(Mar 1, 2013) Friday Writing Essentials: Secrets that You Keep

Hi, Everyone!

Well, we're having drain problems. :-) Boy, do I love plumbing issues. A 24-hour plumber is on the way right now, even though it's nearly midnight. (I write my prompts the day before.) Wish us luck! (Edit: see my first comment for an update on this.)

Lizzy, the baby, is doing well. We're so very blessed to have her in our lives! I couldn't have asked for a better baby. She only wakes up once at night, goes down for naps easily, and when she's awake, she's content to lay kicking on the floor next to me while I write. Plus, she's super cuddly, and I can hold and hug and kiss her all I want. Happy sigh. :-) Makes me feel bad, because my sister's kids have been super difficult. But after how awful my pregnancy and labor and delivery were...

Okay, I could talk about my baby endlessly. I'll post pictures of her instead (attached). :-)

Book updates: The fourth book in my series was released as an eBook, the first is up for free, and the second is $0.99 until March third. All of these things combined made Wednesday the biggest day by way of eBook sales ever. It more than tripled my last best day. And today there's another big push for my first book, so we're hoping to have even more success.

So many blessings right now. It's overwhelming and wonderful and exciting. And I've got a little family to share it all with. Finally. :-) This is significant to me because the first guy I was engaged to broke it off three weeks before the wedding, the second guy passed away while we were engaged, and it wasn't until I was 29 (late for my family) that I found another wonderful man. Yeah, I'm still twitter-pated. :-) March 4th is our second anniversary. :-)

Okay, I'm really tired right now. Enough rambling. :-)

Today's prompt deals with talking while sleeping.

I've always been a sleep talker, and I walked in my sleep until I got married - apparently, marriage cured me. :-) But I still talk in my sleep. I've got some pretty fantastic stories about things I've done and said while sleeping. For instance, over the past year, I've been obsessed with whatever might be under our bed. My husband has heard me talk about snakes, hairballs, pits of spiders, dead babies, and endless carpets that needed to be vacuumed. Never good things, and all under our bed. Several times, I've grabbed his arm and asked him to do something about it. Poor guy. :-)

Long before I was married, while I still lived with my parents, they would hear noises outside their bedroom door. They'd wait to see if the noises went away. When they didn't, my parents would open up and find me standing on the other side, staring at the door. Freaky!

The worst time I ever walked in my sleep - the most embarrassing - was when I was sixteen. My younger brothers (I've got four) invited all of their guy friends over and were sleeping in the family and living rooms - piled over every inch of carpet. My older sister heard me walking all around the house, going back and forth from the kitchen to the other two rooms. She's absolutely terrified of me when I walk in my sleep (for good reason - I punched her once) and the moment she heard me getting up and walking around the house, she shut her door.

Anyway. I woke up at 2:15am - which is when my sister said I stopped walking - as I was getting back into bed. I discovered that of my pajamas I was only wearing a top - no pants. Just panties. AAAAAHHHHH.

None of the guys ever admitted to having seen me walk around, and I never asked. :-) They were sweet and very good guys, thank goodness, and would've been absolutely mortified and embarrassed if they had seen me. Bless their hearts. :-)

For today's prompt, I want you to tell of any experiences you've had with walking or talking while sleeping. Or, if you'd like, you can take the title of this prompt, which is based off a song by The Romantics titled Talking in Your Sleep, and create a fictitious scene about someone telling secrets in their sleep. It could be a murderer, a lover, an elderly person on their death bed... basically anyone giving away something important.

Remember:

You have until Thursday, March 7, 2013 at midnight to write and post, and it can be in any format.

I will comment on and feature your responses a week from today.

* Have your title say FWE or Friday Writing Essential, and have the initials "STYK" (Secrets that You Keep) in it.

* Make sure to post to the Writing Essential Group.

* Put FWE or Friday Writing Essentials and the initials "STYK" in your tags.

Can't wait to read the responses! :-) :-)