Starhawk Kickstarts City of Refuge, the long-awaited sequel to bestseller The Fifth Sacred Thing

SAN FRANCISCO - Aug. 5, 2015 - PRLog -- Bestselling author Starhawk has launched a well-received Kickstarter campaign to support the self-publishing of her newest epic, City of Refuge, the sequel to her classic utopian fantasy novel The Fifth Sacred Thing. The campaign received over 450 pledges totaling more than $22,000 USD in the first 24 hours.The decision to self-publish came after former publisher Bantam Books passed on the manuscript, stating they did not believe there was an audience for the book. Fans have already proven otherwise. 


City of Refuge is a futuristic fantasy that opens in the once green and flourishing city-state of Califa (a re-imagined San Francisco), in 2049. As the Califians replant their garden streets and rebuild their verdant city after they successfully resist an invasion by the ruthless Stewards, they struggle to integrate the defectors and heal the victims. But the war is not over. As long as the Stewards rule the Soutlands, they remain a threat.

Reformed soldier River and bitter former sex-slave Smokee lead an Army of Liberation down through the Central valley, while pirate Isis and her lover Sara bring a ragtag navy down the coast. But Madrone, a Healer, and Bird, an injured, traumatized musician, have committed their lives to nonviolence. How can they still fight? How can they build a new world with people so damaged by the old?

“Writing fiction is sometimes akin to a form of insanity,” says Starhawk— “you sit there for hours and hours immersed in your own internal imagery, listening to voices that take on a life of their own. You get emotionally involved with them, sometimes more intensely than with the live folks around you... As I was developing The Fifth Sacred Thing for the screen, my characters kept saying to me: 'There’s more to our story. Bring us alive again, tell the rest of the tale...’ Then I had a dream. A voice said to me:  ‘Every city needs three things: a plaza, a hearth and a sacred tree. Build a city of refuge in the heartland of the enemy.’ ”





City of Refuge follows the struggles, the sacrifices, and the victories of the peaceful warriors from Califa as they endeavor to construct a haven in the parched and war-torn Southlands. Can magic, healing and love overcome the ravages of a cruel and ruthless world? Starhawk's newest novel weaves heart-wrenching love stories and dramas of personal transformation through an epic saga of revolution to deliver a message of hope for our contemporary world.

Starhawk explains her decision to self-publish her newest work after Bantam, who originally published The Fifth Sacred Thing in 1993, passed on the manuscript:

“There is nobody (at Bantam) any longer who has a connection to the book, and the top editors I remember from those days have all left. But I KNOW there’s an audience for the book. I also believe there’s a hunger for what the book offers. Now more than ever, the world needs stories that demonstrate a positive vision of the future! With all the changes in the publishing industry also comes grand opportunities for writers to determine their own destinies. Imagine the books that could be written when authors are freed from the tyranny of the gatekeepers and the tastemakers!”

The Kickstarter campaign launched on August 4th and will run through August 31st. In just 24 hours, Starhawk’s project received more than $23,000 from over 450 backers around the world, putting it at 40% of its goal in one day. Backers of the campaign are rewarded with advanced, Kickstarter-excusive special edition copies of City of Refuge before they are available anywhere else. A limited number of earlybird copies are still available at a discounted contribution tier. The funds raised will help to cover the cost of editing, design, artwork, distribution and printing for the book.

Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and one of the most respected voices in modern Goddess religion and earth-based spirituality. She is the author or coauthor of twelve books, including the classics The Spiral Dance and The Fifth Sacred Thing.  Her latest is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, and forthcoming in the winter of 2015 is City of Refuge, the long-awaited sequel to The Fifth Sacred Thing.  Starhawk directs Earth Activist Training, http://www.earthactivisttraining.org/, teaching permaculture design grounded in spirit and with a focus on organizing and activism. She travels internationally, lecturing and teaching on earth-based spirituality, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism.

Starhawk has a well-developed platform to aid in promoting City of Refuge. She is in constant demand as a speaker, lecturer and workshop leader, and travels worldwide, reaching thousands of people in a year. She is an active blogger, is adept at social media and her Facebook Author Page has almost 90,000 followers. She lives part time in San Francisco and part time on her ranch in Sonoma County, which she is developing as a model of carbon-sequestering land use techniques. She travels internationally teaching magic, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism. Her website is starhawk.org.


The Kickstarter campaign will run through August 31st at 5pm PST: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1548894274/city-of-re...

Fans can follow Starhawk on Twitter @Starhawk17, on her Facebook page,  and on the City of Refuge Facebook page for updates.