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Andrea K Höst

Australian writer of science fiction and fantasy.
The Sleeping Life - Andrea K. Höst

Back in 2010, I was halfway through writing The Sleeping Life when I decided to embark on self-publishing my backlist, so I set it aside and distracted myself thoroughly in other worlds. I'm sure that the six-year gap led to some rather significant changes to how the book ended, but I enjoyed where I took this one.

 

I tell people, btw, that it's not a Sleeping Beauty re-telling, but then I point out to myself that someone is technically sort of awakened by a kiss... No spindles, however!

 

And, for the Touchstone fans, here's a bit of trivia that binds these two stories together:

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back when I was originally writing Touchstone as a fiction blog, I had a scene where Mori is having a sleepover with Cass, after Cass has discovered she can "dream things real". And because what I was writing was "non-serious stuff I was throwing up on the internet", I cheerfully had Cass dream the facehuggers from Aliens showing up in her bedroom and leaping on poor Mori.

 

Because what else would a genre-savvy Earth girl dream when picturing the worst things she could inflict on a planet?

 

But when I came around to editing the blog for publication, I most definitely didn't want to get into any dubious copyright territory. This is the exact same reason why Cass summons a dragon instead of Superman, and why I don't include the actual text of Do Not Go Gentle.

 

So I cast about for something that I could use instead of facehuggers, and remembered the Kentatsuki from The Sleeping Life. And so The Sleeping Life became the book that Cass had been reading, and left in her room, the day she went for her last highschool exam. And The Sleeping Life is the book that Cass' Mum brings with her, when she finally gets to travel to Muina.

 

The publication dates don't work out, of course. ;)