We send you all the best of the season be it Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Io Saturnalia, a Super Solstice, Kwanza, Blessed Father Dance, Happy New Year or whatever end-of-year sacred or mystical tradition you adhere to. This is the season when we all reflect, celebrate, and pledge for the coming year. We hope you are as excited about the coming year as we are!
Here, in the wilds of northwestern Wyoming, we’re dry and way too warm. Temps have been in the 50s and 60s, and though we can see snow on the high peaks, the basins are a tepid shade of parched brown. We sure wish we had about a foot of snow on the ground and more in the mountains. We’re praying for more precipitation. Especially for the ground water, though we’d take a soaking wet spring as an option!
PEOPLE OF THE OWL, THE MASKED OWL, and forthcoming THE POISON BRIDE.
Bet you’re wondering what’s happening at the Gear household. First and foremost, we’ve just seen the release of THE MASKED OWL, part two of the PEOPLE OF THE OWL re-release. Part 3, THE POISON BRIDE is coming January 14th! For those of you in the know, the POISON BRIDE title of course refers to Anhinga. Salamander wasn’t all that wild about marrying her in the first place, and as is often the case, brooding old blood has a way of leeching into even the best of relationships. Hope you’ve been enjoying the new edition of our classic novel. Since it was originally released back in 2003, The Poverty Point site, on which the book is based, has become both a National Monument and World Heritage site. Only here would the first and oldest city in North America be mostly unknown¾even with its international recognition. Our job was to bring Poverty Point alive, recreating the kind of world those original American urbanites lived in. We did it so well that with 1,600 ratings, it has a 4.3 Star average. Some critics consider it the finest writing we ever did. So, if you don’t already own the original Forge edition, download or order the outstanding Wolfpack 3-part version! You’ll be ready to binge your way through Salamander’s epic adventure in America’s first city. And, no, it’s nothing like you would imagine. Just a whole lot better!
SWITCHING GEARS
Seriously, this is one of our most important works. No Gear library is complete without it. (See our ad and review in the February “Outlaws” edition of Cowboys & Indians magazine!) If you haven’t ordered it, please do. Some say it’s the perfect bedside book. Good for a story a night. It’s out in paperback, audio, and digital! SWITCHING GEARS is our first short story anthology and contains Kathleen’s “No Quarter” and Michael’s “Bad Choices.” Both of these stories won numerous awards for short fiction, including Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, as well has Will Rogers Medallions in 2023 and 2024. In addition, you get 6 original short stories that showcase our talents as writers.
So far, the favorite seems to be Kathleen’s “Ruins” a story about a grief-stricken mother’s descent into madness. It’s really a heart-stopping tale. We’ll find out what the judges think after award season next year. Also, for all of you who have been clamoring for more stories from the MORNING RIVER books, Michael’s “Only Way to Win” recounts the epic meeting of Travis Hartman and Baptiste. This is where it all began, deep in a Louisiana swamp! And, if you want to hear SWITCHING GEARS in our own words, download the audio version. Kathleen sounds magical!
WHAT’S IN THE CHUTE!
In the news, we have just finished BUFFALO JUSTICE, an 80,000 word contemporary western murder mystery/thriller set in the buffalo industry. We’ve been on the front lines of the buffalo war that is being fought in the Northern Plains. At its heart are Yellowstone’s 6,000 bison and the future of a one-hundred-and-fifty-year old Western ranching heritage. Conservation attorney Ryman Banks is headed home to his millionaire mansion south of Bozeman. He’s been the lead counsel of International Council on Habitat Rescue, or ICoHR. When Banks throws open the big door, it is to take two shotgun blasts in the chest. Someone had wired a double-barreled 12 gauge to a chair to make a deadly boobytrap. But who? For newly hired Agent Jillian Masterson of the Montana Department of Justice Special Investigations Division, the quest for the murderer will bring her face-to-face with graft, corruption, kinky sex, and a psychotic killer who delights in murdering from the shadows. Meanwhile, buffalo rancher John Cody is being set up to take the fall. A longtime adversary of ICoHR, Cody has constantly derailed their efforts to have Yellowstone bison listed under the Endangered Species Act. And now, to his surprise, his old cowboy hat has been found next to the shotgun that killed Ryman Banks. As Jillian delves ever deeper into the case, she finds layer after sordid layer until - getting close to the truth - an assassin’s bullet takes her full in the chest. Set against the smoldering conflict between ranchers and conservation groups, BUFFALO JUSTICE is an edge-of-the-seat read. Steeped in the tradition of CJ Box, Longmire, and The Wyoming Chronicles, the Gears take readers inside a high-stakes game where bison become the weapon of choice!
Since we’ve just delivered BUFFALO JUSTICE we don’t have a publication date at this time. Keep an eye out here for details, but we’re hoping for a spring 2025 publication date.
PEOPLE OF THE MOON
Coming in the second half of January and early February Wolfpack Publishing will be re-releasing PEOPLE OF THE MOON, our award-winning novel about the fall of the Chaco empire around AD 1150. A Spur Award finalist, PEOPLE OF THE MOON has 1416 ratings and a 4.27 Star average from Goodreads! For those who keep track, this was the third of the “Nightshade novels”. For us, however, it’s the epic stand-alone chronicle of the collapse of the Chaco empire that we began in PEOPLE OF THE SILENCE. The lords of Chaco built an empire that stretched across the American Southwest. Ruled from the great palaces in Chaco Canyon, it was connected by a labyrinth of roads and administered by a series of great houses that hosted religious and military garrisons. Signal towers allowed instant communications from one end of the empire to the other. Then, in 1150, a 30-year drought turned the cornfields to dust. Famine led to raiding, which led to open warfare, which led to religious upheaval and atrocity. PEOPLE OF THE MOON is the story of four Moon People hunters who find themselves in the midst of chaos. It’s Ripple’s misfortune to be given a vision from Cold Bringing Woman, one of the old gods. It will lead him to misfortune and death. His friend Spots will find himself entangled with the great witch Nightshade and witness to her final act of vengeance. Mild-mannered Wrapped Wrist is thrust into the company of the dreaded female warrior, Crow Woman, and enlisted as a guide to carry messages under the very nose of the Chacoan overlords. For Bad Cast - married and with a new-born child - he must foment an uprising among his own people on the night of the Lunar standstill. Steeped in Southwestern Puebloan mythology, PEOPLE OF THE MOON is set at the Chimney Rock archaeological site, now a National Monument. There, on one terrible night in the light of the lunar maximum, the Chaco Empire will end in blood, fire, and ice!
COMING UP NEXT!
The next re-release we’ll be tackling will be our PEOPLE OF THE NIGHTLAND, a story set in the upper Midwest, Michigan, Ontario, and Ohio at the end of the ice age and just before the Clovis comet and draining of Lake Agassiz. We should be hip-deep in the edits for the re-release by the middle of next month!
And….Ta-Dah! We’ve been given the okay by the publisher to write another volume in the WYOMING CHRONICLES series!!! We’ll start Book 4 just as soon as we’re through the holiday season! This is a true delight! Sam and Breeze have been waiting in the shadows, arms crossed, tapping toes, asking, “Well? When are you going to get back to us? Bad stuff’s happening, and we’re in the middle of it!” Hate it when characters do that. Should have Book 4 (No title yet) finished by May? If so, possible pub date might be sometime in late summer or early fall!
As stated, this is the season for reflection. For us, our greatest appreciation is for each and every one of you. We are so thankful for our readers. It’s an honor to know that our readers are among the smartest and most savvy consumers of fine fiction in the whole world. We never take you for granted! In that vein, we wish you all happiness, health, prosperity, and the finest reading of your lives in the coming year! May 2025 see the fulfillment of all you best dreams and hopes.
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See you next year!
Michael and Kathleen