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Six Scents
Lisa says:
Six vignettes inspired by fragrances from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab: Numb, Wicked, Zombi, Bliss, Lurid and Shattered. (2007)
Appears in Weird Tales, Issue 344 and the Weird Tales Sampler (from Prime Books)
Also available at the Weird Tales website!
Hear Stephen Segal of Wildside Press read "Zombi" on Hour of the Wolf. (1:22 minute mark)
Reviews:
I often marvel at the economy of words that allows an author to tell a complete and fulfilling story in the span of just a few pages. More beautiful then is “Six Scents"... which gives us six. Each storylet contains a central kernel of simple narrative based upon a single strong scent. Slithering in with undulating black gloss reptile sheen, each builds an exotic minimalist altar, makes its sacrifice, and moves on.
Phil Soletsky for Tangent Online
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An arch description of six fantastical perfumes.
Rich Horton, Locus, September 2007
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Mentioned in Rich Horton's Summary for Weird Tales, 2007*
Mantchev’s story keeps a keen edge to it at all times; it makes you feel as if you’re walking the edge of that blade, and she throws in both a compelling wryness—like the main character’s line “I wasn’t taking that, even from a masked psychotic”—and a familiar face at the end who pinches more than twists the story.
Danny Adams for Some Fantastic
Excerpt:
Numb
Ice Princess. December Queen. Abominable Snow Woman. They call me by many names, but there's only one truth:
It was a mistake to move to Los Angeles.
My people told me that I needed an agent. I needed an endorsement deal. I needed to appear on the nightly talk-show circuit.
"You'll be a star!" they said. "Our people will call their people and our people will get big bucks from their people and you'll end up rich and famous!"
Everything is said with exclamation points in Hollywood.