Indie Lights Book Parade: JJ DiBenedetto #ILBP

Overall Dream Series

Sara Barnes thought her life was perfectly ordinary – until the night she began stepping into other people’s dreams. Follow Sara as she learns to cope with this extraordinary gift (or curse) in the first three books of the Dream Series. Click the above banner for links to books.

DREAM STUDENT
It’s bad enough that, thanks to her supernatural talent, Sara is learning more than she ever needed to know about her friends and classmates, watching their most secret fantasies whether she wants to or not. Much worse are the other dreams, the ones she sees nearly every night, featuring a strange, terrifying man who commits unspeakable crimes. Now Sara wonders if she’s the only witness to a serial killer – and the only one who knows when and where he’s going to strike next.
DREAM DOCTOR
Medical school and life as a newlywed would be enough by themselves for anybody to handle. But Sara’s got another problem – her dreams have started up again. Almost everyone at the medical school is dreaming about the death of the school’s least popular teacher, Dr. Morris, and once again, Sara finds herself in the role of unwilling witness to a murder before it happens. But this time, there are too many suspects to count, and it doesn’t help matters that she hates Dr. Morris every bit as much as any of his would-be murderers do.
DREAM CHILD
Sara thought she had made peace with her dreaming talent, but she’s got a surprise coming: her four-year-old daughter has inherited it, too.

Author Interview

1. What inspired you to write your first book?
DREAM STUDENT came from asking a simple question. Why, in most mystery stories, do average people try to solve a crime or catch a killer themselves, when most normal people would do the sane thing and just call the police?
I tried to come up with an answer, and what I thought of was: maybe they wouldn’t go to the police if the only evidence was in their heads. If they saw the crime through the eyes of the killer, and that was the only proof they had. If they saw it in the dreams of the killer. So there was the idea: if you could see someone else’s dreams, and that person was committing crimes, what could you do about it? You’d have no physical proof, the police would never believe you. You’d have to start investigating yourself, if you wanted to stop them.
Sara, the main character of DREAM STUDENT, came into being along with that idea, and so did the college setting of the book.
2. Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
The actual story of DREAM STUDENT (and the rest of the Dream Series) is not based on real people or events, but the background settings and some of the minor characters definitely are. In DREAM STUDENT, Sara attends a (very thinly) fictionalized version of my college; the apartment building she lives in in book four, DREAM FAMILY, is basically the building I lived in when I moved down to Washington, DC, and so forth.
3. What book are you reading now?
I’m finishing my yearly re-read of my favorite novel ever, “Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin.
4. What are your current projects?
I’m working on the latest book in the Dream Series. This is the ninth book, and it’s called SHATTERED DREAM. I hope to have it released by the end of April.
5. If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
Absolutely. Every time I read my work over, I see things I would change. But I think every author feels that way. Leonardo Da Vinci said it best – “art is never finished, only abandoned.”
6. Who designed the covers?
The original covers for my first six books were hand-painted by a local artist who also was the head graphic designer at my old employer, Ami Low. She did a fantastic job, and gave me exactly what I wanted. But unfortunately, what I wanted was not what readers in my genre were looking for. So I had to change the covers, and the new covers were designed by Emma Michaels (http://www.emmamichaels.com), who’s also done an amazing job.
7. While you were writing, did you ever feel as if you were one of the characters?
Not exactly. What I feel like, sometimes, is that the characters are actual people, and I’m only passing on the stories that I’ve heard from them, rather than creating them myself.

Author Bio

J.J. (James) Dibenedetto’s fans would swear he’s got a sixth sense when it comes to seeing into the minds of others and often wonder if his stories could possibly be fiction. He enjoys suspending disbelief with suspenseful paranormal tales that are a perfect blend of reality meets fantasy.

His popular Dream Series continues to delight readers with each and every exciting installment.

Born in Yonkers, New York, he currently resides in Arlington Virginia with his beautiful wife and a cat he is sure has taken full advantage of its nine lives. When it comes to the cat, he often wonders, but then again it might just be his imagination.