Incubating or excorcising dream ideas
The last two nights, I've dreamed some great stories. Last night's in particular has potential for translation to print. I've been recording my dream ideas for years, but despite the vivid retention and detail and completeness of the ideas, I haven't written any of them into books or even short stories to date. Why? They are nothing like what I've published thus far. Post-apocalyptic thrillers, SF thrillers, contemporary thrillers. Whatever other elements are there, they are scary, heart-pounding suspense thrillers.

Maybe if I want to stop scaring myself awake, I need to just write thrillers? To give an idea of how long-standing this is, I had my first post-apocalyptic nightmare when I was maybe seven. I still remember it vividly. It's still scary to me.

The problem, of course, is that there is nothing remotely warm, fuzzy, feel-good or romantic about these stories and it would require a new name very separate from my other work. But I might sleep better.