HAPPY SPRING! Wyoming is finally coming out of the deep freeze.
It’s such a pleasure to see green grass sprouting and aspens blooming. We are so looking forward to getting outside into the sunshine again. We’re sure our vitamin D needs a boost.
Speaking of sunshine, we just returned from the Tucson Festival of Books—which is a great book event.
We spent two days at the Wolfpack Publishing booth. Not only was the sunshine a treat, it was a joy to meet new friends and see old friends again. And we had a chance to get to know our new publisher better. Wolfpack is filled with really terrific people.
We send our best wishes and hope that 2022 brings you great happiness and good health.
The first days of 2022 have been cold here in northern Wyoming.
We woke to -9 yesterday morning, and sub-zero temperatures are always interesting. The world goes quiet, the coyotes hide in their dens, bison, deer, and antelope huddle together for warmth. There are moments of great joy, though. Over the years, we have spent many hours watching bison play. When there’s deep cold, they stay warm by forming playgroups. They love to join together for a good run across the pasture, doing figure eights and leaping around, kicking up their heels, while puffs of frozen breath drift over their heads. We are always in awe when they shake the ice from their coats and the crystals hang in air glittering before gently settling to the ground.
It’s a beautiful autumn in northern Wyoming. The mountains that surround us are frosted with fresh snow, and the aspens are a wide vista of quaking golden leaves, interspersed with dark green pines and fir trees. The buffalo and deer are growing their winter coats like crazy, trying to get ready for the cold they know is coming. We have our heavy winter coats out, too, but haven’t needed them yet. That’s supposed to change next week when the new cold front rolls in.
We just returned from a balmy Key West where we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary, got sunburned, and ate WAAAY too many conch fritters and lobster pizzas. Had a grand time visiting the local museums and taking the Ghost and Graveyards Tour, which was fabulous.
We hope you’ve had a great summer. For the past month, we’ve been suffering through a lot of the wildfire smoke pall, as have most states in the western U.S., but it’s raining today here in Wyoming, so we are hoping for clear blue skies (at least for a short while) later today.
It’s been an interesting summer for us. June was a little stunning. We received the Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to western literature, and were inducted into the Western Writers Hall of Fame (a bit disorienting to see our names next to Jack London’s and John Steinbeck’s names). In June we also received two 2021 International Book Awards. Michael’s book, UNRECONCILED, won for best science fiction novel, and Kathleen’s book, CRIES FROM THE LOST ISLAND, won for best Young Adult novel. Kathleen won for best science fiction novel a few years ago for MAZE MASTER, but we’ve never each won an IBA in the same year! Too cool…
First, we have been the recipients of the Western Writers of America’s Owen Wister Award for lifetime contributions to Western literature, and will be inducted into the Western Writers’ Hall of Fame along with names like A.B. Guthrie, Bernard de Voto, Mari Sandoz, Zane Grey, Willa Cather, Louis L’Amour, Dorothy Johnson, Elmer Kelton, David Lavender, and so many other giants.
In the run up to this, Michael was informed he would be inducted into the Colorado Authors’ Hall of Fame on September 18 in a special ceremony in Denver. And, yes, he is a 4th generation Colorado Native and so many of our books were written, or use, Colorado as a background. Two hall of fame inductions in one year? Leaves us wondering what these organizations know that we don’t. Usually, they save these things for just before you’re going to die.
For the record: We’re both still remarkably healthy, feeling chipper, and ready to duel with dragons even if we’re getting a bit slow when it comes to outrunning bison.
No sooner had that started to sink in than we were informed that Kathleen’s novel Cries From the Lost Island had placed 1st in the Young Adult category in the International Book Awards. Nor was she the only winner. Michael’s Unreconciled, the 4th Donovan novel, was the 1st Place Winner in the International Book Awards Science Fiction category. Two number one books! It left us humbled and honored.
COMING “ADRIFT” IN A WHOLE NEW WORLD. Published by DAW Books: June 15, 2021
“Welcome to Donovan” is an ironic and sometimes mocking statement well known to readers of Michael’s “Donovan” series. For Kathleen and Michael, June is a busy month with three of their novels being released at the same time, including, in addition to ADRIFT, Kathleen’s THE ICE LION from DAW, and Michael’s DISSOLUTION from Wolfpack.
For those of you new to the Donovan series, ADRIFT is a stand-alone novel. You don’t have to read the earlier books to know what’s happening. How to describe it? The Donovan books have been likened to “Deadwood” crossed with “Avatar.” This is frontier fiction set on a dangerous world thirty light years away, and a little over a century in our future. Don’t expect the usual science fiction tropes; Michael gives you complex humanity, a whole new take on biology, and a world that fights back.
