A romantic space fantasy re-telling of A Midsummer Night's Dream ➱ Yet We Sleep, We Dream by JL Peridot Book Tour with Guest Post & Giveaway
A romantic space fantasy re-telling of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Yet We Sleep, We Dream
by JL Peridot
Genre: Scifi Fantasy Romance, Shakespearean Retelling
Love triangles get bent out of shape when restless gods come out to play.
Relationships are complicated enough when only humans are involved — something the crew of the starship Athenia know plenty about. These children of a changing climate are no strangers to conflicts of the heart. And it seems there's a lot of conflict going on, even out in space.
When an alien dust finds its way on board, the veil between realms begins to fray. Old gods of a long dead planet resume their own romantic bickering while ancient magic wreaks havoc across the ship. Grudges resurface, friends turn to enemies, unrequited love turns to passion — or does it? It's kinda hard to tell with everyone at each other's throats.
Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show; but wonder on, till truth make all things plain. Yet We Sleep, We Dream is a romantic space-fantasy inspired by Shakespeare's endearing hot mess, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was." — Bottom, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Content guidance: This book contains strong language, drug use, on-page sexual encounters, references to bullying, references to harassment and infertility, depictions of perilous situations, depictions of marital disharmony, awkward social situations, and technical language.
Contains:
*Friends to lovers
*Second chances
*Aussies in space (casual swears)
*Sex, weed & waking dreams
*Hot robot love action
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Can you, for those who
don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an
author?
G’day, I’m JL Peridot. I live and work in Western
Australia on Whadjuk Noongar country. I started writing when I was a kid, but
didn’t take authoring seriously until just a few years ago when I started
writing romance as a joke.
That must sound disrespectful, but don’t worry, the joke’s on
me. Turns out it’s actually very challenging to write a book! And it turns out
I really enjoyed writing romance. In hindsight, I realise passing it off as a
joke was a cover for wanting to be open-minded about something that everyone
around me had some prejudice about. So, ha-ha, I suppose!
What inspired you to write
Yet We Sleep, We Dream?
After writing a Romeo & Juliet re-telling in 2021,
I wasn’t in a rush to do another Shakespearean sci-fi. But I said yes to a novel-writing challenge and didn’t want
an excuse to think of myself as a quitter!
Revisiting A Midsummer Night’s Dream was an instant
yes, but other elements like ancient gods and magic dust, semi-sentient robots,
the garden in a spaceship, the “love will save the day” trope — that all
coalesced while I was learning about climate change and how years of
miscommunication and misunderstanding have put us in the position we’re in
today.
I wrote this Yet We Sleep, We Dream as closure for my
past self, a first-generation immigrant who struggled to study the original
play in school. But it’s also a love letter to the future of our changing
world, the place we call home.
If your book was made into
a film, who would you like to play the lead?
You know, this kind of question sometimes comes up in
the creative process. It helps a writer visualise the characters and story
while writing.
From my own notes, I’ve got Stephanie Hsu pegged for Mia Tan.
I love her whole vibe; it was easy to write Mia’s story with her in mind.
Hunter Page-Lochard was my Nick Button. Between his smiling face, his quietly
challenging face, and his annoyed face, he’d have Nick’s emotional spectrum
nailed. And hearing him speak unscripted in Shadow Trackers makes me
think he’d bring the right energy to this character.
Special mentions include Emma Stone as Titania; Chaneil Kular
as Damian Chandrasekhar; Idris Elba as Oberon; and Sarah Jones as Tracy. I
don’t know how they’d all fare with Australian accents, but wishful thinking
reckons it’ll be all right 😉
Finally, what did you
learn while writing this book?
Writing this book pushed me in so many ways. Now
obligated to deliver this project, I wanted to make the most of it, and vowed
I’d use it to level up my writing skill, practice talking to people about my
work, and generally putting myself out there, which I generally struggle to do.
While sitting at my computer, I’d genuinely feel like I was
in pain, a weird headachey kind of hurt. I learned partway through the process
that this is just what it feels like to grow new connections in your brain by
working on something challenging. It’s akin to the pain of working out at the
gym, but you feel it deep inside your head.
Working with an Aboriginal sensitivity reader was eye-opening not just
for learning how sensitivity readers operate, but also as a lead into better
understanding the writing community and industry in Australia. So much about
this world felt so inaccessible to me before, but writing out of my comfort
zone prompted me to venture a bit further and try something new.
JL Peridot writes love letters to the future on devices form the past. She's a qualified computer scientist, former website maker, amateur horticulturist, and sometimes illustrator. But most of the time, she's an author of romantic science fiction. She lives with her partner and fur-family in Boorloo (Perth, Australia) on Whadjuk Noongar country.
Visit her website at jlperidot.com for the full catalogue of her work.
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$20 Amazon
I like the blurb. This sounds like a good retelling. The cover is pretty.
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