Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Temperance with Laura Bickle

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Temperance, Wyoming and our special guide is Laura Bickle author of DARK ALCHEMY.

Temperance's Top Five Spooky Places

The West is weird in DARK ALCHEMY. Long-buried alchemical experiments surface to meet the local undead, warring with drug lords and cattle barons in the tiny town of Temperance. It’s an odd place…as the new stranger in town, geologist Petra Dee, is discovering. These are the top five spooky places this scientist is trying to make heads or tails of:

5. The Compostela. Every weird west locale needs a bar. Formerly a church, the Compostela is now reincarnated as the town tavern. It retains much of the architecture of its former days as a house of worship, including stained glass windows and the elaborate apse, which now holds a bar. Behind the bar work mysterious men and women dressed in black, impassive folks who watch bloody fights break out in the street but never intervene.

4. Specimen Ridge. Nearby Yellowstone National Park is the home of many geological wonders, including Specimen Ridge, a forest of fossilized trees. At work taking samples in the forest, Petra discovers the oddly-calcinated body of a hiker at the feet of one of the trees. It’s as if the victim is encased in a prison of his own bone, and she can’t explain why.

3. The Eye of the World. Stained a glorious shade of turquoise by algae, this pool of water is rumored to be a window to the spirit world. Petra drinks from the pool – and falls headfirst into a hallucination about her missing father.

2. The Garden. In alchemy, the Alchemical Garden is the place in which the puzzle of immortal life is unraveled. In Temperance, the Garden is a dilapidated field around the local meth dealer’s house. This is the place where blood is drawn and hallucinations are made real. Stroud, the meth dealer, believes that he’s the heir to the alchemical mysteries of Temperance. He’ll stop at nothing to reclaim his birthright.

1. The Lunaria. The alchemical Tree of Life is real, and it stands alone in a field owned by a ruthless cattle baron. Its roots twist deep into the earth, and its branches brush the sky. At the center of an underground warren of tunnels that reach into the very depths of the earth, the Lunaria guards the secret of the Hanged Men. The local undead, the Hanged Men masquerade as ranch hands. Forever in the company of ravens, they must return to the Lunaria every night to decompose and be reborn. The magic of the Lunaria isn’t perfect – many of the Hanged Men are little more than broken automatons. But they will defend the tree against any incursion – whether from Stroud or Petra. Are they responsible for the murders? Or is something even more fearsome at work? Petra will have to puzzle it out…or risk becoming the latest victim in this string of weird horrors rooted in Temperance.

Thank you Laura for giving us such a haunting tour of Temperance!  

To learn more about Laura Bickle and her books, please visit her website.  You can add Dark Alchemy here on Goodreads.

What did you think of Laura Bickle's picks for spooky places?

Did you know that Laura also was our guide for a spooky trip to Detroit, the setting of her Anna Kalinczyk series?  You can check out Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Detroit with Laura Bickle here.

Last week on Paranormal Road Trip we visited Annwyn with Shawna Husk.  Next week we'll be traveling to Dunnsmouth with Daryl Gregory.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!