Cody authors honored: Gears recognized for contributions to literature

Marriage is difficult. But writing a book with your partner is an act that requires even more trust and communication than usual, Cody writers Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear said.

"It is all built on trust," Michael said. "I know if I write something and Kathleen has a problem with it, the readers will have a problem with it too. So I’ve had to learn to swallow my pride and trust her to make it better."

Kathleen agreed.

"When you first start writing together, you step on each other's words a lot," Kathleen said."I would say things like, ‘Don't you put those words in my characters’ mouths.’ But we’ve discovered that we know how to make each other's words better."

On June 3, Kathleen and Michael traveled to Colorado Springs to receive the Frank Waters Award from the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District. Librarians select winners who embody "excellence in writing that explores the spirit of the West through people, culture and landscape," according to the Friends group.

The award is named after Waters, a five-time Nobel Prize nominee and author of books such as 1963's "Book of the Hopi."

"Frank Waters is a literary god," Michael said. "To go into that august company is rather humbling."

Kathleen said that, "To be selected by people who know books and read all the time is a real honor."

Since their first book was published in 1990, the Gears have written in multiple genres, ranging from historical fiction to science fiction to mysteries. The one common ground between all their writings, Kathleen said, is a fascination with the frontier and Wyoming in particular.

"Everything we do is about the frontier and how we face the frontier," Kathleen said. "People in Wyoming face the frontier constantly and that inspires us."

The Gears are perhaps most famous for their Forgotten Past series, which presents fictionalized stories of various civilizations and cultures in prehistoric North America. The plots draw heavily from the Gears’ background as professional archaeologists and their desire to share prehistory with readers, she said.

"We decided someone had to start teaching people about archaeology, and the best way to do that was through fiction," Kathleen said.

In recent years, the Gears have taken their knowledge of ancient societies and used it as the basis for more speculative science fiction, Michael said.

"Readership changes over the years and public taste changes," Michael said. "The demand just wasn't there for our stories about prehistory. So our publisher said, ‘You’ve been talking about the collapse of these North American cultures. What happens when you turn that focus on our current society?’

"And it was a great idea, because the way societies collapse are exactly the same throughout history. So what if we applied that knowledge to speculate about our future? And that's how our series ‘The Wyoming Chronicles’ was born."

The Gears’ love for history and archaeology drives most of their writing and provides them with an endless well of inspiration to draw from, Kathleen said.

"If you look at historical events just in America, you could write for 50 lifetimes and never end the stories," she said.

After 30 years of writing together, the Gears have learned that persistence and hard work pay off, Kathleen said.

"Persistence is worth ten times what talent is," she said. "You will develop talent over the years, but persistence can't be taught."

Michael agreed.

"It's always long hours at the keyboard," he said. "I wrote eight books before I sold my first one, and she (Kathleen) wrote five. But sooner or later, persistence always pays off."

Honors for story ‘No Quarter’

In addition to the Gears’ honor from the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District, Kathleen has recently received honors for her short story "No Quarter," which won the Spur Award for Best Short Fiction of the Year from the Western Writers of America, and is also a finalist for the Best Short Fiction of the Year from the Western Fictioneers.

"No Quarter" is a story of the Alamo told from the perspective of Betty, an African American slave who witnessed the battle, believed to belong to American pioneer Jim Bowie, Kathleen said.

"It's a vivid, totally different picture of the Alamo," she said. "The slaves were in a unique position in that battle, because if (General Antonio Lopez De) Santa Anna's forces won, they’d be free. If Texas won, they’d be slaves. So a lot of them did not want Texas to win. I think this is a unique piece of history that a lot of people don't know, and hopefully they’ll be interested in learning more about it."

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