Engine Summer

I recently got a large packet of things from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab Maelstrom decant circle I wound up in (the whole Maelstrom collection plus a nice range of freebies), so I've been trying a lot of perfume lately.

( Montresor )

( Parlement of Foules )

( Thalia )

( Twilight )

( Midnight )

( The Masque )

Whoof. I had almost despaired of catching up with those. In conclusion, thank you telophase for your decant-circle-organization fu!

( Short version: Very, very yes. )

I should totally look around for a perfume icon.

( We're painting the roses red... )

Shiny happy Bryn Mawr-ish icon made by rabidfangurl, who is a total goddess of icons. Used here because roses.

Really, the most interesting thing that has happened today that is fit for public consumption was testing perfume. I need a new job, I do, for this one has stopped fatiguing me with the amount of work and started fatiguing me with the amount of boredom, indicating that I may wish to seek employment of the slightly less part-time variety. Time to go check the local bookstores.

( O )

(For those of you who may be unfamiliar with BPAL, that would be the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, purveyors of crack fine and entertainingly described perfume. yhlee was recently kind enough to send myself and weirdquark a between-orders fix selection (and we need to send you your imps, Yoon; will do soonest!), and I've been trying them over the last few days.)

( Sacred Whore of Babylon )

( The Hanging Gardens... and if you sense a theme here, I have *no idea* where you might have gotten it. )

( Lust )

( Wrath... yes, we were laughing when we asked for these. )

( Mi-Go Brain Canister )

These are too much fun to play with. Thank you so much, Yoon!

I got my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #34 in the mail today, along with my check. Yay! It's my first published prose fiction, and the second time I've been paid for writing. (Mind you, I'm in the odd position of knowing that I could be being paid for my writing more often if I wrote more reviews, but I'm finding it very difficult to review stuff at the moment after having received an ARC of something a while ago that was so bad that I not only found myself unable to review it but gave it to a cab driver I happened to run into; as soon as I can manage to properly document this trauma I'll get back to reviewing. Still, getting paid yay! /tangent.) It's kind of gratifying to see this particularly story of mine, 'The Crying Queen', in print, since it's the first thing I wrote that I ever stared at and said, that's publishable. Upon reread, I'd tighten up the beginning, but overall I think it's got some good stuff in it. If you're interested in getting Not One of Us, which contains, in addition to my story, fiction and poetry by sovay, Mike Allen, Patricia Russo and others, and is edited by lesser_celery, you can get it at your local fine science fiction bookstore (I know Pandemonium in Cambridge stocks it) or by ordering it (I forget how; bother lesser_celery). Retail price $4.50, and you get a particularly nice cover illo this go-round, too, called 'Nyarlathotep Pachinko'.

... I want my computer fixed so I can get back to the six things stuck in progress on my perfectly fine but presently inaccessible hard drive. Mrowr.

Speaking of copies of other things entirely, I recently received in the mail my copy of Maria Nutick's poetry chapbook Wicked Fairy Apologist, her first collection. Mia's put it out under her own Spiderwise Press imprint, and it's well worth a look-see, especially since each chapbook is individually decorated by the writer. My copy has lovely and intricate rubber-stamped illustrations that complement and play off the text in a really gorgeous manner, and is great to have around as an art object.

As far as the poetry goes, it's quite enjoyable, but has a vague feel to it of 'first collection', which I can't quite pin down; I think this may be because the strength of the individual poems is extremely variable. None of them are bad, but there are a couple I don't find very memorable, interspersed with the stronger ones. The stronger poems are very strong indeed, though, notable for subtly rhythmic language and extremely enjoyable concepts. I find 'Inheritance' particularly noteworthy, a perfectly phrased deviant take on a children's classic, and also 'Beholden', a devastating aftermath and consequences for a Frog Prince; but I think my favorite poem in the collection is 'In the Night Desert', which I'm going to excerpt here. Trickster says to the narrator:

You know, it might not be such a bad thing
giving away your heart piece by piece.
Sooner or later you'll stop having trouble
with those bothersome heartbeats.

This is fine writing, wry, clear, colloquial but still melodic, and not as straightforward as it is initially; the meter is hidden but not absent. It goes coyote-wise. I look forward to more of Mia, after this strong a beginning.

You can find Wicked Fairy Apologist through Spiderwise Press, here, for twenty dollars plus shipping.

( The rest of this post will probably only be of interest to BPAL people. )

Note regarding world events: I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said already, or linked to by others. Am working on doing what I can financially and on trying to think of anything else I can do-- it's rather frustrating, because I can't even give blood (my tattoo is too recent). I will probably follow yhlee's excellent lead and sign up for fandom_charity, and hopefully this will at least be something.

I've completed training for the job. It's going to be fine as long as I work half-days, or have at least a day between whole-day shifts to rest; basically either opening or closing exhausts me, so I shouldn't do them both on one day. Having pulled my first shift while I was off my meds due to a now-thankfully-fixed prescription-transferral snafu probably didn't help, but my second day did not leave me wiped out. I think it's a good job as far as amount of work and responsibility and supervision, too-- in other words, this is a one-person store, I do everything myself while I'm there (customer service, cleaning, stocking), but it's absolutely tiny, doesn't sell too many products, and doesn't have somebody breathing down my neck every minute. In fact, I only talk to my boss twice a day on the phone, to clock in and clock out. I can live with that. ^_^ I don't think I could put up with the job indefinitely, but it'll be a good way to increase stamina for grad school, and the bread is very good. Also, it's very part-time, which I need, and I think will help me work up to a better job.

It looks like I'm probably going to be doing Tuesdays and Thursdays for a while, in, um, some mess of shifts or other. I'll keep people posted as I know, but Management does not seem to believe in scheduling terribly far in advance. If you want to drop by and see me, you should probably mention ahead of time so I can tell you whether I'll be there. If you happen to be randomly in the area, I'm the girl with the blue hair and the nose ring. I recommend the azuki cream bun, the custard cream, and the an-pan and would advise you against the chocolate croissant.

I promise to be more interesting later (and am in fact STILL working on a wedding entry), but the meds stop-and-restart, the new job, my inability to cope with most everything on the news, and some domestic tension have combined to leave me grindingly exhausted, and I have not really been on LJ much, especially since it counts a source of news. For now, ( have a BPAL review. )

My Big Huge Wedding Entry is about half done; it's all written, but I have to do the upload pictures/link to pictures/caption pictures bit, which always takes forever. About another day or so, I think. In the meantime, have a perfume review.

( What is this BPAL thing you suddenly started going on about even though you've never worn perfume in your life? )

( Review: The Red Queen. )

Haven't managed email, haven't gone through snail, have barely managed sitting down... but I am back in Cambridge, after a week of no Internet access, and am happy and suntanned and had a very good vacation.

I skimmed through skip=300 on the f-list and then my brain broke and I think I was only to like Sunday so if anything Really Major has happened that you would like me to be sure to be aware of, please leave notice in comments. Also, who won the Hugos and the Campbell? *crosses fingers on matociquala's behalf*

copperwise, did you get my chapbook order?

I don't think I mentioned before leaving: Ruth and I spent last week in Provincetown for a very Traditionally Gay honeymoon. It was great. I will do the big huge wedding entry tomorrow and then write up last week. Tonight I am incapable of either.

So have a BPAL review, because the imps weirdquark and I ordered were here to greet me when I walked in.

Bliss

Official Description:A shot of pure, self-indulgent euphoria! A scent that is very, very wicked in its own way: the serotonin-slathered scent of pure milk chocolate. This was the first imp I picked from the site list, and the first vial that we both went for on opening the box. I am a total sucker for chocolate and that's just all there is to it, so I expected this to live up to its name.

In The Bottle: CHOCOLATE. OH yeah. Really, really expensive chocolate. This smells like a Godiva store, or, more precisely, like a chocolatier's: finest-quality chocolate with no trace of milk or sugar. This is pure brick chocolate, unground and unmolded.

Wet: ... and suddenly it has milk and sugar. Huh? Really neat, but how'd that happen? As soon as it touched my skin, it turned intensely sweet; for about five seconds it was over-sweet, like Swiss Miss or Hershey's syrup, and then it mellowed into high-quality hot chocolate, the kind you can smell from three rooms away when you come in from the snow. I approve heartily. syonakeleste mentions that this gives her the satisfied feeling of just having eaten some good chocolate, and I agree.

Drydown: Less sweet as it goes; it seems to mellow, keeping that expensive richness.

Three Hours Later: It's settled on a balance between the sugar and the chocolate that does smell to me more like perfume than food, which is a good thing because I don't actually want my perfume to make me hungry all the time. This is like air-drying melted chocolate, not as dark as in the vial but not oversweet. It's a bit fainter than I might like-- I don't know how much staying power perfume usually has-- but still quite noticeable. Definitely a big bottle of this one, because I intend to bathe in it during my period, and also use some of the straight oil in a scent locket for that time, because the darker the chocolate the more it helps. I had a hunch this one was going to be Really Useful, and oh, it is, it is.

Reactions of Other Parties: Wife: Likes chocolate. Seemed to enjoy. Cats: No reaction to this actual perfume, but when we opened the box Lucien tried very, very hard to get into it and had to be forcibly prevented. It'll be interesting to figure out which one caused that. (Full list of box contents later-- I don't wanna get up.) Household Male (who had not been informed of the existence of perfume on various Household Females): "Does your sunscreen have chocolate in it or something? I thought I smelled chocolate." Upon explanation: "Oh. That would do it. ...Why did you all buy perfume, anyhow?" *look of utter mystification* Attempted to explain, was derailed into discussion of the Albigensians, as always happens. Sigh.

In conclusion: Total, total keeper. More please.