Gina Rae Mitchell

The Seraphim’s Song by Barbara Casey (The F.I.G. Mysteries #5) | Guest Post & $20 Giveaway

A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.

Book Details

The Seraphim's Song by Barbara Casey
Series: The F.I.G. Mysteries Book #5
on April 19, 2022
Genres: Fiction, Mystery
Format: eBook, Hardcover, Paperback
Pages: 196

When a powerful key falls into the wrong hands and disaster begins to strike around the globe, the F.I.G.s must find the artifact and return it to its rightful home. With odds stacked against them and only their unique intellectual gifts to rely on, they are in a race against time to save the world.

Join the F.I.G.s - females of intellectual genius - as they solve mysteries of historic proportions. Dara Roux with her mastery of foreign, ancient, and obsolete languages; Mackenzie Yarborough with her ability to solve complicated math formulations; and Jennifer Torres with her talents in musical composition and painting are all recent graduates of Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women. As the F.I.G.s embark on their own journeys, Wood Rose will always be their home. And Carolina Lovell, the teacher who was tasked with supervising the F.I.G.s during their senior year, will always be like a big sister to the three girls.

Follow the F.I.G.s on adventures to different countries, as they explore some of history’s unsolved mysteries! Mysteries that can only be solved when the F.I.G.s work together and support each other.

 

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Excerpt from The Seraphim’s Song

As she usually did in the early, pre-dawn hours, Lyuba was digging roots, in the dark of the crescent moon, and every so often replanting a good piece of a root to grow next year. The day before she had picked herbs, during that time when the essential oils are at their strongest, before they could get evaporated by the midday sun. Where she searched was her favorite place, the place where the energies were strongest.

Surprisingly, it was the old church graveyard built on a slight mound just outside of the rural Italian village of Frascati, which is why the other gypsy women stayed away. Unlike Lyuba, they feared being so near the dead. They believed that being near death would hasten their own, therefore they refused to go there. Lyuba, however, saw death as the natural and necessary progression of life, in another form, in a different dimension. She found comfort and solace in its nearness.

A creek ran nearby, and a tall, unkempt yew tree grew near the entrance to the graveyard, poisonous, but giving off positive energies. It was a place Lyuba knew well, having discovered it from earlier times when the travelers came this way. It was there where she found peace.

She would prepare her potions from the roots, bark, and hard seeds she gathered and make decoctions by soaking them overnight and boiling them the next day. Some of the decoctions she would add honey or sugar to; others she would thicken into syrup or add lard to make ointments and salves. The freshest herbs she saved for her oils.

Once her potions were ready, she would take them into the village to sell. Coughs or colds, rheumatism, cuts and bruises, burns—it didn’t matter. She knew what remedy was necessary to relieve pain, create lustrous hair, revive the impotent, whiten teeth, cure constipation, or simply heal the broken spirit. Unlike others who only pretended, she had the gift.

As she scraped pieces of root and bark, and gently picked the seeds from the plants she revered, she suddenly paused, aware of something different in the air around her—an unseen potent force. She stood up and, closing her eyes, listened quietly as she sniffed the air. There was an unfamiliar strangeness surrounding her. She felt the slight tremor of the earth and somewhere very far away, she heard the low-pitched hum.

It was a sound she knew well for it had been given to every civilization from the beginning of time. Used in all of the major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity—it was the sacred universal sound. A single sustained note, a mantra, it was the melody of the angel that acted as the means of communication between the gods in the heavens and the humans on earth. It was the seraphim’s song.

But something was wrong; the single note was slightly off-key. The pitch wasn’t quite right. Then, because she was a choovihni and had the knowledge of the universe coursing through her veins, a cosmic consciousness that had been passed down to her from her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmothers through all time, she sensed darkness and evil.

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Purchase Links for The Seraphim’s Song

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Guest Post from Barbara Casey

IT’S A “JUST BECAUSE”

 

All of my life I have been fascinated by those things for which there is no explanation. As a young child, I was full of questions which my grandmother was more than willing to at least try to answer. Failing that, it was just one of those “just because.” As a writer, that same fascination continues, and I often include things that have no reasonable explanation into my stories. The F.I.G. Mystery Series is a good example.

In Book 1, The Cadence of Gypsies, I introduce the Voynich Manuscript, considered to be the most mysterious document in the world. Along with that, I add the mysterious gypsy culture that includes potions and spells that I have researched. It is through the Voynich and gypsy culture that I connect the F.I.G.s – Dara, Mackenzie, and Jennifer – and their mentor, Carolina Lovel.

In The Wish Rider, Book 2 in the F.I.G. Mystery Series, I explore the little-known area deep underground of Grand Central Terminal in New York City, a secret society that actually exists there, and the obscure language of hoboglyphs. This is Dara’s story and her search to find out why her mother abandoned her in a candy store.

In Book 3, The Clock Flower, I take my readers to a small province in China where the research into mortality involves the simple dandelion flower, and an ancient archeological dig site remarkably reveals some of the same hoboglyph markings that were found in Grand Central Terminal’s secret underground in The Wish Rider, Book 2 in the series. This is where Mackenzie learns the truth about why she was placed at Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women as an infant.

Book 4, The Nightjar’s Promise, deals with the theft of priceless art that took place under the orders of Adolph Hitler during World War II. I connect this theme to Jennifer in order to help explain her special gifts as an artist and musician.

The Seraphim’s Song, Book 5 in the series, elevates Carolina and the females of intellectual genius to another level with new questions to ask, more answers needed.

Of course, my main characters—Dara, Mackenzie, and Jennifer—defy explanation given the fact that each F.I.G. has an IQ in the genius range, and all three have developed a unique skill that enhances their coping abilities in a world where they are so different.

I truly love the F.I.G.s and their devoted mentor, Carolina, who is more of a big sister. In each book, I have tried to tell their unique story and give an explanation of something that really can’t be explained. I will write more books about these young women that will include mystery, drama, and things that simply cannot be explained—just because.

Thank you so much for your interest in my work. I wish you and your readers my very best. ~Barbara

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Amazon – OneLink for every country   

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Giveaway!

Barbara Casey will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!

Official Tour Page

Full Tour Schedule:

May 9: Fabulous and Brunette
May 10: Christine Young
May 11: Independent Authors
May 12: All the Ups and Downs
May 13: The Key Of Love
May 16: Long and Short Reviews
May 17: Candrel’s Crafts, Cooks, and Characters
May 18: The Avid Reader
May 18: Westveil Publishing
May 19: fundinmental
May 20: Gina Rae Mitchell

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The Cadence of Gypsies (The...Shop on AmazonThe Wish Rider (The F.I.G. ...Shop on AmazonThe Clock Flower (The F.I.G...Shop on AmazonThe Nightjar's Promise (The...Shop on AmazonSeraphim's Song (The F.I.G....Shop on Amazon

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