W. Michael Gear was born on May 20, 1955 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He received a master's degree in anthropology from Colorado State University in 1979. He married Kathleen O'Neal Gear in 1982, and they have collaborated on a series of books for young adults. The theme of these books is ancient civilizations, and the titles include People of the Wolf, People of the Fire, People of the Sea, and People of the Lakes. They own Wind River Archaeologist Consultants, which is a private research firm. He has also written several books by himself including the Forbidden Borders Trilogy, Morning River, and Dark Inheritance.Kathleen O'Neal Gear was born on October 29, 1954 in Tulare, California.… She received a B.A. from California State University in Bakersfield and a M.A. 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. In the 1980's, she worked as the Wyoming state historian, and later as the archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska. She received the federal government's Special Achievement Award twice for outstanding management of our nation's cultural heritage. She married W. Michael Gear in 1982, and they have collaborated on a series of books for young adults. The theme of these books is ancient civilizations, and the titles include People of the Wolf, People of the Fire, People of the Sea, and People of the Lakes. They own Wind River Archaeologist Consultants, which is a private research firm. She has also written several books by herself including the Women of the West series.
Artist and freelance illustrator Dan Yaccarino graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York in 1987. Yaccarino's work has appeared in periodicals such as Rolling Stone, Playboy and New York magazine. AT&T, Mount Gay Rum, Gardenburger and other companies have used his images and illustrations in their advertising. In 1993, Yaccarino published his first children's book, Big Brother Mike, and has since written or illustrated almost twenty more children's books.