Bonnie Phelps, Author: Meet the Characters – An Interview with Sara Alderson from “Dream Student” by J.J. DiBenedetto

Sara Barnes has her life totally under control. All she has to worry about is college exams, Christmas shopping, applying to medical school--and what to do about the cute freshman who has a crush on her. And everything is going according to plan, until the night she starts dreaming other people's dreams.

It's bad enough that every night is a theater of her friends' and classmates' secret fantasies. Worse yet are the other dreams, the dark ones featuring a strange, terrifying man committing unspeakable crimes.

As the nightmares increase, Sara's life becomes a blur of waking and sleeping, of terror and urgency. Because if she was given this dream-sharing gift for a reason, it must be to stop the killer madman she's come to know all too well. But how can she stop him when she's just a student, and they're only dreams?

Today we’re talking to Sara Alderson from “Dream Student (the Dream Doctor Mysteries, prequel "Book Zero"),” by J.J. DiBenedetto. Let’s get started. I’m sure our readers are eager to learn more about you.

How old are you?

You’d think that would be a simple question, but it depends when you ask me. In my first book, I’m 21, and I’m still in college. By the end of my series, I’m 46 years old, and about to watch my daughter get married. And there are flashbacks, too, so you get to see me back when I was 16 and I had my horribly embarrassing first kiss with my best friend’s older brother.

What is your relationship status?

Married! Happily married to my wonderful husband, Brian. At least, after the first book. I’m single in the first book, though, but I meet him in chapter two, so it doesn’t take very long!

When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

That’s a funny question. When I went out for New Year’s Eve with my husband (well, he wasn’t my husband yet, this was right after we met, in college), my mom bought me this amazing dress, and lent me her diamond earrings, and took me to the salon and everything, and when I looked in the mirror one last time before I left, and I thought I was looking at the older, prettier, more sophisticated sister that I don’t actually have. I still feel that way sometimes, all these years later.

Name three of your favorite things.

My husband. Duh. Although it’s not nice to call him a “thing” so I’ll pick something else. Let’s see… Long, uninterrupted bubble baths. And the “uninterrupted” is the key point here. My emerald. Our first Christmas (a month after we met), my boyfriend (not husband) gave me a small emerald necklace. He spent all the money he’d saved up to buy a used car, just because he thought it set off my eyes so nicely. And I’ve almost never taken it off since then. My first dog, Lumpy. He was a Golden Retriever, and I got him as a puppy for Christmas when I was ten. He was the best dog ever, and he was smart, despite what everyone else in my family thought.

What are you most afraid of?

Myself. When I was in college, I discovered I could step into other people’s dreams. Over the years, I learned that I could do more than just watch what they dreamed about. I could change their dreams – mess with their minds from the inside. I didn’t know I could do that, until I met someone else who had the same ability I do (this is in book four, which is called, “Waking Dream”) and she ended up causing someone to kill themselves. Ever since then, I’ve been conscious that I could do the same thing – even without meaning to. Even with the best intentions of helping someone, I could drive them crazy, or worse. So, yeah, I’m terrified of my own power.

What is your favorite food?

Anything spicy, the hotter the better. I didn’t always like spicy food, though. It was only after I had my daughter that my taste changed.

What is your favorite song?

Rick Springfield, “Jessie’s Girl.” Well, I was a teenager in the 1980’s, what do you expect? Plus, he was really hot back then!

Do you have a hobby and if yes, what is it?

Does reading medical journals for fun count as a hobby?

What was your first impression of Brian?

Oh, God, he was SO shy! It was almost painful. I had to make the first move, even though I knew he had a crush on me, because he’d been dreaming about me. And thanks to my “gift” I actually was there in his dream to see it.

What would you most like to forget?

I’ve learned that forgetting is something you can’t – or at least shouldn’t – do, no matter how painful a memory is. I learned that the hard way. I was arrested (for something I didn’t do), and I was only in jail for one night but it was the worst night of my life, and I was – well, I won’t go into it here, but let’s just say I was “mistreated” and leave it at that. Anyway, for a couple of weeks afterwards, I couldn’t remember what had happened. I wouldn’t let myself remember. But the memory was still there, and it was toxic, and it wasn’t until I forced myself to tell my best friend everything, that I was right again. So I wouldn’t forget anything, no matter how awful it is.

Are you close to family?

Absolutely. My parents actually live with us, in what they used to call a “mother-in-law apartment” in back of our house. I’ve always been close with my parents, and (mostly) with my husband’s family, too (except for his mother, who finally, grudgingly, sort of accepts me by the time the series ends, and I’ve been married to her son for over twenty years). I didn’t always get along with my little brother; I’m told that when he was born, I asked if we could send him back and trade him in for a puppy (I don’t remember that, of course!)

Do you see morality as black-and-white, or with shades of gray?

That’s a tough question, because I always think of myself as a more black-and-white type of person, but I keep finding myself in situations where I honestly don’t know what the right thing to do is. You’d think it would get easier over time, but it sure doesn’t seem that way to me.

If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

I think in all my books, the only time that ever happened was my honeymoon, which the author didn’t even have the decency to write about except for a sentence or two about how much I enjoyed it. But it involved laying out on a beach with a drink in my hand (In a coconut. With an umbrella in it, too), looking out at crystal clear water and a perfect cloudless sky.