Last month, Moonstruck Books, a new independent Portland-based publisher, acquired my short novel The Color of Time and will publish it in the Fall of 2026 under its French title, La Couleur du Temps. I am very excited that my story found a wonderful home, and to join the indie publishing world.
Pre-orders help books a lot, so I appreciate the people who show their interest for the book and increase its visibility by pre-ordering a copy. Thank you!
La Couleur du Temps is a sci-fi retelling of Charles Perrault’s Donkey Skin, a fairy tale about a princess forced to flee her homeland disguised under a donkey skin to escape an incestuous marriage with her father, the king.
The story was pitched with the following blurb, which may change, of course, as I work with my publisher on the manuscript:
Princess Cyrelle is still mourning the loss of her sister-in-law the queen when King Elias, her widowed brother, decrees he will remarry her. To dodge the incestuous union without saying no to her irascible brother, Cyrelle asks for seemingly impossible nuptial gifts, promising she will accept the proposal if he provides them. When Elias succeeds in providing suits as radiant as the sun, as celestial as the moon, and as inevitable as time, she asks for the death of Celadon, the giant snake from the faraway planet Phau whose shed skin provides the kingdom with immense wealth and interstellar travel abilities. Elias complies after finding that Celadon has laid two eggs, guarantying his continued wealth.
Running out of excuses to avoid the wedding, Cyrelle disguises herself in a suit made of Celadon’s skin and flees Earth after stealing Celadon’s eggs. Going by the name of Green Scales, she finds refuge on Phau in the foreign city of Prophis, where she plans to care for Celadon’s children to atone for the snake’s pointless death. But Prophis’s rebels are causing trouble in the city, and when Sianna, the leader of the rebellion, recognizes the runaway princess and falls in love with her, they strike an unusual alliance, pushing Cyrelle to fight for her own freedom and that of the oppressed people of Prophis.
In addition to being a retelling of Donkey Skin, La Couleur du Temps is also influenced by Frank Herbert’s Dune and has a similar vibe. Don’t expect hard science-fiction: La Couleur du Temps falls half-way between the fairy tale and the science fantasy genres. You will find distant planets, interstellar travel, giant snakes, sapphic romance, near-magical powers from the gods, and so much more!
You may wonder about the title:
- The choice to publish the novel under its French title was an idea from my publisher, which I immediately agreed with. Not only does it sound beautiful, but it’s also a nice hommage to the original language of Donkey Skin (Charles Perrault was a French author from the seventeenth century).
- As for the choice of the title itself, it’s a reference to the original tale. In the French version, the princess asks for a dress “de la couleur du temps,” which was appropriately translated as “the color of the sky” in English. But the word “temps” means two things in French: “weather” and “time.” It is, of course, “weather” that Perrault meant, and by extension, beautiful weather, i.e. a clear blue sky. Using the word “weather” for “sky” is very uncommon in French, so when I read the fairy tale for the first time, the idea that the princess was asking for a dress of the “color of time” crossed my mind, and it stuck!
If you have never read the original Donkey Skin, I encourage you to do so. It is a disturbing tale that includes an uncommon topic in fairy tales: incest. It made so many people uncomfortable that new versions of the tale written after Perrault either removed the incestuous part, replacing the king’s daughter by a poor peasant girl who doesn’t want to marry the king, or by finding medical/magical excuses to the king, who isn’t sane anymore and mistakes his daughter for his deceased wife. None of that in Perrault’s version: the king is fully aware that he intends to marry his daughter, and though everyone is horrified, he’s pretty cool about it.
- Original French version, written in verse: read here
- English translation, written in prose: read here
- There is also a 1970 movie adaptation by Jacques Demy, very popular in France, that you can watch!
In addition to Donkey Skin, you should read all Perrault’s tales. You can easily find the originals in French and English translations for free online, or buy beautiful editions with Gustave Doré’s illustrations such as this one in English or this one in French (please note these versions don’t include the tales in verse Donkey Skin, The Ridiculous Wishes, and Griseledis, but only the tales written in prose by Perrault). Though Donkey Skin holds a special place in my heart, my favorite tales are Blue Beard and Puss in Boots.
Three years is a long time to wait, but 2026 will be there before you know it. The next couple of years will be dedicated to editing the manuscript in partnership with my publisher, and 2026 will focus on producing and marketing the book. If you sign up for my newsletter, you will get updates about the book and when ARCs become available! And again, if you are as impatient as I am to hold the book in your hands, don’t forget that you can pre-order it now and pre-order other Moonstruck Books upcoming novels and anthologies.
Leave a Reply