Gallery: The Perfect Rochester

RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2025

click all images for a closer look

Compared to Nightshade's Emporium, this book is more mundane in treatment save for the preponderance of dream scenes. Naturally, it's because this book focuses on Narcisse Nightshade, who's my version of Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. There are less gothic elements used since the whole thing with Death / Thanatos was already explored in Nightshade's Emporium, and writing Narcisse's story was less problematic and more straightforward as a romantic comedy.

"Plant Architecture" by Remedios Varo,
which I used in one of Narcisse's dream sequences.

Since Narcisse is the god of sleep, using dreams to explore his issues was a blast since as the "gentler" half of a twin pair, he's a great deal more attuned to beauty and art, which he uses as templates for his dreams. And it was fun writing something like not-quite-living versions of artworks from Dali, Varo, and Hopper, for instance, in which Narcisse can walk around and interact with while asleep. 

Lorik Petrosian (since we're dealing with sleep and dreams) is my take on Endymion. Now while his legend involves a romantic relationship with Selene (goddess of the moon), there's a fragment in the Deipnosophistae that tells a different love story. And it's one involving Hypnos being in love with Endymion, elements of which I worked into the book. This bit about Hypnos lulling Endymion to sleep with the latter's eyes staying open is also there -- in a penultimate scene.

"The Sleeping Endymion" by Pelagio Palagi

Dreams in this book aren't just used in their literal sense but in other ways as well. Hopes and aspirations, especially in young people, collide with reality, and Lorik's backstory is chock-full of those (the ballet dancer in the moodboard above is one example). Of all of the plot details I worked with, this one was the most deeply personal to me. I figured it's also a universal theme and an experience we've all had at some points in our lives, so to say it was cathartic to work it into the story isn't far from the truth. 

Since the events in this book take place concurrently as those in Nightshade's Emporium, I focused more on side characters outside the family. Narcisse is also working through his issues on the sly, i.e., behind his family's back, so we're now looking beyond the family unit and are spending time with Eleni and Pym while also including others like Armas Paavola, who's my version of Ganymede.I'm leaving the door open to a possible future book that again takes place in the Nightshade universe, so while things end happily for everyone, shit can still hit the fan and bring on a third book.

Thanatos (background) and Hypnos (foreground).
I love Thanatos's attitude. It's very Viktor Nightshade.

There are two songs, actually, that inspired me the most in the course of writing this book, and each song represents one of the main romantic pair. So firstly, this song from Heart, which is about aiming for impossible dreams, represents Lorik. 

And this one is very, very much Narcisse and his love for brooding, romantic heroes. This song, though, is also used ironically if you were to read the book and listen to the lyrics.

The Perfect Rochester is available in e-book for 99 cents and in print for $9.00.