Sleepless Nights

At night the monsters come out. They lurk in dark cupboards or moving shadows. If you switch on the light they retreat and you are left huddled in the middle of your bed, too scared to move. I don’t know when the monster under the bed became such a problem with me… But even now I can jump into bed, my anxiety high, and then I’ll lie there and listen for the tell-tale breathing.

It has got better since my dog has been sleeping next to the bed, but still I can spend a sleepless night just through fear. Of course the doctor likes to call it stress induced insomnia.

It isn’t. I am scared of monsters.

The problem is that I write about monsters. I make them the best they can be. In my new novel ‘A Terrible Beauty’, the monster is beautiful and nice to know. She is generous and helpful… but she is also a monster. Of course she is aware of it and her story is one of camouflage and revealing herself. And what has made her like this. You see she wasn’t born bad, but was steered toward it. But the character was born from a late night thought that led to stress insomnia. Basically she scared me so much that I didn’t sleep.

Write romances! I hear you cry.

Except I love to write mysteries, thrillers and horrors. They are so interesting, and the monsters are really complex. I can’t write romances – I’ve tried and they turn out a little different; a little scary and off-the-wall. I think I’m just addicted to the monsters…

This post was inspired by the daily prompt – sleepy time.