Category: Novel News! Rivera’s Books

Review by Tom Hastings. The Roots of Resistance is now available on this website and in ebook and print formats on Amazon and all major online bookstores! Rivera Sun caused quite a big stir in the relatively small but passionate world of nonviolent resistance with her 2013 extrapolative fiction, The Dandelion Insurrection and again with […]

Tis the season to talk about gratitude. And turkey. And colonialism, Indigenous peoples, Buy Nothing Day, Shop Local, consumerism, capitalism, and the growing list of ways humanity will come to an untimely demise. I’m going to leave all that aside for a moment. In other years, I’ve had a mouthful of opinions along with my […]

You. Are. Amazing. It takes vision, love, and courage to change the story of our times. You’ve got it all. Thank you. Wow. I am blown away by the response to The Roots of Resistance’s Community Publishing Campaign. In two days, we are thirty percent funded, which reflects the incredible generosity, love, and vision of readers and friends far […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ At two o’clock in the morning, Tansy woke Tucker to tell him that a group claiming to be the Texas Free Rangers was taking credit for the pipeline explosion. “The Texas Free Rangers?” he […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/   Not here. Not us. Not our school. The words of Idah Robbins echoed in Charlie’s thoughts. The fifth grade teacher’s voice rang with fierce determination and a deep love of her students, school, and […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ Chapter Nine Debt Prison Strike Hot and humid as a hairy armpit on a southeast afternoon, the debt prison laundry stank of detergents and hissing cotton steam. The incarcerated workers hauled sacks and trolleys of […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ “Come on with me and let’s walk down to the end of the block,” Tansy urged grimly. “There’s something you outta see.” The quiet residential neighborhood spilled out onto a commercial corridor with a corner […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ The wind poured through the car window and danced across her scalp. Zadie’s black curls whipped and tangled as she drummed her hands on the steering wheel, singing along with the blaring radio. Barreling up […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ The snow thickened, cast into frantic swirls like schools of fish trying to dart free of ocean nets. Through the flurries, a figure in a long dark coat paced the whitened sidewalks of the National […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ They were old enemies, these dinosaurs of power, railing on their deathbeds, refusing to surrender or transform their businesses. They were as old as the enclosures of the commons, the colonization of the New World, […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ Alex Kelley sat in meditation, absorbed in thought, studying the chessboard of the nation. She laid out a web of understanding, piece by piece, watching the interlocking systems, tracking patterns, threads, and connections. The wall […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ We must hear from everyone, he wrote, every person who has ever taken action with the Dandelion Insurrection. The Man From the North called forward the voices of the Dandelion Insurrection, lifting the conversation on […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ Charlie’s mouth fell open, speechless. His anger dissipated like steam off a cooling pot. Of course he loved her . . . how could she doubt that? He loved her the way heroes of ancient stories loved: […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ Zadie sensed it then, the creature that stripped bones bare and bleached the rocks. As if parting a veil, the desert whittled the night into nothing, revealing the force gathering behind the curtains of the […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ The roots of resistance run deep through time and chapters of human history: Egyptian pyramid craftsmen striking for bread wages; Roman plebeians refusing to work for patricians; pagans veiling the sacred in secrecy to escape […]

This is an excerpt from The Roots of Resistance, the sequel to The Dandelion Insurrection. You can order a copy here: https://riverasun.com/the-roots-of-resistance/ “The Dandelion Insurrection has always been this way, springing up where one least expects. We’re a swarm of birds, not a silver bullet,” Zadie said. “Our strength is in our diversity and our sheer, dizzying […]

You’re Gonna Love This Story! The Roots of Resistance Is Coming In November. Greetings, everyone! As promised, here’s a special glimpse of the cover. Isn’t it a beauty? I’m having a blast getting ready for the release. It’s been a whirlwind week of editing, meme-making, and gathering quotes and excerpts. Starting tomorrow, I get my last […]

Embark On An Adventure Great Novels. Great Discounts. 4 Days Left For Our Summer Reading Sale!!! Good books are great friends during tumultuous times. The best ones entice our love of adventure while grounding us for engaging with the changes in our world. At least, these are the stories I love best, the ones I […]

An Essay of the Man From the Northby Rivera Sun Curse the war culture! It leaves us at a loss for words, bereft of metaphors to describe our situation. Our minds become blank slates, unable to recognize dangers at the door unless they carry assault weapons or drop bombs on our heads. Poverty and poverty-related […]

(Excerpt from The Way Between by Rivera Sun. Find it on Amazon.com or signed copies here.) The Horns of Monk’s Hand sounded as the sun touched the western shoulder of Old Monk Mountain. The Fanten drums halted for a breath, acknowledging the Horns through silence. Ari Ara shivered at the lingering reverberations of the low […]

(Excerpt from The Way Between by Rivera Sun. Find it on Amazon.com or signed copies here.) The days turned cold and the nights colder still. Frost drew its icy hand over the monastery, the forest, and the village. Ari Ara crept with trepidation around Shulen, haunted by what she had seen that night in the […]

by Tom Hastings, Director of PeaceVoice, Professor of Conflict Studies at Portland State University (Find The Way Between here. Ebooks available here.) This novel should be read aloud to everyone, by everyone, from childhood onward. It is an auspicious beginning to a new mythology of peace, of justice, of inclusion, of conversion and transformation. Rivera Sun’s […]

(Excerpt from The Way Between by Rivera Sun. Find it on Amazon.com or signed copies here.) The Horns of Monk’s Hand Monastery shook the rocks as she raced out of the Fanten Forest and across the lower meadows. At the crossroads, Ari Ara halted and stood defiantly in the buffeting wind. The trail down to […]

“The Revolutionary Table” Chapter Fourteen of Steam Drills by Rivera Sun Patrick, Louisa, Hank, Wanda, and Ford all crowded around the kitchen table in Henrietta’s two-room cabin. Old Moses Nelson’s mother gave birth to him on that table. Strong and sturdy, rugged as the ancient oak that formed its boards; the table’s grains held a […]