Why I wrote Everything You Dream is Real by Lisa de Nikolits
Why I wrote Everything You Dream is Real by Lisa de Nikolits
I wrote Everything You Dream is Real because I suffer from chronic ‘what –happened-itis’! I drive my husband nuts – he’ll tell me a story and, without fail, I’ll latch onto a secondary character or event and ask him what happened to them. He’ll invariably reply that he has no idea what became of whoever it was and that it hadn’t occurred to him to wonder.
But that’s the thing with me – I occur to wonder about everything! And in case you’re wondering about the energy involved in that, I can confirm that wondering about everything is indeed very tiring!
I never planned to write science fiction but I did. I wrote The Rage Room. And I thought I was done with speculative fiction but I just couldn’t help myself – I became obsessed with what happened next. I often wonder what happened to my characters after I type ‘the end’ but so far, Everything You Dream is Real is the only sequel I’ve written.
What’s Everything You Dream is Real about? I see it as a thrilling, fabulous escape from the world as we know it, full of fascinating characters who get themselves in and out of sticky situations. It can be read as a standalone or as sequel, so no worries if you missed The Rage Room. In short: eleven years after a world war destroyed the consumer-driven, plastic-based existence of 2055, a new order of players jostles for power. Streaky electricity, ravaging drought, a scarcity of food, and deadly Monarch butterflies make for an increasingly desperate situation. I’ve written magical realism and fantasy before. No Fury Like That, one of my most popular books, is apparently Bangsian Fantasy – fantasy fiction that takes place in the afterlife.
I guess I just find it very hard to believe we’re limited to this corporeal world. Writing sci-fi and fantasy is, for me, an exploration of other possible worlds. I truly believe that everything I dream could indeed be real, and all my imaginings find their way into my books which does make them real in this world. Deadly Monarch butterflies might seem like a stretch but think about some of the strange-but-true facts about nature.
If you’ve ever worn perfume (and I’m a big fragrance fan! I have several and I pick and choose to help boost a mood, help me sleep, to inspire creativity – you name it). But here’s got some unsettling news. You (and most certainly I!) may have misted animal waste. For centuries, perfumers have been using ambergris to enhance their fragrances. Ambergris is essentially a clump of squid beaks bound by a fatty secretion. Over time, it balls up in the intestine of some sperm whales. And eventually …. Out it goes. Yep, whale poop!
Good news for the whales – ambergris hunting is largely illegal these days but in the 1800’s, millions of whales were killed. In 2021, A group of Yemeni fishermen discovered a sperm whale carcass floating in the Gulf of Aden which earned them a life-changing $1.5 million so we’re not talking small change here.
Maybe you’re not a fragrance fan but you live for your cup of java? Here’s something you probably won’t find at Starbucks. Kopi luwak is made from coffee beans plucked from civets’ feces. It’s the world’s most expensive coffee, and it’s made from poop. Or rather, it’s made from coffee beans that are partially digested and then pooped out by the civet, a catlike creature and it’s 20 to 60 times more expensive than regular coffee.
In unsettling news, kopi luwak also, unfortunately, often the result of animal cruelty. While there are reputable dealers of kopi luwak, most kopi luwak coffees come from caged, farmed civets — even when the label says “wild” or “certified”. I mention this because there’s always a story behind a story and most of the time it involves cruelty and violence (I’m sorry to say) and it’s our responsibility as writers to bring these stories to the attention of others who wouldn’t otherwise know about them.
And that’s why I wrote about the Monarch butterflies. I was recently asked if Everything You Dream is Real could be considered a climate change novel and my reply is yes, it’s definitely is a climate change novel. The weather and flora and fauna in the book are all a result of man’s ongoing destruction of the planet.
As authors, we package socially-conscious-aware messages in riveting fiction and there’s no denying that all my novels do have a strong message. I’m deeply concerned about the butterflies and the weather, and man’s predilection just move things to the lab can have deadly consequences (as with my Monarchs).
Sometimes my what-happened-itis can drive my husband nuts and it certainly causes me sleepless nights but I’m really grateful to it too. Without it, most of my books wouldn’t exist. So I’ll carry on wondering and if there’s aren’t real answers to be had, I’ll let my imagination take the reins and be as surprised by what happens as most of the readers of my books!
Thank you for having me as a guest and I hope your readers will pick up Everything You Dream is Real or any of my other books. If speculative fiction isn’t your cup of tea, remember, my teapots come with many flavours and there’s something for everyone!
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Originally from South Africa, Lisa de Nikolits is an award-winning author of eleven published novels. She has been hailed as “the Queen of Canadian speculative fiction” [All Lit Up] and her short fiction and poetry have been published in various international anthologies and journals including the Crime Writers of Canada’s 40th Anniversary anthology (2022). Everything You Dream is Real is her most recent book. Her work has appeared on recommended reading lists for CBC Books, the Quill & Quire, Open Book Toronto, The Miramachi Reader and the 49th Shelf, as well as being a Chatelaine Editor’s Pick and a Canadian Living Magazine Must Read. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy and has lived in the U.S.A., Australia, and Britain. Previous works include The Hungry Mirror, West of Wawa, A Glittering Chaos, Witchdoctor’s Bones; Between The Cracks She Fell, The Nearly Girl, No Fury Like That (published in Italian, under the title Una furia dell’altro mondo, in 2019 by Edizione Le Assassine), Rotten Peaches, The Occult Persuasion and The Anarchist’s Solution and The Rage Room. All Inanna Publications. Lisa lives and writes in Toronto.
LINKS:
instagram: @ireadsomewherethatbylisa
Website: lisawriter.com
EVERYTHING YOU DREAM IS REAL
Eleven years after a world war destroyed the consumer-driven, plastic-based existence of 2055, a new order of players jostles for power. Streaky electricity, ravaging drought, a scarcity of food, and deadly Monarch butterflies make for an increasingly desperate situation.
Worlds collide when both Mother and Sharps?s children are kidnapped by the unstable plastic surgeon Alpha Plus and taken to The Fountain of Youth compound. There?s flowing water and beautiful people and beautiful clothes and an incongruous convent where children wear smart uniforms and are tutored by nuns. Lovely, until they discover that a subterranean sex trade funds the compound and the man who leads it is mad. Can Mother, Sharps, and the others take down Alpha Plus and his army? Or will they too become pawns in his bid for world domination?
Hilarious and at the same time poignant, Everything You Dream Is Real is a fabulous, adventure-filled sequel to highly acclaimed The Rage Room that will delight fans both new and old.
Buy the book: https://www.inanna.ca/
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