Featuring: The Dragon's Playlist, a contemporary fantasy by Laura Bickle

The Dragon’s Playlist

Laura Bickle

Genre: Contemporary Fantasy

ISBN: 9781537891965

From the author of THE HALLOWED ONES and NINE OF STARS comes a new novel blending the magical and the real…

“This is war,” the dragon said. And she believed him.

Di fled rural West Virginia to study music and pursue a bright future as a violinist. But when a mining accident nearly kills her father, she is summoned back home to support her family. Old ghosts and an old flame emerge from the past. When Di gets a job as a bookkeeper at the same mine where her father worked, she is drawn into a conflict pitting neighbor against neighbor as the mine plans an expansion to an untouched mountain.

If the mining company’s operation goes forward, there will be more at stake than livelihoods or the pollution of the land: Di has discovered a dragon lives deep within Sawtooth Mountain, and he is not happy with this encroachment upon his lair. When catastrophe strikes, Di must choose between her family’s best interests and protecting the dragon – the last surviving bit of magic in Di’s shrinking world.

In every fight, sides are chosen. And there can be no yearning for what has been left behind.

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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

https://twitter.com/Laura_Bickle   

https://www.facebook.com/Author.Laura.Bickle

Newsletter Sign Up: https://goo.gl/TNgIjL

Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. 

JOIN MARSHA'S MAILING LIST and receive a free copy of her paranormal romance story RULER OF THE NIGHT.

Read Marsha's COON HOLLOW TALES of paranormal romance and her ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE LEGENDS for adventurous epic fantasy romance. For a FREE ebook download, read her historic fantasy, LE CIRQUE DE MAGIE, available at Amazon and Smashwords.

The Price of Immortality ~guest post by Laura Bickle, author of Mercury Retrograde, a Dark Alchemy novel

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.

Amazon    BN   iTunes

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

https://twitter.com/Laura_Bickle   

https://www.facebook.com/Author.Laura.Bickle

Tour Giveaway Contest:

$25 Amazon gift card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*~*~*

Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. Read her COON HOLLOW TALES of paranormal romance and her ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE LEGENDS for adventurous epic fantasy romance. For a FREE ebook download, read her historic fantasy, LE CIRQUE DE MAGIE, available at Amazon and Smashwords.

Time Stands Still in the Weird West ~guest post by Laura Bickle, author of Dark Alchemy #contest

I'm so happy to have Laura Bickle back on my blog to share her latest release--Dark Alchemy--with my readers. The apparently quiet old West town of Temperance sounds so creepy and fun...and probably is not as quiet as first appears. Find out more in her guest article and be sure to check out her contest at the end of this post. 

Time Stands Still in the Weird West

By Laura Bickle

Ever been to one of those places where time stands still, and it gives you the willies?

The town of Temperance is like that for geologist Petra Dee. She’s come here to escape her own personal demons and to search for her father, missing for ten years. She’s hoping to find peace and closure, but she must confront the supernatural weirdness that’s infested Temperance for more than a hundred years.

Built at the edge of Yellowstone National Park and ranch land, Temperance has changed little over the past century. Founded by an alchemist back in the Gold Rush days, Temperance flourished as long as rocks were transformed into gold. But the alchemist, Lascaris, perished in a suspicious fire, and the town’s economy tanked.

While the town withered, Lascaris left behind many half-finished alchemical experiments. Time stood still for the Hanged Men, the local undead. A product of Lascaris’s botched attempts to unlock the secret of eternal life, the Hanged Men are bound to the land, to the Alchemical Tree of Life that stands on a ruthless cattle baron’s land. The Hanged Men must return to the tree every night to decompose and regenerate, stuck in an incomplete alchemical process.

Gabriel is the oldest of the Hanged Men. He’s always in the company of his raven familiars, his spies on the world, while he masquerades as a ranch hand. Time has been kinder to Gabriel than the others. Later generations of the Hanged Men retained less and less of their humanity and memory as the power of the tree waned. For over a century, they’ll do anything in their power to preserve the tree, even kill for it.

When Petra unearths a golden compass, dating back to Lascaris’s era, she is forced to suspend her skepticism of the town’s origins. The pretty artifact has the power to locate magic, and it’s fueled by blood. The compass leads her to the door of the Hanged Men and places her in the crosshairs of the local drug lord, himself an heir to Lascaris’sold magic. When twisted and calcinated bodies turn up that Petra can’t explain scientifically, she’ll have to rely on her wits to escape the town that time forgot, or die trying. 

  

Dark Alchemy

Laura Bickle

On-sale: 3/24  

ISBN: 9780062389862

Stephen King’s The Gunslinger meets Breaking Bad in Laura Bickle’s novel Dark Alchemy.

Book Description:

Some secrets are better left buried…

Geologist Petra Dee arrives in Wyoming looking for clues to her father’s disappearance years before. What she finds instead is Temperance, a dying Western town with a gold rush past and a meth-infested present.

But under the town’s dust and quiet, an old power is shifting. When bodies start turning up - desiccated and twisted skeletons that Petra can’t scientifically explain - her investigations land her in the middle of a covert war between the town’s most powerful interests. Petra’s father wasn’t the only one searching for the alchemical secrets of Temperance, and those still looking are now ready to kill.

Armed with nothing but shaky alliances, a pair of antique guns, and a relic she doesn’t understand, the only thing Petra knows for sure is that she and her coyote sidekick are going to have to move fast, or die next.

Available at  

Amazon    BN   

Google Books    HarperCollins

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, also writing contemporary fantasy novels under the name Alayna Williams.

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. THE HALLOWED ONES and THE OUTSIDE are her latest young adult novels.

www.laurabickle.com

https://twitter.com/Laura_Bickle

https://www.facebook.com/Author.Laura.Bickle

Tour Giveaway:

1 copy of  Dark Alchemy by Laura Bickle

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*~*~*

Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy and fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. Read her ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE LEGENDS for adventurous, epic fantasy romance. Or enjoy a magical realism tale of a haunted yoga studio with SHADOWS OF SERENITY. For a FREE ebook sample of her writing, read her historic fantasy short story, LE CIRQUE DE MAGIE, available at Amazon and Smashwords.

Walking to the End ~guest post by Laura Bickle

Today I've invited author Laura Bickle to share thoughts about her writing process. Be sure to check out her latest releases below.

*~*~*

                                                                    Walking to the End
                                                                       by Laura Bickle

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
-Lao Tzu

Nothing intimidates me more than a blank page. A blank page suggests a point a thousand miles away from where I want to be. It's formless and paralyzing. There's a lot of room to screw up, in that expanse as pale and broad as autumn sky. Under the weight of it, the process of writing a book just seems...too big.

And I stuff that page away in a notebook. I click over to the internet to "research." It's so much easier to sift through e-mail, putter through instant messaging, shop...do anything to avoid that threat of the empty page.

I don't often experience what psychologists describe as creative flow. I know that it's a state that overcomes dancers and painters and artists of all stripes. It's a fever that overtakes one, when one loses track of time and one's identity in the creative act. It's merging with the work. A momentary nirvana, when thoughts are emptied out and every breath is drawn in service to the journey.

It's rare when the words flow effortlessly, when my fingers fly across the keyboard. I often have fantasies that I'll have a fabulously productive night. I hope that the muse will strike me with her magic wand, and  I'll be up until three in the morning, writing ten thousand words of deathless prose.  I'll be puffed up with pride in the morning, assured of a breakthrough. The miles will fly by, as if the muse has strapped Hermes' winged sandals upon my feet.

That's not me.

Instead, I'm a plodder. When I'm against a deadline, I stare at my outline-map and figure out approximately how many words I need to finish. I build in some time for revisions and travel delays, divide by the number of days, and gnaw away at the project, bit by bit. It's like expecting to be in a new town every day at nightfall. Without a deadline, I set one. I use a technique I discovered in National Novel Wrting Month - a specific number of words a day. A thousand usually works for me. That allows me to keep the project fresh, the momentum going. I can do more if the situation warrants it, less if Real Life intrudes. But that number allows me to feel as if I'm making some progress without feeling out of breath or panicked.

It doesn't sound glamorous, does it? I guess I have a hard time with my Inner Perfectionist. You know the creature I'm talking about - she goes by many guises. Inner Editor. Inner Critic. The little voice that says "not good enough" whenever  I'm between scenes. The one that wants to count my name and address in the word count because, at least, they are formatted correctly. Her voice is loudest when I'm on the road alone, between plot points on the map, wandering in uncharted territory.

I've talked to a lot of writers who tend to abandon projects around the ten thousand word mark. I think there's something magic about this number. At this point on the creative walk, I tend to realize that I've put on some very uncomfortable shoes for this journey. Sure, they looked pretty at the beginning. But can I finish the journey in them?

I take these imaginary shoes off, let them dangle from my fingers, and continue walking barefoot. There are blisters and thorns. But also the blessed feeling of cool grass between my toes and cool water against my soles.

What little I've experienced of creative flow usually happens in the last chapters of the book, when I can see the intentions and plot threads and images coming together. Then, self-awareness slips a bit. I'm no longer walking; I'm running.

I think those last pages, that exhilaration is what makes it finally worth it. Knowing all that dark ink is behind me, pushing me forward. It's like moving with the wind at my back, when the work has taken on a life of its own.

*~*~*

THE HALLOWED ONES

Reading level: Ages 12 and up
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Graphia (September 25, 2012)
ISBN-10: 0547859260
ISBN-13: 978-0547859262

If your home was the last safe place on earth, would you let a stranger in?

In this captivating thriller, an Amish settlement is the last safe haven in a world plagued by an unspeakable horror…

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenag-ers are free to experience non-Amish culture before officially joining the church. But before Rumspringa arrives, Katie’s safe world starts to crumble. It begins with a fiery helicopter crash in the cornfields, followed by rumors of massive unrest and the disappearance of huge numbers of people all over the world. Something is out there...and it is making a killing.

Unsure why they haven’t yet been attacked, the Amish Elders make a de-cree: No one goes outside their community, and no one is allowed in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man lying just outside the bounda-ry of their land, she can’t leave him to die. She refuses to submit to the Elder’s rule and secretly brings the stranger into her community—but what else is she bringing in with him?

EMBERS

Anya Kalinczyk #1 
Pocket Juno Books
Mass Market Paperback, $7.99
ISBN: 978-1439167656
April 2010 

“One of the most promising debut novels I’ve read in a great while… I’d highly recommend this book to anybody who reads fantasy. It reminds me in many regards…of another exceptional first novel…Emma Bull’s seminal War for the Oaks, and there’s not much higher praise that I can give."
          —Elizabeth Bear on Tor.com 

“Bickle has something great in Anya. Embers has everything: demons, ghosts, dragons, love, sex, police, and murder.”
          —M.L.N. Hanover, bestselling author of Darker Angels

“Gritty but never grim, Embers is a truly urban fantasy, where the soul of a city haunts every page. I can’t wait for more of Anya and the unforgettable Sparky!"
          —Jeri Smith-Ready, award-winning author of Bad to the Bone and Shade 

Unemployment, despair, anger--visible and invisible unrest feed the undercurrent of Detroit's unease. A city increasingly invaded by phantoms now faces a malevolent force that further stokes fear and chaos throughout the city.

Anya Kalinczyk spends her days as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department, and her nights pursuing malicious spirits with a team of eccentric ghost hunters. Anya--who is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern--suspects a supernatural arsonist is setting blazes to summon a fiery ancient entity that will leave the city in cinders. By Devil's Night, the spell will be complete, unless Anya--with the help of her salamander familiar and the paranormal investigating team --can stop it.

Anya's accustomed to danger and believes herself inured to loneliness and loss. But this time she's risking everything: her city, her soul, and a man who sees and accepts her for everything she is. Keeping all three safe will be the biggest challenge she's ever faced.

EMBERS is available now from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. 

Read an excerpt at http://books.simonandschuster.com/Embers/Laura-Bickle/9781439167656/excerpt

SPARKS 
Anya Kalinczyk #2
Pocket Juno Books
Mass Market Paperback, $7.99
ISBN 978-1439167687
September 2010 

The second book in Bickle’s series about Anya Kalinczyk is just as wonderful as the first—Anya is a compelling and likable protagonist and Bickle does an outstanding job in her portrayal of the city of Detroit; there are ruins, yes, but also hope in the ashes. Anya never takes herself too seriously and there is a scene in a baby supercenter that is absolutely not to be missed. (4 stars) 
          - RT Book Reviews

...a charming and inventive read.
         -Elizabeth Bear, Realms of Fantasy Magazine, December 2010 

WITHOUT A TRACE...

Anya Kalinczyk is the rarest type of psychic medium, a Lantern, who holds down a day job as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department—while working 24/7 to exterminate malicious spirits haunting a city plagued by unemployment and despair. Along with her inseparable salamander familiar, Sparky, Anya has seen, and even survived, all manner of fiery hell—but her newest case sparks suspicions of a bizarre phenomenon that no one but her eccentric team of ghost hunters might believe: spontaneous human combustion.

After fire consumes the home of elderly Jasper Bernard, Anya is stunned to discover his remains—or, more precisely, a lack of them; even the fiercest fires leave some trace of their victims—and she is sure this was no naturally occurring blaze. Soon she’s unearthed a connection to a celebrity psychic who preys on Detroit’s poor, promising miracles for money. But Hope Solomon wants more—she’s collecting spirits, and in a frantic race against time, Anya will face down an evil adversary who threatens her fragile relationship with her lover, her beloved Sparky’s freshly hatched newts, and the wandering souls of the entire city.

SPARKS is available for pre-order from Amazon and Barnes & Noble 

Read an excerpt at http://books.simonandschuster.com/Sparks/Laura-Bickle/9781439167687/excerpt

 
Author Bio: 

Laura Bickle has an MA in sociology-criminology (research interests: fear of crime and victimology) and a BA in criminology. She has worked in and around criminal justice since 1997. Although she does read Tarot cards, she's never used them in criminal profiling or to locate lost scientists. She recently took up astronomy, but for the most part her primary role in studying constellations and dark matter is to follow her amateur astronomer-husband around central Ohio toting the telescope tripod and various lenses.

Writing as Laura Bickle, she's the author of EMBERS and SPARKS for Pocket - Juno Books. Writing as Alayna Williams, she's the author of DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE.

More info on her urban fantasy and general nerdiness is here: http://www.salamanderstales.com/

Laura/ Alayna’s blogs 
http://www.salamanderstales.blogspot.com and http://delphisdaughters.blogspot.com 

She’s also at Facebook

~ ~ ~ Marsha A. Moore is a writer of fantasy romance. The magic of art and nature spark life into her writing. Read her ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE LEGENDS for adventurous epic fantasy romance: Book One, SEEKING A SCRIBE, Book Two, HERITAGE AVENGED, and Book Three, LOST VOLUMES. She has also authored the Ciel's Legacy series, with fast action mermaid/pirate storylines: TEARS ON A TRANQUIL LAKE and TORTUGA TREASURE.  For a FREE ebook download, read her historic fantasy, LE CIRQUE DE MAGIE, available at Amazon and Smashwords.