Alchemy of Desire
A new work of fiction
Alchemy of Desire
Gigi’s newest work is historical fiction, tentatively titled, The “Alchemy of Desire,” a deep-dive into the Renaissance feminist character of Bianca Capello, mistress to the Medici. Alchemist and chemist, too, she works on a cure for malaria that rejects the occult practices of her aunties in Venice and the duke she marries. In a time when neither Church nor alchemy authorities allow it, can a woman do science and make medicines, much less test them, before the heat disease kills them all. Bianca might reject the occult, but Gigi takes a more inclusive view.
Read more about the story in the blog posts below.
Venice 1558
No one had heard Bianca as she’d moved on her stocking feet through her aunts’ palace to the sick room where her mother was dying. She’d practiced walking like a cat, softly, so no one could hear. Cats had a good sense of smell, too, and of chemical changes in...