Sleep and I have a funny relationship. Like everyone else, I love to sleep, but it also makes me a little nervous. Part of it is the concept of dreaming (don’t tell me Freddy Kreuger doesn’t pop into your head sometimes), part of it is the idea of being unconscious for eight hours without being brain damaged, and part of it is how many bad things can happen to you or around you when you’re sleeping. Maybe that’s a little paranoid, but I know I’m not the only person to find sleep kind of scary.

Why else do little kids try to avoid falling asleep?

And why else do so many writers make sleep an integral facet of their novels? Van Winkles recently published a list of their favorite novels and stories that revolve around sleep–work by Haruki Murakami, Chuck Palahniuk, Stephen King, and me. Yep, The Trajectory of Dreams and its treatment of sleep got a nod (no pun intended). I can almost hear my main character, Lela White, laughing maniacally. Okay, she would totally never do that. More like she’d hunt down the author of the list, break into his house, and stare at him while he slept.