Join me in welcoming Jamies DiBenedetto to LAM!
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• Tell us about your hero’s or heroine’s typical style of dress. What is the condition of the clothing?
Sara is the heroine of the Dream Doctor Mysteries. She starts off as a quiet and studious college student, but over the course of the series, she gets married, becomes a doctor, has a family, and solves murders and other mysteries with the help of her supernatural dreams.
Sara is a pretty conservative dresser, which goes along with her shy and reserved personality, especially when we first meet her. She’s in college, so it’s usually jeans and a sweatshirt, without regard to style as long as it’s clean. But as events force her out of her shell, and she finds herself in new situations, she changes things up on a few occasions.
• What does the choice of clothing tell us about him/her?
Sara’s preferred style goes along with who she is at first – she’s quiet, and her clothes don’t make a big impression, either. When she does dress up (for a New Year’s Eve dinner at a fancy restaurant with her new boyfriend), she barely recognizes herself in the mirror.
• What happens when or if your character wears the opposite style?
When Sara dresses against her usual style, she usually finds herself acting against her usual behavior, too – almost as if she’s wearing a costume and acting out a part.
• Does your hero or heroine change his style of dress over the course of the book? If so, how, and what does it mean, if anything?
As the book goes on, and in later books, Sara becomes a lot more confident, and while she’s still has a pretty conservative style, she’s much more willing to try new things, and to try to make a statement with her outfits when the occasion calls for it.
EXCERPT:
It’s nine o’clock, and everyone’s waiting downstairs for Beth and me. She looks great, which is no surprise. She generally does. What isa little surprising, at least to me, is just how good Ilook. That sounds immodest, but what the heck. I’m allowed to be immodest once in a while, right?
Beth spent the last two hours helping me do my hair and makeup, and she absolutely demanded that I wear the dress I bought with my birthday money. It doesn’t quite say “do me”–nothing I own says that–but it might say “buy me some drinks and dance with me and I’ll think about it” if I wear it with the proper attitude. It’s black and strapless and–for me, at least–very short. It’s such a change from my usual wardrobe that I barely recognize myself in the mirror. Especially with my hair up and the way-more-than-usual makeup job.
She gives me a final once over, and claps her hands. She’s thrilled. “There may be hope for you yet!” She doesn’t need me to check her over, she knows without even looking in the mirror that everything’s right, not a hair or anything else out of place.
I have to take one last good long look at myself, though. The woman staring back at me has my eyes, but the rest of her…
I hear my own voice asking, “Who is that?”
Blurb:
College junior Sara Barnes thought her life was totally under control. All she had to worry about was her final exams, Christmas shopping, applying to medical school – and what to do about the cute freshman in the next dorm with a crush on her. Everything was going according to plan, until the night she started seeing other people’s dreams.
It’s bad enough that 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 Student is the prequel to the Dream Doctor Mysteries.
BIO:
J.J. DiBenedetto is author of the Dream Series and the Jane Barnaby Adventures and lives in Arlington, Virginia with the love of his life and a white cat who rules the roost.
His passions are photography, travel, the opera, the New York Giants, and of course writing.
Mr. DiBenedetto is devoted to writing books with a sense of mysticism to entertain and perhaps invite his readers to suspend belief in a way they might never have.
Since he was very young , he has always been intrigued with the supernatural and things that can't be explained rationally.
By always asking way too many questions, it piqued his interest to the point of setting his writing off and running when he grew up! All the curiosity building up all those years were finally getting put into words to captivate readers. And it hasn't ended. His main goal is to share all the stories he has inside, putting pen to paper. And that's how the Dream Doctor Mysteries were born.
Mr. DiBenedetto welcomes queries and feedback from his loyal readers. You can email him at jj@jjdibenedetto.com or at his website www.jjdibenedetto.com.
The next Jane Barnaby Adventure will be ready soon and he's anxious to hear what you think!
Social Media:
www.facebook.com/jjdibenedettoauthor
http://viewAuthor.at/JJDiBenedetto
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Thanks for stopping by, James!
I don't understand negative book reviews, and I have never been compelled to write one. If a book doesn't click with me, it doesn't click with me. Maybe if the book were racist, sexiest, and undecipherable, maybe I'd think that it would benefit society to hear my opinion. Otherwise, I recognize that nothing pleases everyone so if I read a book I don't like, I move on to the next book. My opinion about negative reviews was, unfortunately, exacerbated by my very worst one. You see, my worst review was also my FIRST review.
Writing isn't always a linear journey for me. There are fits and starts, good days and bad. Sometimes I write the story chronologically. Other stories come in seemingly haphazard segments, as my focus drifts from one disjointed scene to the next.
My most productive days happen when something specific inspires me, usually a song, or photograph, or something that embeds in my subconscious. The part that seems to be unusual is that I start with how the story will end—I often envision the final scene.. Then it’s simply a matter of learning what must happen to get my people to that moment.
