Dorothy's book news

My new book, "The Horse and the Plains Indians: A Powerful Partnership," is now available.  I've written a little about it on my website, where there's also a link to Amazon.com.  In its starred review, School Library Journal wrote that the book  "features a well-written and readable narrative, appealing and informative full-color photographs, and reproductions of period illustrations... and is certain to draw readers who are interested in Native American history or horses."

I've also turned my novel, "Return of the Wolf," into an ebook which is available in a variety of formats, including Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords, which offers a number of different formats.  The print edition had drawings where are not in this edition, which is priced at $2.99.  When the book came out, it received great reviews, and readers loved it, so I'm pleased to make it available again.  The book tells how wolves really live in nature, all told from the point of view of the wolves themselves.  School Library Journal wrote: "Patent offers such close-up natural descriptions and keen observations that readers will feel as though they are in the wild....A wonderful read-aloud."
T

Catching up and Crow Fair

I let time get away from me and neglected my blog, but after a very busy year, I'm back to it again. I will spend the next days getting caught up on what I've been doing, as I think much is of interest to others.
This summer, I'm finishing the manuscript for a book about Indians and horses, and my research for that book has taken me to special places in Montana, in books, and in my mind and spirit. For thousands of years, Plains Indians had no horses. When the Spanish came in the late 1500s, they brought horses with them, and by about 1750, all the Plains Indians had them, revolutionizing their cultures.
My first journey for this book was to Crow Agency, in southeastern Montana, for the annual August Crow Fair, nicknamed "The Teepee Capital of the World" because of the more than 1,000 teepees pitched there for the celebration. Indians from all over the U.S. and Canada come to participate in the rodeo and races and to socialize, and Crow families gather to catch up with their loved ones. Every morning the Crow people parade proudly through the camp, dressed in their finest outfits, riding their beautiful horses. It's a delightful occasion, and an opportunity to experience how this tribe has maintained its close relationship to horses despite all the horrors its people suffered as European Americans took over the prairies. My favorite part of the experience was watching the young people riding through camp bareback and hanging out on their horses around the rodeo grounds.