"Dark Alchemy"

Laura Bickle grew up in rural Ohio, reading entirely too many comic books out loud to her favorite Wonder Woman doll. She 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.

Bickle applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Dark Alchemy, and reported the following:

Page 69 of Dark Alchemy is written from the perspective of Cal, a teenage boy in the service of a drug lord, Stroud. Stroud is a pretty odd character, even by weird west standards. As an alchemist, he’s chasing the secret of eternal life. Stroud sent Cal’s friends to spy on a cattle baron who he suspects harbors the Lunaria, the Alchemical Tree of Life. Problem is, they’ve gone missing, and there’s nothing that Cal can do:

Cal bit his tongue. He knew better than to ask the Alchemist questions. If he asked, he got answers he would never forget, answers that would keep him awake at night.

That pretty much sums up the story. Dark Alchemy is a dark fantasy mash-up of western, dark fantasy, and horror. Asking questions always gets the characters into trouble, as the answers, like alchemy, are more terrible than they could have ever imagined.

Learn more about the book and author at Laura Bickle's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Outside.

--Marshal Zeringue