The next powerful adventure in the award-winning Ari Ara Series, River Dragon is an extraordinary story of wonder and courage.
Will Ari Ara risk everything
- the crown, love, even her life - for what she believes?
Everyone has a secret.
At long last, fifteen-year-old Ari Ara is returning from exile to take up her duties as royal heir.
Nervous and excited, she leaps into the heart-pounding tests that will prove she's worthy of the throne. But hidden dangers lurk beneath the rituals of the Ordeal of Queens. Ancestor spirits haunt her. Nightmares plague her. Not everyone wants a follower of the Way Between as the next ruler. Surrounded by warriors and war culture, Ari Ara's commitment to peace threatens her chances of wearing the crown. A hard choice lies before her: will she stay true to what she believes? Or will she stay silent so that she can become queen?
Through triumph and disaster, heartbreak and friendship, Ari Ara rises to the challenges with courage. But then a long-buried secret comes to light ... and the true cost of peace is revealed.
"An adventure of courage and spirit. Another must-read in the award-winning Ari Ara Series."
Sun, Rivera: - Rivera Sun is an award-winning author and an internationally-respected teacher of strategy for nonviolent movements. She is the founding editor of the weekly Nonviolence News, the largest international journal devoted to the use of nonviolence in mass movements. She is the author of nine novels, as well as nine theatrical plays, three books of poetry, a book of highly opinionated essays and a study guide to nonviolent action.Her essays on social justice are syndicated by Peace Voice and have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines.Rivera co-hosted nationally syndicated weekly radio shows for over five years and has co-founded two nationwide nonviolent study and action groups.She has been the program director for Pace e Bene/Campaign Nonviolence and is an advisor to many national and international social and environmental activist organizations. Rivera's webinars, readings and workshops are available on her website. She is happy to meet with classroom and activist groups and book clubs.Rivera has red hair, a twin sister, and a fondness for esoteric mystics. She went to Bennington College to study writing as a Harcourt Scholar and graduated with a degree in dance. She lives in an earthship house in New Mexico, where she grows tomatoes, bakes sourdough bread, and drinks pu'erh tea. Rivera has been an aerial dancer, a bike messenger, and a gung-fu style tea server. Everything else about her -except her writing- is perfectly ordinary.Rivera Sun sings the anthem of our times. Her work celebrates the everyday heroes hidden in activists and soccer moms, alike. Rich metaphor and exquisite writing thrust her novels and poetry into the realms of literary greatness, while the stories grab the social issues of our times by the collar and shakes them hard. A soaring tribute to the beauty of the human spirit and also a scathing indictment of contemporary culture, her work is unforgettable; it seizes you at the first page and sends you flying out the other side, refreshed, rejuvenated and empowered to change. Rivera believes in being an embodiment of love-in-action in all that she does. A passionate participant in creating a just, sustainable, and peaceful world, she takes the responsibility of life seriously . . . and with a good dose of humor. Her novels focus on the social issues of our times, positing creative solutions as well as muckraking through the causes of suffering. "Life is the ultimate adventure!" Rivera says.Rivera is easy to connect with on Facebook and Twitter, or through the RiveraSun.com website. She encourages her readers to reach out, write reviews, and share their favorite quotes with others. Rivera in her words: I collect tangible heroesimperfect and lovablefrom all times and all nations, races and creedswith their adventure-plot-metaphorsthat we, ourselves, liveto inspire all peopleto lead boldly authentic, everyday livesdeeply connected to themselveseach otherand this earth.I pair complexity to simplicityfold panoramas into packageschallenge one voice to speak many.I leave room for music, dance, and physicality.embodying the tellerin mind, heart, and soul.The kitchen becomes a stagethe classroom a theaterevery human a storyteller.The tales become commondiscussed over tea, simmered with dinnerwritten in lettersrippling. . .into our lives.
