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?
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.
“Dream Student” is available through:
BOOKS2READ
(link to all retailers including Amazon, iTunes, Nook, Google Play &
Smashwords)
Connect with J.J.
DiBenedetto
