“Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of thee.”
~T.S. Eliot~

Scent is a powerful magician. Certain scents can act as quickly as any time machine, transporting one to an occurrence mere moments ago or ages old, bringing with it memories both significant and trivial. The smell of cinammon conjures up a myriad of both childhood and more recent Christmas memories. The scent of cold winter air causes memories of growing up in Nebraska to dance in my mind’s eye. My wife’s perfume evokes many pleasant recollections.

Scent is intoxicating. If you’ve ever been in the presence of a woman wearing a perfume that for some reason grabs ahold of you, regardless of the way she looks, then you know what I mean. I assume the same thing occurs for women with men. Scent is powerful.

Many companies have made their mark on the world creating enchanting, alluring, unforgettable scents. The latest one that I have heard about, thanks to Janet, is Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. Among other fantastical offerings, they offer you the opportunity to smell like a literary character from the imagination of Neil Gaiman.

Intrigued? Read on.

Continue reading Smells like Neil Gaiman…huh? →

As the first month of 2007 comes to a close, come wander the internet with me for awhile.

First stop: Estella’s Revenge.

Estella’s Revenge is the webzine of Andi Miller. ER is currently on hiatus while they they change their focus to the one thing that many of us adore: books. Currently Andi is putting out a call for contributors. If you posses the desire to put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard in this instance, then this might just be an opportunity for you to wax poetic. Estella’s Revenge is looking for “… reviews (of your own books. We get books from publishers occasionally, but it’ll take some growing to make it a full-time endeavor), features, columns, and fiction if you have it. We’d like to tell people about bookish goodies, bookish websites, bookish gathering places, and you can even take our readers on a reading tour of your town if you’d like! All things bookish are welcome.” For more information, including how to contact Andi, please visit here.

Continue reading Wednesday Wanderings →

(Heartbreaker, image by Chris Spollen)

Temptation…the word instantly conjures up images, most frequently of a sexual nature. If you are a bibliophile, a book lover, a collector and hoarder of the written word then you know another kind of temptation: that of being seduced by shiny covers, by intriguing titles, by authors who have satisfied your book lust in the past. How do we fight that temptation? Do we fight that temptation? If you are anything like me, you are constantly being drawn aside from your daily tasks by sweet nothings whispered in your ear, promises of a ‘good time’, of delicious ecstasy.

“It wouldn’t hurt to just take a peek”, you say to yourself, as the book gently purrs its promises. “I could just open it up a bit; read the jacket blurb”…and then it hits you: the book’s intoxicating perfume of ink and new paper, the eye candy of the tantalizing cover, the written promises of pleasure if you would just take it home…“you can always bring me back”, the book whispers.

Then, as you walk away, hooked from the moment you felt the touch of the book against your fingers, you can hear some of the books coquettishly giggling, while others murmur enticements, showing a bit of cover, to tempt you yet again. “If one is fun, surely two would be even more so, or three”…and it goes on and on. Books flirt, they vie for one’s attention, they wolf whistle…they make it so very difficult to resist.

This is one man’s story of a typical day of succumbing to temptation:

Continue reading Temptation Tuesday: or, the Art of Seduction →