The Partners of (or in) Our Dreams

Also posted on the Bold Strokes Books blog.

Couples meet in many, many ways. I met my partner of five years (and then many more, we expect) in a local coffeehouse. I approached him because I decided he was cute, and complimented his t-shirt. We wound up talking for a good hour or two, and then he had to go. But it could have been a concert, or a class, or on the street, or we could have met via a friend.

In Dreaming of Her, Isa meets Lilith in a dream, which isn’t really a typical way for couples to meet in our reality. I do dream about my partner quite often, though. In these dreams, sometimes we are fighting, sometimes we are happy, and sometimes we are…well, I’ll leave that one up to your imaginations. In Dreaming of Her, in my character Isa’s dreams, she and Lilith begin by having sex, but, as these things can often go, it begins to progress to more, and the two women begin to care about more than just when they’ll next get to bed down with each other. But unlike my partner and me, they come from very different worlds, Isa from the world of humans, and Lilith from the world of Dreammakers. Dreammakers are creatures who bring humans – like Isa – their dreams, and just like this reality, said dreams can bring humans like Isa joy or sorrow. Or, sometimes, a bit of each.

Outside of my dreams of my guy, there is much more joy than sorrow – we make each other laugh on a daily basis, we cook and bake, we cuddle. We do almost everything together. But not everyone gets to live in the same reality, sometimes emotionally, or, as in Isa’s case, sometimes physically. Is it enough, then, to just be in someone’s thoughts? And their dreams? For some people in our universe, it definitely is, but Isa and Lilith have much more to contend with than just a long distance relationship. As hot as their shared moments with each other are, those moments are not really enough to hold the two women together. But as their meetings begin to progress to more than just sex, they both must ask themselves – are dreams enough? For me and my partner, there is definitely enough, but we’re able spend as many waking hours together as we so wish, and Isa and Lilith are not as lucky. Each of them will have to make up their mind about whether dreams alone are enough. And would they be enough for me? I can’t really say, but looking at my guy in my dreams is certainly more joy than sorrow, and as I say about him in Dreaming of Her’s dedication, sometimes life itself can seem like a dream come true