Perseid Press Author Spotlight on
S.E. Lindberg: April 15th, 2021
With the release of Mystics in Hell, Perseid Press is rotating a spotlight on its authors. This week it's on me, eh gad! I wanted to capture my post here as well, adding some extra links and ensuring my blog has a record of how I infuse Alchemy into the Heroes in Hell and Heroika series:
Alchemical Muses:
Strange muses have had inspired my creativity for decades. I’m fascinated with the intersection of science, art, and spirituality (alchemy essentially) and have turned toward writing as a medium to learn. Since 2014, I’ve also interviewed authors on the topic Beauty in Weird Fiction to explore how others approached such inspirations (for this crowd, I recommend Death Panelists, when is it O.K. to go to hell?). By education and trade, I am actually a chemist. For Perseid Press, I’ve contributed five alchemy-inspired tales to date (three for the Heroes in Hell series and two for Heroika).
Alchemy in Heroes in Hell:
I’ve adopted the duo of Howard Carter
(renowned archaeologist and looter of King Tutankhamun’s tomb) and Ernst
Haeckel (discredited evolutionist and original ‘ecologist’) as tour guides.
Their motives contrast: Carter adores material, artificial wealth as much as
Haeckel is fascinated with nature’s riches. They roam the Egyptian world of the
dead, Duat. Their story arc continues in the just-released Mystics in Hell.
1) “Curse
of the Pharaohs” in Pirates in Hell
·
In
the Egyptian realm of the dead of Duat, many pharaohs wait to be judged by
Anubis; yet, he has been in absentia for centuries. As
the piratical Sea People threaten to come ashore, the meddling duo
of Carter and Haeckel unearth Anubis’s Hall of Two Truths. Eleven anxious
Rameses risk leaving the shoreline unprotected to chance judgment (and a
chance to exit Duat!). Read this teaser interview to learn more: Ernest Haeckel
Interview (Hell Week 2017, Pirates in Hell).
2)
“Lovers Sans Phalli” in Lovers
in Hell
· Surviving
Pirates in Hell’s “Curse of the Pharaohs”, the lovers Hatshepsut and
Senenmut depart Duat toward hell proper, Anubis having removed their hearts and
broken their toy phallus. They find Osiris, missing the penis he requires to
retake the realm from Satan’s influence. Carter and Haeckel quest with the
Egyptians, seeking to make everyone whole again by stealing genitalia from the
Undertaker’s Mortuary. Listen to this teaser interrogation of Carter and
Haeckel as higher powers seek out the location of a stolen artifact: the
phallus of the Egyptian god of rejuvenation: Osiris. Hell
Week 2018 – A Day in the Life of Haeckel and Carter.
3)
“Fool’s Gold? in Mystics in Hell
· The Egyptian god of
mysticism, Thoth, seeks conspirators to retrieve the Philosopher’s Stone; with
it, Thoth could usurp Satan’s control of the realm of Duat. Taking up the
charge is Carter and Haeckel. They discover that King Midas’s alchemical
ability to transmute flesh into gold relies on the stolen Philosopher’s Stone,
and Midas is producing hell’s new gastro-currency: buttcoin. Yes, rejoice,
there is a gold-rush in hell! Mine for a price. At your
own risk.
Alchemy in Heroika:
For this
series, I track the mystical Emerald Tablet (a.k.a., the Philosopher’s Stone) through
time. Read these and experience the birth of chemical warfare. You’ll see that
Thoth and Osiris make appearances here too.
1)
“Legacy of the
Great Dragon” in Heroika 1:Dragon Eaters
· Legacy of the Great
Dragon fictionalizes the Hermetic Tradition, presenting the “Divine
Pymander–Great Dragon” as being the sun-eating Apep serpent of Egyptian
antiquity (a dragon who ate the sun each day from under the horizon, in the
underworld). Thoth, physician of the gods (the
Father of Alchemy), helps Horus to find power to avenge the death of his
father, Osiris, at the hands of Set. This is a wild piece, with a cosmically
huge dragon and gods fighting inside of it. Learn more: Library
of Erana Interview.
2)
“The Naked Daemon” in Heroika 2: Skirmishers
· “The Naked Daemon” pits the mystic Apollonius of Tyana
(deceased ~100 CE) against zealots who destroy what remains of the Alexandria
Library. In life, his principles had been aligned with those of the pacifist
gymnosophists (a.k.a. naked philosophers); hundreds of years past his death,
Apollonius finds himself reborn as a daemon empowered with Hermes’s Emerald
Tablet. He observes the Roman oppression over pagan scholars and is challenged
with an urgent need to defend knowledge. Will Apollonius rationalize war by
unleashing the power of alchemy to do harm? Will he become an angel or demon?
How will alchemy transform The Naked Demon? Learn more: Heroika: Skirmishers – Witness the Birth of Alchemical Warfare!
S.E. Lindberg Bio:
S.E. Lindberg resides near Cincinnati, Ohio working as a microscopist,
employing scientific and artistic skills to understand the manufacturing of
products analogous to medieval paints. Two decades of practicing chemistry,
combined with a passion for the Sword & Sorcery genre, spurs him to write
graphic adventure fictionalizing the alchemical humors (including his
independently published “Dyscrasia Fiction” series). With Perseid Press, he writes weird tales infused with history
and alchemy (Heroika: Dragon Eaters & Skirmishers, Pirates
in Hell, Lovers in Hell, Mystics in Hell). S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at
Black Gate and co-moderates the Sword & Sorcery group on Goodreads.
S.E.’s Amazon Page / Perseid
Press Author Page / Sword
& Sorcery Group on Goodreads
