An Interview With the Author!

I interview a lot of other authors on the blog here, so with DREAM WEDDING coming out on Tuesday, I thought it only fair to interview myself…

Who am I?

I’m J.J. DiBenedetto, the author of the Dream Series. I live in Arlington, Virginia with my lovely
wife and Danny, a white cat who’s trained us both. I’m originally from Yonkers, New York. I love the New
York Giants, fondue, photography, travel, the opera and (this will be no surprise!) I’m a huge science-fiction
and fantasy geek.

You can follow me right here on my website, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Goodreads, and at my Amazon Author Page

 

And here’s the interview!

Who is your favorite author?

I can’t really pick just one.  Alastair Reynolds, Stephen r. Donaldson, Nick Bantock, Mark Helprin – just off the top of my head.

How do you describe your writing style?

Conversational.  I try to write in a casual, engaging way – at least for the Dream Series books, because that fits the character and the way I wanted to tell the stories.

Use no more than two sentences. Why should we read your books?

Because they’ve got a little bit of everything: romance, mystery, humor and plenty of emotion – and a unique supernatural twist to tie everything together.

Have any of your characters been modeled after yourself?

I created them all, so I have to say there’s at least a little piece of me in most of them.  But there’s nobody directly modeled after myself in the Dream Series.

If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?

Probably Brian (Sara’s husband).  He’s got a pretty good life, and (outside of one incident at the end of book one), he’s never in any physical danger, unlike poor Sara!

What books have most influenced your life?

Too many to count!  But I can tell you the one book that directly led to my writing and publishing my books: Transpecial by Jennifer R. Povey.  Jenna’s a friend, and when she sold that novel to a publisher, it really made me sit up and think, “why can’t I do it, too?”  So I did (it’s also a really good book, so check it out!).

If you could select one book that you could rewrite and add your own unique twist on, which book would that be and why?

I could pick a lot of books here.  But one that always really frustrated me was the Galactic Milieu  by Julian May.  The books are good, and I enjoyed them.  But she changed the ending because a lot of readers figured out one of the big twists and talked about it on the Internet (this was back in the old Usenet days).  I’d go and put back the original ending, if it were up to me.

Beatles or Monkees? Why?

Monkees!  I loved them as a kid (still do).  I remember very clearly that a Monkees album (yes, a record album, one of those big black discs that you put on a turntable!) was the very last Christmas gift I ever got that was from Santa Claus himself (at least, that’s what the tag on the gift said!).

Who should play you in a film of your life?

Well, it wouldn’t be the most exciting movie ever.  But how about Jack Black?  He’s a good match physically, and he can do socially awkward really well.

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