Synopsis
New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear are famous for writing novels about prehistoric America that are fast-paced, steeped in cultural detail, and smart. In People of the Owl they combine their distinctive trademark of high action with a rich psychological drama.
Four thousand years ago, in what centuries later will be the southern part of the United States, a boy is thrust into manhood long before he's ready. Young Salamander would much rather catch crickets and watch blue herons fish than dabble in the politics of his clan. But when his heroic brother is killed, Salamander becomes the leader of America's first city. He inherits his brother's two wives, who despise him, and is forced to marry his mortal enemy's daughter to forge an alliance for the trade goods his people desperately need.
Cast adrift in a stark wilderness of political intrigue where assassins are everywhere, young Salamander has no choice but to become a man-and quickly.
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About Kathleen O'Neal Gear
K
Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Born 1954
Born in Tulare, California, Kathleen O'Neal Gear is one of six children. Her parents, Harold Arthur O'Neal and Wanda Lillie O'Neal, left Oklahoma and Arkansas during the Dust Bowl and moved to California. For most of Kathleen's youth, her parents owned and operated a small farm in the central San Joaquin Valley of California, growing primarily cotton and alfalfa. But at the same time, her father authored more than fifty short stories, and her mother worked as a newspaper journalist. Kathleen received her B.A., cum laude, from California State University in Bakersfield, and her M.A., summa cum laude, from California State University in Chico. She conducted Ph.D. studies at the University of California in Los Angeles and did post-graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Her family always spent their summer vacations visiting historical and archaeological sites around the United States. Those trips left indelible impressions. She worked on her first archaeological excavation at the age of ten, and won her first writing contest at the age of thirteen, where she took first place in the American Legion essay contest held at Tipton Elementary School. In the 1980's, she worked for the United States Department of the Interior as the Wyoming State Historian, and later as the Archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska. She has twice been the recipient of the federal government's "Special Achievement Award" for outstanding management of our nation's cultural heritage. In 2015, she was honored by the United States Congress with a "Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition," and the State of California honored her by passing Joint Member Resolution #117, saying, "The contributions of Kathleen O'Neal Gear to the fields of history, archaeology and writing have been invaluable. She and Michael currently operate an anthropological research company called Wind River Archaeological Consultants. Kathleen began writing full-time in l986 and has over one hundred non-fiction publications in the fields of archaeology, history, writing, and buffalo conservation. She has authored or is in the process of publishing 10 novels under her own name, and co-authored 37 international bestsellers with her husband, W. Michael Gear. She has two books which will soon be released including MAZE MASTER along with MOON HUNT which she co-authored with W. Michael Gear. Their books have been translated into at least 29 languages. She and Michael live on a buffalo ranch in the Owl Creek Mountains Mountains of northern Wyoming. She and Michael live on a buffalo ranch in the Owl Creek Mountains of northern Wyoming.
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