Lost Paradise

Sheluna is strong and wise beyond her twenty years, and she is ready to assume her role as the next high priestess of Holy Ground. She has all the qualities of a great leader—she is open-minded, spirited, and courageous. She is loved and respected by all the people and creatures surrounding her. Now her destiny rests on the other side of one crucial and dangerous test. Set in Holy Ground, a real city that existed over nine thousand years ago and lasted for over fifteen centuries in central Turkey, Sheluna's story is imaginative historical fiction based on fascinating fact gleaned from extensive research into the excavations of Çatalhöyük, the real city that inspired the story of Holy Ground. Home to an advanced egalitarian society, Çatalhöyük's legacy is rich with thought-provoking themes of equality, Earth worship, and the importance of ritual and symbology. Modern humans can learn much from our ancestors of prehistory (a big part of which is "her story"). The people of Holy Ground called it Paradise—the paradise before the fall.