Kathleen O'Neal Gear & W Michael Gear


Tag Archives: SUN BORN

Total Eclipse 2017 at Red Canyon Ranch

(Photo by Emil Hulongbayan)

Hi All,

So, in April of 2024, America will have another total solar eclipse. Don’t miss it. Yesterday in Wyoming was so awesome it’s hard to describe. About ten minutes before the total eclipse the crickets came to life and sang through the eclipse, the temperature dropped twenty degrees, and the shadow bands on the white sheet we’d spread out began to flutter. The shadow waves moved from south to north; it was ethereal. Then, when the totality occurred, we all took off our eclipse glasses–which is the only time you can–and looked at the moon completely covering the sun. The corona of fire around the black disk was unbelievable. Truly. It was unbelievable. Sunset simultaneously occurred on every horizon, west, east, south, north; every cloud turned pink. And the buffalo literally froze in place. They stood absolutely still. It was like looking at a painting of buffalo at night. Pure magic.

When the first sliver of sun broke out of the shadow of the moon again, the shadow bands reappeared on our sheet, but this time they fluttered from north to south–in reverse. It was absolutely stunning.

Wow, what a day.

Kathy and Mike

A snowy April day in Wyoming

2016-12-11 10.49.03We woke this morning to find four inches of fresh snow covering the red cliffs, and forty-nine elk standing on the mountain slope in front of the house. We made coffee and sat in front of the window to watch them peacefully graze down the mountain to the creek below.  As we did, we could hear the buffalo calling to each other in the meadow.  They love cool spring mornings best of all.  There’s new green grass, but no biting flies yet.

Perfection is made of April mornings like this…

Hope you have a peaceful and perfect day!

Mike and Kathy

Background for SUN BORN.




The largest “Lost City” in the world is in the United States. It’s called Cahokia.  It was a huge metroplex that lasted nearly three hundred years. Today what remains of the city is scattered throughout—and under–the sprawl of St Louis and lies on both sides of the Mississippi River.

This isn’t our first novel about Cahokia. We’ve been fascinated by this ancient city for three decades.  We started writing about it in PEOPLE OF THE RIVER. And, as new research poured in, finally wrote PEOPLE OF THE MORNING STAR. Cahokia–a city that would have swallowed its eleventh century competitors, London, Paris, and Rome—is mysterious and mesmerizing. Today it consists of large mounds of earth. But these are just the foundations, as if New York City were scrapped away by a giant bulldozer. What made Cahokia into one of the largest cities in the world? What brought tens of thousands of people streaming into the central Mississippi Valley to build the magnificent mounds, causeways, and stunning five-story temples?


(Credit: Townsend mural. Cahokia Mounds)

Archaeologists suspect it was religion, specifically a messiah figure called “Morning Star.” The renown of a living god would have traveled up and down the rivers, word of his coming carried across mountains and down the trails by traders. And the people came, settling in the living god’s proximity in one of the most fertile agricultural valleys in the world.

We also suspect word might have eventually reached Mayan traders who plied the Gulf waters and sailed out into the Carribean. Which begs the question: What would the Itza Maya in Chichen Itza have made of the story of a resurrected god? Especially since it cleaves so closely to the Maya’s own stories of the resurrected heroes from the beginning times.

In SUN BORN we provide a possible answer, one compatible with the tantalizing bits and pieces in the archaeological record. With SUN BORN the story of Seven Skull Shield, Clan Keeper Blue Heron, the truculent Fire Cat, and Lady Night Shadow Star continues. But this time, the Itza lord, Thirteen Sacred Jaguar is coming, and he has a secret. One that has the power to topple Cahokia, and ruin the lives of its most beloved citizens.

Truly, Cahokia was one of the magnificent cities of the prehistoric world. We hope you enjoy this story about ancient America.

Theodore Roosevelt called it ‘nature fakery.’



Lange at Red Canyon Ranch

Lange at Red Canyon Ranch












W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear

SUN BORN just came out!

people-of-the-songtrail-mass sun-born

Hi All,



We hope you are all having a lingering and colorful autumn.

Best Regards,


Mike and Kathy


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