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Perfume and Synesthesia

One of my greatest writing influences is Vladimir Nabokov, whose magical prose was said to be inspired by his synesthesia, defined in the dictionary as:

  1. the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body. (All your senses are mixed up! You can taste letters and smell sounds. Trippy!)
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Dior’s Poison, for instance. My first real perfume that I had when I was fourteen. I tracked down a half bottle of the original formula, one of the most maligned fragrances of the era. It is a dark, grapey, thick, tuberose type sent that is VERY strong. I wouldn’t wear it around anyplace in public. But I will take a big snootful when I begin my creative practice. This outre fragrance evokes all of my early adolescent longings and aspirations for an exciting, glamorous, unknown future, I can also almost hear my Velvet Underground records and smell the stale odor of the hidden ashtrays in my bedroom. It makes me feel dreamy and irresolute. An excellent state to be in for my work.
Next I plan to track down THIS screaming, dramatic perfume:
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As I recall it is a brash, spicy oriental and I bathed my embryonic woman-self in it on the regular. Funny how IN YOUR FACE fragrance was in the 80s. Nothing really compares these days. Except maybe this one:
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It is called “Eden,” and it is…weird. Said to be a work of art to resemble a futuristic, synthetic version of “nature” that no longer exists. People either love it or hate it. It is said to smell of chlorine, swampiness, chemicals, jungle humidity, and OZONE. And I LOVE it. For working on fiction, that is. Gets me in a slightly uneasy, confused mindset. It is not a scent from my youth like the others, but it is VERY evocative of scary carnivorous space plants and lagoons. It serves my purpose.
And BTW, my newest work was released last month. A futuristic, unease-inducing dystopian coming-of age novel, “The Gilded Lynx.” Please do check it out if you don’t mind novels that are cross-genre, hard to classify, etc. If anything I think you will find that it is different. Cheers!
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Miami Adventure!

For some reason whenever I am in Florida, it gives me the oddest feelings. I guess I would say the place inspires me to feel both unsettled and in awe, and it is hard to put my finger on why. Something about it just seems so mysterious and potent, full of surreal (to me) flora and fauna.spookyflorida

Also surreal is the power and unpredictability of the weather. Add to this the snakes and alligators, and just the sense that you have gone as far as you can go, (it feels like Florida is a place where people go to run away, to disappear or be transformed…) and you get that sense that this is the wildest, and most foreboding, state in our nation. Or at least the most strangely atmospheric!

I was there to attend the Miami Book Fair….miamibookfair

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And also to pick up my award for “The Brambles” from Readers’ Favorite. We had a very chic ceremony at the Miami Regency.

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And I met so many great and talented writers, and had so much fun! Speaking of The Brambles, I have given her a facelift. (New cover!)

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I also have a new one for “Blythe of the Gates!”

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(Don’t know why that one turned out huge!)

These are being re-released through the imprint 9MM Press, so look out for them. I love doing new covers. It’s like a wardrobe change. Maybe I will start doing it seasonally!

Adventures in 1910’s Fashion

I have always been into vintage fashion, and could spend forever pouring over images of women of every decade on Pinterest. I collect books on fashion and vintage magazines, I really geek out.

Of course I had a lot of fun dressing Luna Mulkerrins, the great female magician of 1912, as she is the star of my novel “Blythe of the Gates.” Fun as it was, I sometimes I felt really bad for what I made her wear!

The novel begins in 1911. The Edwardian look was going out–no more bustles and killer corsets and s-shaped bodies, no more Gibson Girl hair and fox furs. BUT it was not yet the free-wheeling twenties, either. The first thing Luna wears in an opening scene from the book is a hideous contrivance called a hobble skirt.

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It features a band wound tightly beneath the knees so that the woman had to walk in tiny, constricted strides. Thank God this appeared to have been a short term trend.

These were often worn with boots with ten to twenty buttons that had to be opened and closed!

Things got a little easier not long after. Many drapey, empire waist dresses, featuring chiffon and beading and feathers and all kinds of pretty things, think Downton Abbey and Titanic. Luna, like many women of her time, was a seamstress and made her stage costumes along these lines, and got to use her imagination to create very lovely things. (Though she was only a magician’s assistant in the beginning, and the dress was her only form of expression–that would change soon, though!)

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One thing Edwardian that did not go away was huge hats with lots of crazy trimmings. I loved writing about the hats!

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So many shapes, so many trims.

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When Luna started making more money from her shows, she dressed a little more haute couture.  Paul Poiret may have dressed her. Maybe in one of his lamp shade tunics over harem trousers:

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But I felt bad again when I had to dress Luna in a “bathing costume.” That was a time period where they were still pretty infantile and ridiculous looking. Sailor dresses with bloomers! Poor girl.

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She couldn’t quite get hold of the new styled ones that were coming into vogue, the close fitting belted sheaths you see more in the twenties. She felt pretty stupid wearing the sailor dress which was just falling out of style for good. Things got better for her soon, though…

Anyway. I should write a sequel that takes place after the Great War to see what she wears next!

The Inimitable Aimee Crocker

So,  my new novel “Blythe of the Gates” is out now, and it is different than anything I have ever written. It being my first historical fiction piece, it is also the first time I’ve written anything that features cameos by real, actual, historical people.

It is strange and different to form a character from my my imagination based upon the traits given by historical record to form a living, breathing creature with real immediacy. I am thinking of Aimee Crocker, who makes an appearance in Blythe. A somewhat brief appearance compared to other characters, but she makes an IMPACT, and I’ve really come to love her.

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Aimee was a railroad heiress born in 1864 who went on to become a mystic, an intrepid traveler of the “Far East,” lover of boa constrictors, tattoos and pearls. In her life she became prisoner of a Chinese warlord, romanced a Hawaiian king and was gifted an island, and had a “sensual experience” with her snake. Perhaps she was best known as  an entertainer’s entertainer, who gave the most extravagant parties in Europe, San Francisco and Bohemian New York. She was famous for a Robinson Crusoe-themed party held in the Paris treetops, a circus-themed party themed party in New York where she arrived on the back of an elephant, and much, much more. She basically used her money to shock and horrify the gentry of her age, and it was fabulous!

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I hope only that I did her justice making her into a book character, using these facts plus trying to feel my way into her and the way her presence would be felt to those around her. It was a challenge! Of course, she had already written her own book, an autobiography called, “And I’d Do It Again.” I think it is still in print!

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Do yourself a favor and read up on the life and times of Aimee Crocker, you will not regret it!

Bohemia Madness

I have a new novel coming out around the corner called “Blythe of the Gates,” set in 1911 Manhattan. It is my first piece of historical fiction, and I got really really into the time period, it is so rich! The Bohemian counterculture really seemed to preface the one of the 60’s in many ways.

Take figures like Emilie Floge. She was the inspiration behind many of the nearly psychedelic paintings of Gustav Klimt. Probably best known for “The Kiss,” 1907:

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Those dresses were inspired by Floge’s fashion designs. She was a turn-of-the-century designer who mostly did mainstream stuff, but was ahead of her time and made free-flowing, vibrant, modernistic dresses that were ahead of their time. Here is a painting Klimt did of her:

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She evidently had a sister who was married to Klimt’s brother. The brother died, and Klimt became close to the Floge sisters, especially Emilie.

 

 

 

They look so ahead of their time, it is insane. No one knows if they were lovers or just friends, but they mutually enriched each other’s careers.

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And she continues to be of influence today! So the early 1900’s was more than hobble skirts and picture hats. It was a vivid and fertile time in ways I myself never realized.

I’m dying to write more historical fiction and wander down these stray pathways of discovery…