Today, I'm pleased to have Laura Bickle return and talk about the fascinating topic of how alchemy has been used to find immortality. Be sure to check out her new release, Mercury Retrograde, from her Dark Alchemy series. Definitely on my TBR list! Also, at the end of this post, you can enter her giveaway contest for a prize of an Amazon gift card.
The Price of Immortality
By
Laura Bickle
Classical
alchemy has sought the secret to eternal life for centuries. Through the use of
intricate alchemical processes and arcane magic, alchemists sought to find a
way to extend life beyond its natural end. There were other goals, of course –
the Philosopher’s Stone and transmuting base metals to gold, for example. These
are all works of magic, and magic has a price.
In
MERCURY RETROGRADE, the small town of Temperance was founded in the Gold Rush
days by an alchemist who discovered a way to conjure gold from rocks. He was
successful in that venture, but failed in his efforts to create eternal life.
Not for lack of trying – and he experimented with humans.
The
Hanged Men are the result of an incomplete alchemical process. They’ve been
roaming the backcountry for a century and a half, disguised as ranch hands for
a dynasty of cattle barons. The Hanged Men that were made first are the most
human-seeming – they retain the ability to speak and are passable as men. The
ones made later are more fragile and mechanical, little more than automatons.
It’s been this way for over a century, as the men work in the presence of their
raven familiars.
Each
one was hung from the Alchemical Tree of Life, the Lunaria. It’s a mighty oak
tree standing alone in a field, embodying the alchemical principle of “As
above, so below.” Its branches symbolically scrape the heavens, and its roots
sink deep into the earth, to a chamber of living tree roots dripping with
liquid sunshine.
The
Hanged Men must return to that chamber every night, to decompose and be
regenerated. It’s not a pretty process. The Hanged Men are vulnerable to magic
and to wood – they can be killed by a sharp whack to the back of the head with
a baseball bat or staked like any other undead (or living) creature.
So
far, things have worked out. The Hanged Men keep a low profile. But times have
changed. The Lunaria is dying. It’s shedding leaves out of season, dropping
branches, and the energy drains away from its brittle roots. The Hanged Men
have tried all they know to save it, but it is clear that it will not last much
longer…and neither will they.
Their
only hope is to find a magical creature – a basilisk. The magical serpent has
been awakened by seismic tremors and slithers through the backcountry of
Yellowstone National Park, leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. The blood
from the right side of the basilisk grants eternal life, while blood from the
left is certain death.
It’s
a terrible risk, with a terrible price – the Hanged Men are as vulnerable as
any other men to the basilisk’s venomous powers. But they must find it and make
an offering to the tree before it dies…and the Hanged Men, along with it.
*~*~*
Mercury
Retrograde
A
Dark Alchemy Novel
Book
Two
Laura
Bickle
On-Sale 10/27/2015
ISBN: 9780062437617
About the Book:
Geologist Petra Dee and the
citizens of Temperance, Wyoming come up against a venomous enemy, not to
mention a biker gang that’s hell on wheels, in the second book in Laura
Bickle’s Dark Alchemy series.
Something venomous has come to
Temperance…
It’s been two months since Petra
Dee and her coyote sidekick Sig faced off against Temperance’s resident
alchemist, but things are far from quiet. When an Internet video of a massive
snake in the backcountry of Yellowstone goes viral, a chase for the mythical
basilisk is on. Monster hunters swarm into the area, and never one to pass up
the promise of discovery, Petra joins in the search.
Among the newcomers is a snake cult
on wheels - the biker gang Sisters of Serpens. Unlike some, the Sisters don’t
want to kill the basilisk - they want to worship it. But things get complicated
when the basilisk develops a taste for human flesh that rivals the Sisters’ own
murderous skills.
Meanwhile, the alchemical tree of
life is dying, and the undead Hanged Men of Temperance who depend on it know
the basilisk may be their last chance for survival.
With time running out for everyone
around her, Petra will be forced to decide who survives and who she must leave
behind in this action-packed sequel to Dark Alchemy.
About
the Author:
Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely
too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. After
graduating with an MA in Sociology - Criminology from Ohio State University and
an MLIS in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she
patrolled the stacks at the public library and worked with data systems in
criminal justice. She now dreams up stories about the monsters under the
stairs. Her work has been included in the ALA’s Amelia Bloomer Project 2013
reading list and the State Library of Ohio’s Choose to Read Ohio reading list
for 2015-2016.
More information about Laura’s work can be found at www.laurabickle.com
Tour Giveaway Contest:
$25 Amazon gift card
a Rafflecopter giveaway
