We are just back from the Tucson Festival of the Book. Wow! What a trip!
Three days of blowing snow, ice, treacherous highways, closed roads, and an edge-of-the seat crossing of South Pass in Wyoming. The morning we drove into Tucson, the city had three inches of snow! But we made it, partly because our truck, a Ram 3500 named “The Bullet” negotiated every challenge. The Bullet? Yes! A special thank you to our good friend Craig Johnson and Sheriff Walt Longmire for the inspiration.
Our appearance in Tucson was at the request of Wolfpack Publishing, and specifically for the official launch of After The Eagle Has Fallen, book three of the Wyoming Chronicles. And, dang, did we ever send it off with a bang! Sold over a hundred copies of our books over the two days we spent in the Wolfpack booth. Met hundreds of great people in the process, and enjoyed some of the finest writers we’ve ever been privileged to work with. Afterward, we concluded that this was the finest book event we’ve done in thirty-five years!!
THE BIG NEWS!!!
The Western Writers of America just released the names of the winners of the Spur Awards, the highest honor in Western writing. Kathleen was delighted to learn that her short story “No Quarter,” published in the Rebel Hearts anthology is the 2023 winner in the short fiction category. Didn’t surprise Michael, he watched her labor over those nine thousand words for more than a month to get them right. “No Quarter” is the story of Betty and Charlie, two of Jim Bowie’s slaves trapped in the battle for the Alamo. Poignant? Engrossing? Suspenseful? Words don’t do “No Quarter” justice. Kathleen will be at the Western Writers of America’s annual conference in Rapid City, South Dakota, on June 24nd to receive her award for the best short story of the year!
You can order your copy of Rebel Hearts here
Of course, the other reason for our attendance in Tucson was the official launch of After The Eagle Has Fallen.
So far, the Wyoming Chronicles has continued to exceed our hopes. The first book, Dissolution--a finalist for the Spur Award in contemporary fiction--has 1,425 ratings on Amazon as this is written and counting. To our delight, the book averages a 4.6 Star rating! The second book, Fourth Quadrant, has just passed 600 reviews, also with a 4.6 Star Amazon rating! People apparently love these stories, and it proves that the “apocalyptic Western” is a coming and powerful genre to write in.
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| Read More or Buy | Read More or Buy | Read More or Buy |
In After The Eagle Has Fallen, Sam Delgado, Breeze Tappan, and Lauren Davis are back. Things aren’t going well in the Big Horn Basin, and tempers flare. In an effort to keep passions from boiling over, Governor Agar conscripts Sam and Breeze to accompany the “Fallen Eagle” convoy on a desperate race south through the Colorado mountains in a desperate bid to recover a biotech lab that can manufacture insulin. Things are getting desperate as medical supplies and drugs run out. If Fallen Eagle can recover the lab, tens of thousands can be saved. But the Collapse has left anarchy in Colorado, and Sam and Breeze soon discover that a diabolical and cunning adversary will do whatever it takes to ensure Broken Eagle never makes it out alive.
Sam Delgado says, “Never bring a pickup truck to a snowplow fight!”
While it helps, you don’t have to read Dissolution and Fourth Quadrant first. After The Eagle Has Fallen stands on its own. The end of the world doesn’t come without a price. All of our books, we center on the human condition. Our characters have to make decisions that will change their lives forever.
We hope that this finds you all well, looking forward to spring weather.
Remember to check out our books at our website, www.Gear-Gear.com, our Twitter site @gearbooks, and of course on Facebook Gear fan club: book series First North Americans and at Michael Gear.
Cheers,
Michael and Kathleen