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.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.Katie Hafner has been writing about technology since 1983. She was the news editor of Data Communications Magazine, a reporter for the San Diego Union, a technology correspondent for Business Week and a contributing editor at Newsweek, covering technology and computers. In addition, she has contributed articles to journals such as Wired, The New Republic, Esquire and Working Woman. Hafner is co-author of Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier (1991, with John Markoff), and Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet (1996, with husband Matthew Lyon). In 1995, she wrote The House at the Bridge: A Story of Modern Germany, which grew out of an interest she developed in college while studying with novelist and playwright Rheinhard Lettau.