Happy New Year to All!

On the personal side, Michael judged the Western Bison Association show and sale on December 3-5 and had a great time with co-judge Bill Rogers.  At the WBA fun auction two autographed advance reading copies of Coming of the Storm brought $1,000 each! How’s that for anticipation?  Thanks to everyone who attended the show and sale, and came to support the organization at the fun auction.

Between January 23-25 Kathleen will be judging buffalo at the National Bison Association’s Gold Trophy Show and Sale, which occurs every year at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. We’re honored that she has been chosen as a judge for the National Bison Association’s ultimate competition. Mike will watch from the sidelines and help at the NBA tent by giving public tours of the buffalo pens.  If you’re in Denver, do stop by. Anyone in the city can give you directions to the stockyards. Tours run from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Hello all:

In an attempt to actually keep up with events, we’re sending the July newsletter in July!

The biggest news, of course, is the publication of CHILDREN OF THE DAWNLAND in the United States and Canada. This is our first children’s book written for ages 8-12. That doesn’t mean that adults can’t read it, too. A teacher’s guide is available and can be downloaded online from the publisher. We set the novel at the end of the last ice age, during a time archaeologists call “Clovis culture.” Clovis apparently only lasts for a period of 250 years, spanning all of the U.S., most of Canada, and some of Northern Mexico. The highest site density, however, is in the eastern United States. Then, like shutting off a light, Clovis is gone from the archaeological record at approximately 12,900 years ago.

Dear Friends:

Yes, we’ve been remiss about the newsletter. The past six months have been like living inside a tornado, but we’ve made some major changes in our lives. Most notably, we now only own five buffalo, and have leased the ranch to our long-time manager and friend, John Gerrells. Disentangling and shutting down the buffalo business has been a long and involved process, and distracted us from the newsletter, for which we beg forgiveness. But we found a wonderful home for the animals we’ve loved for sixteen years. They’re being well cared for, and have about thirty times as much land to roam.

Dear Friends:

What a couple of months!  Through September and October we spent quite a bit of time on the road in an eight-state sell-in tour for PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER.  We alternately drove and flew all over the Southeast, meeting with booksellers and conducting seminars on both PEOPLE OF THE WEEPING EYE and PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER.  Finally we ended up at the Delaware Book Festival on the first of November, where we had a wonderful time.

Excitement seems to be growing for the release of PEOPLE OF THE THUNDER.  To tell the truth, we’ve been a bit anxious about this one.  For those who haven’t heard, due to changes in the marketplace, the publisher decided to split our eleven-hundred page manuscript into two volumes—something unique in the PEOPLE series.  We’ve done long books before, as those of you who read PEOPLE OF THE LAKES, PEOPLE OF THE SILENCE, and PEOPLE OF THE MOON know.  That was before so many of the grocery stores, airports, and other retailers decided that a minimum of five books had to fit into the pockets.

READ OF THE MONTH: Tess Gerritson's Body Double.

Wow! August already? Time is like a good bottle of cognac: It's tough to make it last.

As an update, we've been really busy and learning how to work the new website is going to take some getting used to. First we've had a very busy summer including trips to the Western Bison Association board meeting in California, a West Coast book tour for The Betrayal, a journey to New York for the 3rd annual ThrillerFest where we met with agents and publishers, then to the BMWMOA national motorcycle ralley in Gillette, Wyoming. In August we were off to Denver, Colorado, for the World Science Fiction Con--our first attendence at such an event in 13 years.

Favorite Read of the Month

Pax Dakota, by Ken Rand. ISBN-10: 1594146721; ISBN-13: 978-1594146725 (Five Star Science Fiction and Fantasy)

Interview: The Betrayal

Mike and Kathy are interviewed a lot. But this one is special. Recently, they opened their home to Karen Jones for an interview on The Betrayal, a great rarity.