Another Good Review
For Dream Student – from a reviewer on Goodreads:
Very realistically written, made me feel like it was me who was at university. Relatable characters, beautiful acts of friendship and love. I have never read a detective story or a story where the main protagonists have to solve a mystery because I don’t like that genre, but I was pleasantly surprised. University drama filled with love and mysteries.
The culprit was easy to spot, at least for me, so I expected to make the book less appealing to me. Quite the opposite, I wanted to know how it ends and what happens.
Didn’t feel like out of the world, no I-can-take-down-everyone Steven Seagal approach. Showed me how you can solve sticky situations without being a spy and actually saving lives.
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Just Testing
On the right side of the page, there’s a new item – an option to Subscribe to the blog and receive email updates. Let’s see if it works!
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Virtual Book Fair
As Promised
Chapter two is finished, and the new book is at around 18,000 words. So as I promised, here’s a little snippet – Sara is remembering her first “real” kiss. She was fifteen, and a freshman in high school. It happened during a Christmas party…
Belinda shrugs her shoulders. “You know Vince. It could be a hundred people.” A hundred? Now I really don’t want to be here! But I don’t want to leave Belinda all alone. She’s my best – my only close friend at school. I can’t ditch out on her.
Here comes her brother now, with one of his friends, a short, stocky guy I think I’ve seen in the corridors at school. They’re each carrying two cases of beer – I wonder if which one of them has a fake ID, or maybe they got somebody to buy it for them? They set the beer down on the kitchen table right in front of us, and open one of the cases. “Here you go, ladies,” Vince says, handing Belinda and me each a can. I don’t want – I’ve never even had beer before!
But everyone else is opening theirs and toasting each other. I – I don’t have to, but Belinda’s my friend, right? I open mine, salute them and take a sip. I barely swallow it down without spitting it out; how does anybody drink this stuff? Belinda doesn’t like it much more than I do, but she forces her beer down, and I follow suit while the boys laugh at us.
“Hey, Belle, why don’t you put out some food?” She’s told me she hates being called Belle, but she’s not going to get her older brother to stop doing it anytime soon. I go to help Belinda set out several bowls of chips, and then she goes up to her room to change. That’s all I need – not only will I not know anybody, but I’m going to look like crap compared to everyone else. I thought my sweater was cute, but I’m sure Belinda will be back downstairs in five minutes with an outfit that puts me to shame.
And I can’t even borrow anything from her – she’s only a couple of inches taller than me, but she’s at least three sizes bigger. Oh, well. As I watch her go up the stairs, I see something hanging from the ceiling at the foot of the staircase. Mistletoe.
I start to wonder who hung it there when there’s a hand on my shoulder, and I turn to see Vince. He’s not much taller than Belinda, but he just seems bigger somehow, or maybe that’s just my imagination. I can smell the beer on his breath; we’re only a few inches apart. He’s looking up at the mistletoe, too. He puts an arm around my waist and pulls me still closer. I let him; he is cute. And I’ve never had an older guy show the slightest interest in me before. Is this why he didn’t complain about Belinda inviting me? Does he have a – a thing for me?
He’s leaning in towards me, coming closer. I tilt my head up to meet him, I close my eyes, and I feel his face just an inch from mine, then his lips are touching mine, and – I – God! I go limp, I don’t respond, but I don’t have to; his lips and his tongue are doing all the work – then from out of nowhere there’s a voice. Belinda’s voice, loud and shrill: “Jesus, Sara! Get your tongue out of my brother’s mouth!” And then I feel her hands on my shoulders, pulling me away from Vince.
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Well, I’m slowly becoming assimilated into the social media world. I’m on Twitter now, too, as part of the big book promotion effort. So if you too are a Tweeter, or Twitterer, or Twit, or whatever the proper term is, you can follow me @JJDiBenedetto.
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Brief Update
No movement yet from the free promotion – but like all the advice I’ve read says, it’s a marathon not a sprint. I’m doing everything I can think of to get the books out there, but there’s always more…
The new book is going slow, but hopefully I can get chapter 2 finished today, and maybe I’ll post an excerpt once I’ve done that.
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The Next Big Thing – Blog Hop!
So this is a fun thing – I was “tagged” by author Olivia Fuller, author of The Wicked Game and Something Wicked (here’s her site, and here’s her Blog Hop post). The deal is, you answer ten questions about your latest, or next project, and then you tag five more authors who will do the same.
I’ll talk about the most recently completed book of the Dreams series, Dream Family:
1: What is the working title of your book?
“Dream Family” – this was pretty much the title all along, even before I knew what the story would be.
2: Where did the idea come from for the book?
The idea for what the book actually ended up being came from what was going to be a minor subplot that was going to happen late in the book. Sara was going to be mistakenly arrested and spend an embarrassing night in jail, which would be a small roadblock as she dealt with the larger plot. But that idea quickly became the main plot, as the night in jail changed from a brief and somewhat embarrassing experience, into a horrifying and traumatizing ordeal for Sara, and the story became: how can Sara recover from this?
3: What genre does your book come under?
Paranormal romance and/or suspense. It’s tough to categorize exactly, though.
4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Although she’s physically not really right, I kind of think Jennifer Lawrence would make a great Sara. She’s the right age that she could play Sara in all four books, from the 21-year-old college student to the 30-year-old practicing physician.
He’s definitely too old (especially for the college-age Brian of the first two books; he’d be OK for the nearly-30-year-old Brian of book 4 and 5, though), but other than that, Lee Pace would be perfect as Brian.
I haven’t figured out who would make a good Beth, or who’d be right for Sara’s parents, but Sara’s mother-in-law, Helen, would have to be played by Kelly Bishop. I didn’t realize it until book 3, but I’d been unconsciously modeling her on Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls all along.
5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
After she’s wrongfully arrested and shattered by an ordeal in jail, Sara will have to turn to her dreams to find her way back to herself.
6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
Self-published, and hopefully ready to take off!
7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Two months or so. This one went very quickly.
8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
That’s a tough one. I’m really not sure, because this whole series is much more “grounded” than most paranormal books – there’s only the one paranormal element (Sara’s dreams), and it doesn’t really define who she is. Also, there’s a strong focus on more “mundane” aspects of Sara’s life, whether it’s the day-to-day grind of medical school, or the details of her life as a resident, or the everyday ups and downs of parenthood.
9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I wanted to continue Sara’s story, first of all. Once I realized what the story should be and got into it, it occured to me that what happens to Sara in this book happens to far too many innocent people today. There are definitely out-of-control prosecutors and police, and once a person gets caught in their sights and thrown into that world, their life can quickly become a nightmare. There are stories in the news every day about this very thing, and it’s something that I don’t think a lot of people (who, thankfully, haven’t experienced it) really “get.”
I didn’t set out to push a message or promote a cause, but if the book makes readers stop and think and imagine how they’d react if they got mistakenly caught up in “the system”, I’m happy about that.
10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It’s a story about finding the courage and the internal strength to overcome a horrible situation, and that’s something I think anyone can relate to. But it’s also another visit with familiar characters that (I hope) readers have come to care about over the previous three books.
And now it’s time to tag five outher authors. So, here goes:
James Bow (his website)
Tammie Clarke Gibbs (her website)
Aoife Marie Sheridan (her website)
Anne Conley (her website)
C.N. Faust (his website)
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Final Update on the Free Promotion
Well, the expriment with Kindle Select and offering Dream Student for free is over. 582 copies were downloaded, and now we’ll see if that translates to any actual sales ging forward. Fingers crossed!
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Author Spotlight – Kristen DaRay and her debut novel “Gemini of Emeriana”
All of us independent authors have to stick together and help each other, and I’m glad to be able to do that today for Kristen DaRay, a 22-year-old woman who’s published her debut novel, a Young Adult science fiction book called “Gemini of Emeriana.” It’s a good and entertaining book, which you can read more about (including my review) at Goodreads.com. It’s the first book of a series, with the next chapter to come soon.
Here’s the back-cover description of the book:
My entire life has been a lie: My parents didn’t die in a car accident. They’re not even dead. I’m not American. I’m not even human. I have strange powers, and I’m the heir to the throne of the planet Emreiana.
If I take the crown, I have to leave behind everything I have known here on Earth. I would have to say goodbye to my friends and leave behind Kyle, the boy I’ve loved since I was five. If I don’t, then I risk the Bremoir finding me here on Earth and destroying everything I love.
And here’s the cover:
You can find the book at:
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