Salt of the Air

<b><i>You are familiar with the salt of the earth. But did you know there is an even finer more delicate essence?</i></b> <p>Take wisdom and imagination responsibility and beauty and mix them together in arcane proportions to form a rich and peculiar brine. The resulting <i>water of life</i> is an emotional muddy liquid filled with existential sediment swirling in the light of secret reality and reflecting prismatic colors of hope and wonder. If allowed to evaporate -- escape flee ascend into the ether and join the music of the spheres -- what remains is the quintessence; a precious concentrate that is elusive and volatile neither fully solid nor so illusory as to be devoid of pithy substance. It is the <i>Salt of the Air</i>. <p>In this debut collection from the critically acclaimed author of <i>Dreams of the Compass Rose</i> and <i>Lords of Rainbow</i> the nineteen stories are distillations of myth and philosophy eroticism and ascetic purity. Dipping into an ancient multi-ethnic well they are the stuff of fantasy -- of maidens and deities and senior retirees of emperors and artists and con artists of warriors and librarians of beings without a name and things very fey indeed.... <p>Don't be afraid of ingesting ethereal salt. <p>Open your mind and inhale. <p>Cautionary sensual stories of love reversal and revenge upend fairy tale conventions in Nazarian's lush collection... Sumptuous detail twisty plots and surprising endings lift these extravagant tales.<br>--<b><i>Publishers Weekly</i></b><p>These are beautiful haunting confections reminiscent of <b>Tanith Lee's</b> erotically charged tales... Fine shades of emotion mythic grandeur crystalline prose sharp revisionist intelligence: these are Vera Nazarian's hallmarks...<br>--<b>Nick Gevers <i>Locus</i></b><p><b>Vera Nazarian</b> immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid sold her first story at the age of 17 and since then has published numerous works in anthologies and magazines and has seen her fiction translated into eight languages.<p>She made her novelist debut with the critically acclaimed novel <i>Dreams of the Compass Rose </i> followed by epic fantasy about a world without color <i>Lords of Rainbow</i>. Her novella <i>The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass</i> with an introduction by <b>Charles de Lint</b> made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2005. This first collection <i>Salt of the Air </i> with an introduction by <b>Gene Wolfe</b> contains the 2007 Nebula Award-nominated The Story of Love. Recent work includes the 2008 Nebula Award-nominated baroque novella <i>The Duke in His Castle </i>.<p>Ancient myth moral fables eclectic philosophy and her Armenian and Russian ethnic heritage play a strong part in all her work combining the essences of things and places long gone into a rich evocation of wonder.<p>In addition to being a writer and award-winning artist she is also the publisher of Norilana Books.<p> Official website: www.veranazarian.com