W. Michael Gear graduated from Fort Collins High School in 1972 and pursued both his Bachelor's (1976) and Master's (1979) degrees at Colorado State University. Upon completion of his Master's in physical anthropology he went to work for Western Wyoming College in Rock Springs, WY as a field archaeologist.

Beginning in 1981, Michael, along with two partners, put together his own archaeological consulting company. Pronghorn Anthropological Associates began doing cultural resource management studies in 1982.

Gear currently resides in Thermopolis, Wyoming along with wife, fellow author and co-writer Kathleen O'Neal Gear.

Forbidden Borders trilogy

• Requiem for the Conqueror (1991)
• Relic of Empire (1992)
• Countermeasures (1993)

People Books - First North Americans (with Kathleen O'Neal Gear)

• People of the Wolf (1990)
• People of the Fire (1990)
• People of the Earth (1992)
• People of the River (1992)
• People of the Sea (1993)
• People of the Lakes (1994)
• People of the Lightning (1995)
• People of the Silence (1996)
• People of the Mist (1997)
• People of the Masks (1998)
• People of the Owl (2003)
• People of the Raven (2004)
• People of the Moon (2005)
• People of the Nightland (2007)
• People of the Weeping Eye (2008)
• People of the Thunder (2009)
• People of the Longhouse (2010)

Way of Spider

• The Warriors of Spider (1988)
• The Way of Spider (1988)
• The Web of Spider (1989)

The Richard Hamilton Duology

• Morning River (1996)
• Coyote Summer (1997)

Anasazi Mysteries

• The Visitant (1999)
• The Summoning God (2000)
• Bone Walker (2001)

Other Novels

• The Big Horn Legacy (1988)
• Long Ride Home (1988)
• The Artifact (1990)
• Starstrike (1990)
• Dark Inheritance (2001) (with Kathleen O'Neal Gear)
• Raising Abel (2002) (with Kathleen O'Neal Gear)
• The Athena Factor (2005)
• The Betrayal. The Lost Life of Jesus (2008) (with Kathleen O'Neal Gear)
• Children of the Dawnland (2009) (with Kathleen O'Neal Gear)