The average writing day for pagan author Starhawk seems apt for someone whose spirituality is embedded in the magical qualities of nature. The 64-year-old wakes up in her northern California home and goes outside to sit and meditate. When she's ready, she settles down to write at a spot out in the woods, listening to the sounds of nature as she lets the words flow freely onto the page.

Starhawk, who cofounded the Reclaiming tradition of modern paganism in 1980, has been writing for the pagan community since she published her first book, The Spiral Dance, in 1979. The modern pagan community is comprised of people who identify as witches, pagans, neopagans and more. With The Spiral Dance , Starhawk became a leading voice in the neopagan movement, which is marked by the burgeoning of earth-based, goddess spirituality in the 20th century.

The writer now has a new book, a follow up to her 1994 epic The Fifth Sacred Thing , coming out March 1.

The book, City of Refuge , is set in a utopian and pagan-influenced San Francisco in the year 2048 just after a devastating war with the totalitarian South. As the city struggles to regain stability, it quickly becomes apparent that its troubles are far from over.