– Change is in the air…

Picture this: Today is possibly one of the nicest days in over three months of a summer that never really happened. The sun is beaming from a flawless blue sky, it’s a balmy 73°F/24°C outside on the first of October, no less, and outside my open windows, I can hear the sound of children playing soccer in the sun. Janice, the calico, is out on an old changing table/cushioned cat perch on my balcony, baking her belly fur, whereas Hairy Krishna, who normally never veers far from my side, is crashed on my bed deep in the duvet feathers.

While Wolverine and his father do boy things at Daddy’s house until late tomorrow afternoon, I sit in splendid solitude and questionable attire, hair up in a clip, and write. My little black iPig is blaring out a metal-minded medley version of the Beatles’ ‘Day Tripper’, and it’s just what I want to hear.

These weekends are cherished, precisely because it’s the most time I’m able to devote to writing between the day job, the laundry, the kid and the incipient chaos of everyday life. This is when I plan out future blogs, catch up on sleep, go for walks at 7 AM when the sun rises, cultivate my solipcism/tend my imagination/relocate my sanity….and write.

Something I’ve been doing a lot of in the past two years, more than at any other time in my life, and something I like to believe I do better than almost anything else. That being the case, I believe it’s the perfect time to share a little something with my readers now, because you’re going to hear about it one way or another very soon.

I’ve decided in the very near future to move SLS from Blogger to WordPress. Not a few of you are already there, and I’ll be in excellent company, this I know! Candyperfumeboy says you have cupcakes, and that helps, too! I’m currently in the process of setting it up and getting it to what I want it to be.

What I’ll also do is move QD elsewhere. Henceforward, only the first twelve chapters of Quantum Demonology in their second-draft form will be available in the public domain of the blogosphere.

Another book will also be launched on WordPress in chapter installments, but this one contains not a trace of devilry. Instead, it’s a historical novel set in Roman Britain and Ireland in the third century AD, about a young man in some serious trouble…

Last but not least, I’ll launch a space for short stories and other things I’ve written which fall outside my usual category of writing. Some of them are erotica, some of them are ghost stories, some of them contain elements that later made their way into …perfume blogs and another novel I’m wrestling with at the moment, a rewriting of Euripides’ ‘Medea’.

All of this is another way of saying that if I define myself as a writer, then I had better get myself out there as best I can and show the world this pony has far more than one trick up its tail…;-)

Meanwhile, here are a few things you can expect to see in the meantime…

Tomorrow, I’ll sink my teeth and my questionable skills in word-smithing into one of the most spectacular perfumes created in the past twenty years. I’ve been wearing this with a fury lately, and the fury shows no signs of abating. It’s not that good. It’s better!

Next week, SLS will focus its minuscule Klieg light on Amanda Feeley of Esscentual Alchemy, a highly prolific and talented perfumer, a recent participant in Perfume Pharmer’s ‘Summer of Patchouli Love’, and someone with whom I’ve connected in a big way. For one thing, she ate QD in a record four days. And still wanted to talk to me afterwards! Her perfumes are as unique as her own self, and I can’t wait to write about them.

If this past summer and fall have had a theme, it would be…connecting. Remember when I said that joining Twitter was the best thing I’ve done to promote my writing? I did it in part as an experiment in social media marketing, and I suspect the fun is only beginning. I’ve connected with so many people I’d barely dare say hello to in my pre-Twitter life, but things have changed and I’ve changed with them, and now, who knows what will happen?

One thing that did happen was another opportunity to let out my inner rock chick. This is…serendipity in action, all true. A certain drummer is very dear to my heart – not the way you think, but he did and in fact still does play in one of my two all-time favorite bands. He’s a seriously rad drummer and a seriously nice guy. So I found out about another new band he’s a member of, got excited, tracked them down, bought the CD, promoted them on Twitter. A few direct messages flew back and forth. They’re coming to Copenhagen in January. No excuses. I. Have. To. Go. I called the venue – the real-life Alcatraz, the metal club in QD (and how cool is THAT?) – to ask about tickets. “Wait a second,” said their booker… “are you…” “Yes.” “Because I just received an email from their manager saying your name should be put on the list…” Yours truly is going to the show…this time, at the frontman’s request. Which isn’t just cool, but positively chill!

Even on this warm Indian summer day, I look forward to autumn. Maples leaves burning my retinas against an impossible blue sky, that glorious scent of moldering leaves and bonfires, hunting for porcini in the beechwoods where they grow the size of US dinner plates, flying Wolverine’s kite again down our favorite local hill, baking an apple pie on a rainy day…and wearing some of my richest, most opulent, drop-dead perfumes.

So what are you looking forward to about the fall? What gets your dreams flying, what makes you happy, where do you like to go?

I’d love to hear about it!

Image: wilted-autumn-leaves.blogspot.com