{"id":47,"date":"2015-06-30T01:05:55","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T05:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/?p=47"},"modified":"2015-06-17T09:22:21","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T13:22:21","slug":"interview-with-jj-dibenedetto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/2015\/06\/30\/interview-with-jj-dibenedetto\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with JJ DiBenedetto"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jjdFeverDream<\/a>Tell us a bit about yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m the author of the Dream Series, which kind of straddles the line between suspense, romance and paranormal.\u00a0 I\u2019m also a marketing professional (which you\u2019d think would make it easier for me to sell books, but it hasn\u2019t worked out that way yet!), a native New Yorker and the property of an 11 pound white cat named Danny.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your most recent book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My most recent book is number nine in the series, FEVER DREAM.\u00a0 The whole series follows Sara, who\u2019s a doctor, and who can also step into other people\u2019s dreams.\u00a0 In this book, one of her patients dies of an illness she can\u2019t figure out, and the more she questions what happened, the more trouble she gets herself into.<\/p>\n

Who is the villain or antagonist in your story and what is he\/she like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The villain in this book is a crooked politician, who\u2019s based not-at-all-loosely on Eliot spritzer (the disgraced ex-Governor of New York).<\/p>\n

But my favorite villain in the series is a woman who shares Sara\u2019s ability to visit dreams.\u00a0 She\u2019s Lydia Saunders, and she shows up in the fifth book of the series, WAKING DREAM.\u00a0 Physically, she looks a lot like Sara, and she\u2019s around the same age.\u00a0 But while Sara uses her ability to help people, Lydia\u2019s using it to help herself, and she doesn\u2019t care who she hurts along the way.<\/p>\n

Although Lydia doesn\u2019t survive that book, she appears again in Sara\u2019s dreams in FEVER DREAM.\u00a0 Sara\u2019s subconscious calls up an image of Lydia to try and make sense of what\u2019s going on in the story:<\/p>\n

She swings her legs off the bed, slowly gets to her feet, looks at herself in the big floorstanding mirror.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sara does not see herself.\u00a0 There is someone else looking back at her.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting here for hours,\u201d Lydia Saunders says from the other side of the glass.\u00a0 She\u2019s exactly as Sara remembers her \u2013 brown hair, scarlet dress cut much too short, red heels that elevate her two or three inches above Sara.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d\u00a0 Sara knows that it\u2019s impossible for Lydia to be here \u2013 or anywhere at all, for that matter.\u00a0 \u201cI \u2013 I killed you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou ought to be asking yourself that question.\u00a0 You\u2019re the one who brought me here.\u00a0 This is your dream, or hadn\u2019t you figured that out yet?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Sara considers that, and it does make some sense.\u00a0 Perhaps this <\/em>is a dream.\u00a0 This bedroom doesn\u2019t feel right.\u00a0 And she\u2019s fairly certain that Brian doesn\u2019t work at the Pentagon; or, if he did, it was several years ago.\u00a0 But she\u2019s not convinced.\u00a0 And nothing Lydia says can be trusted; that much, Sara knows for sure.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you want?\u201d\u00a0 Sara\u2019s annoyance with Lydia grows with each word.\u00a0 Why, she wonders, can\u2019t the woman do the decent thing and stay dead?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, you brought me here.\u201d\u00a0 Lydia rolls her eyes impatiently.\u00a0 \u201cI can see this is going to take a while.\u00a0 I may as well get comfortable.\u201d\u00a0 She takes a couple of steps to her left, halfway out of the frame of the mirror, and, with a grunt of effort, drags a heavy wooden chair into view.\u00a0 Lydia plops herself down on it.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s much better.\u00a0 You know, you could just have given me one to start with.\u00a0 Some host you are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you think are the heroic qualities she possess?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As she sees it, Lydia is doing what she has to do to help her husband\u2019s career and secure her future.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t see herself as a villain at all.<\/p>\n

Is there any respect between this character and the heroine of your story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

None at all.\u00a0 Sara despises Lydia, because Lydia was snooping around in the dreams of Sara\u2019s husband.\u00a0 She also caused a friend of Sara\u2019s to commit suicide, and nearly killed Sara herself.<\/p>\n

What was the most difficult part of writing about this character?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There really wasn\u2019t any difficulty.\u00a0 Lydia was a lot of fun to write, as nasty as she was.<\/p>\n

What kind of antagonist is your favorite?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A smart one.\u00a0 That\u2019s the biggest appeal for me.\u00a0 There\u2019s a place for the monsters and the brutes, but give me a cold, calculating genius any day.<\/p>\n

Who is one of your favorite fictional villains (can be from a book, movie or television)?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senator Palpatine\/the Emperor in the Star Wars movies.\u00a0 He\u2019s so entertaining to watch, manipulating everything behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

To you, how important is a good antagonist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A good antagonist is vital.<\/p>\n

Blurb for the series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sara Barnes thought her life was perfectly ordinary \u2013 until the night she began stepping into other people\u2019s dreams.<\/p>\n

Follow Sara as she learns to cope with this extraordinary gift (or curse) in the Dream Series:<\/p>\n

\"jjdWakingDreamV1<\/a>Blurb for WAKING DREAM (Lydia\u2019s book)<\/strong><\/p>\n

After nearly a decade of visiting other people\u2019s dreams, Sara Alderson thought she had made peace with her supernatural gift.\u00a0 Until one night, while watching her husband dream, she saw someone else watching him, too: a mysterious woman in a red dress.<\/p>\n

The woman in red keeps appearing in the dreams of Sara\u2019s husband and his co-workers.\u00a0 Sara doesn\u2019t know if this mystery woman is trying to steal her husband, drive him mad or something even worse.\u00a0 All she does know is that now she has something she never imagined: a nemesis.\u00a0 And the only thing more dangerous than a nemesis who shares her ability to step into other people\u2019s dreams, is one who knows far more about that ability and how to control it than Sara does.<\/p>\n

Waking Dream is the fifth book of the Dream Series.<\/p>\n

Excerpt from WAKING DREAM<\/strong> (Sara is describing her meeting in a dream with Lydia \u2013 although she doesn\u2019t yet know her enemy\u2019s name)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut she\u2019s \u2013 she\u2019s trouble.\u00a0 She has to be.\u00a0 Why else would she run the moment she realized I was there?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s not the behavior of an honest person, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cShe could be scared.\u00a0 Remember how frightened you were at first?\u201d\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 But, honestly, back in college with Dr. Walters, if I\u2019d seen someone else in that bedroom with me I would have been thrilled to know it wasn\u2019t just me going through it.\u00a0 I would have tried to talk to them, ask them what was going on.\u00a0 I would have been hoping for an ally.\u00a0 This woman didn\u2019t want any of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u00a0 But she \u2013 she wasn\u2019t scared, she was running away because she knew she shouldn\u2019t be there,\u201d I say.\u00a0 And then something else occurs to me.\u00a0 \u201cThat \u2013 how did I not think of this before?\u00a0 That\u2019s why she came in through a window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beth looks at me blankly, then gestures to the half-empty wine bottle.\u00a0 \u201cI felt \u2013 I didn\u2019t see it, it was just an impression, but I thought a window opened up, right before she appeared.\u00a0 There was a draft, cold air blowing in.\u201d\u00a0 I close my eyes and think back to two years ago, to the times I deliberately went into Kat\u2019s dream, and then Grace\u2019s.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I did it on purpose, I walked in through the door.\u00a0 She climbed in the window.\u00a0 Like a thief.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not convinced; she gives me a weak smile in response.\u00a0 \u201cHow do you know that\u2019s not just your subconscious making you feel that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s breaking into my husband\u2019s mind!\u00a0 She\u2019s a\u2026\u201d I catch myself.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t say it.\u201d\u00a0 Beth\u2019s eyes widen a little at that; she knows what word I was thinking.\u00a0 \u201cBut that\u2019s what she is.\u00a0 She\u2019s got no business in his head, and she needs to stay out!\u201d\u00a0 My heart is racing as I say it, even as I try \u2013 and fail \u2013 to inject a note of calm into my voice.<\/p>\n

\"jjdNew<\/a>Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.writingdreams.net<\/a> (website)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/viewAuthor.at\/JJDiBenedetto<\/a> (Amazon Author Page)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/jjdibenedetto<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/The-Dream-Series\/107699179403603<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/getBook.at\/WakingDream<\/a> (buy link for Waking Dream)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/getBook.at\/FeverDream<\/a> (buy link for Fever Dream)<\/p>\n

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