 

 

LANGE IS GONE…

Thursday, 11 August 2016 12:18
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It’s always a sad day at Red Canyon Ranch when we lose an old, old friend. Our 26 year-old bison cow, Lange, died. Her best friend, Clover, and her daughter, Susie Q, did not leave her side through the entire quiet natural death. The mourning ritual for bison is fascinating and heartbreaking. The entire herd gathered around her and took turns licking her body. The herd did not leave her for ten hours, then finally they slowly moved away.

Other bison ranch’s slaughter older cows when they no long calve.  We do not.  Older animals play a vital role in the psychological health of the herd, and they pass on their knowledge to the younger animals in some amazing ways.  We’ve watched old cows lead sick young animals to the medicinal plants that will ease their pain.  Really.  Perhaps more importantly, older animals pass on bison culture, in much the same way the humans and elephants do, by teaching.  

Lange was a special and gentle old soul. We will miss her very much.

Lange at Red Canyon Ranch

Lange at Red Canyon Ranch

Mike and Kathy

Books on sale for the holidays!

Thursday, 10 December 2015 11:51
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We hope you are having a joyous holiday season. It’s been unseasonably warm in northern Wyoming. For us, that means it’s a whopping 48 degrees this afternoon. The buffalo love this weather. There’s almost no snow cover, so it’s easy for them to get to the tall grasses on the mountain slopes.

Just FYI, our great publisher has placed several of our books on sale for $4.99 for the holidays. We’re delighted by this. If you don’t have these titles and wish to get them, now is the time!

People of the Fire

Betrayal

People of the Morning Star

People of the Weeping Eye

People of the Longhouse

Dawn Country

Morning River

Best Wishes for a wonderful December filled with the warmth of family and friends.

Michael and Kathleen

Young Adult novel set 20,000 years ago…

Sunday, 08 November 2015 15:12
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We have had the best time writing our first Young Adult novel, set 20,000 years ago, at the height of the Pleistocene Ice Age.  What fun to writer about American lions, sabertooth cats, dire wolves, giant bison, mammoths and giant beavers.  Had Mike on tenterhooks (your word for the day) when young Lynx fell into the crevasse.  It’s great inspiration to be able to watch bison out the window while writing about their ancestors who roamed the continent twenty centuries ago.2014-06-22 15.46.29

Doggerland 8,000 years ago

Sunday, 20 September 2015 10:43
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7,000 years ago skeleton This is one of the “Ladies of Teviec.”  She was found in a Mesolithic cemetery off the coast of Brittany, France.  Her remains date to around 8,500 years ago. She was approximately 25 years old.  She died when someone clubbed her in the head five times, cracking her skull, and she was shot between the eyes with an arrow.  Her loved ones must have found her body, because she was buried with care in a pit roofed with red deer antlers.

We all like to believe that some time in the distant past there was a Golden Age of peace and prosperity where people lived in harmony, but the truth is, while there were harmonious episodes in human prehistory, they were relatively short and punctuated by extreme violence.  In the case of the Ladies of Teviec, the climate was changing, shifting from the Pleistocene Ice Age and into this warm period we enjoy now, the Holocene.  Sea level was rising.  The “ladies”” homeland, which archaeologists call Doggerland, was being swallowed by the ocean.  Apparently, war erupted as people scrambled for disappearing land.  Eventually there would be no dry land left in Doggerland for anyone.  

 

 

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