I am really pleased to be able to interview James DiBenedetto today. This talented writer is now turning his dream series into audio books.
Author Bio:
J.J. (James) DiBenedetto was born in Yonkers, New York. He
attended Case Western Reserve University, where as his classmates can attest,
he was a complete nerd. Very little has changed since then.
He currently lives in Arlington, Virginia with his beautiful
wife and their cat (who has thoroughly trained them both). When he's not
writing, James works in the direct marketing field, enjoys the opera,
photography and the New York Giants, among other interests.
The "Dreams" series is James' first published
work.
When did you start writing?
I’ve always
liked to write, but really in high school was when I started to really make an
effort. I let it lapse in college, but
afterwards, I began again. I wrote the
first draft of what would eventually become “Dream Student” back in 1998 or so,
and then it sat for over a decade until I came back to it and rewrote it from
the first page.
What’s the story behind your latest
book?
“Dream
Doctor” on audiobook is my newest release.
Our heroine is Sara, who’s just starting medical school, she’s just been
married, and also, she can step into other people’s dreams. Unfortunately for her, this causes a lot of
problems, because some of the dreams she visits aren’t very nice.
Who are your favourite authors?
Mark
Helprin, Stephen R. Donaldson, Alastair Reynolds, Julian May, for a start.
How do you approach cover design for
your books?
I’ve been
working with a local artist (she used to be the graphic designer for the
company I work at). I give her an
initial sketch of what I envision it to look like, and she turns that into
something people would actually want to look at.
How much research goes into your
books, and how do you tackle that?
Quite a
bit. For “Dream Doctor”, I’ve never been
to medical school or had anything to do with the medical field, other than going
to the doctor when I’m sick. So I needed
to do a lot of research to make Sara’s life in med school believable. My biggest resource was a memoir written by a
woman who went to med school in the late 1980’s (just shortly before “Dream
Doctor” is set) and describing her experiences and the process of changing from
a “civilian” to a doctor.
Describe a favourite scene in your
current novel?
My favourite
scene in “Dream Doctor” is Sara’s jealous freakout, after she steps into her
neighbor’s dream and sees that her neighbour is dreaming about seducing Sara’s
husband. She’s never really been jealous
before (or had anything to be jealous about), and it’s a very funny scene.
What is the best comment you ever
received from a reader? The worst or weirdest?
The best
comment for “Dream Doctor” was from a reader who worked in the health care
field – they asked me if I was a doctor!
So the medical scenes were definitely believable and realistic!
What else do you have in store for
your readers?
I’m
currently working on the sixth book in this series. Sara’s going back for her ten-year college
reunion, and she’s also got some baggage left over from the fifth book to deal
with.
How did you come up with the hero and
heroine for your latest book?
They came
more or less fully formed, right along with the basic idea for the stories –
what would happen if you could visit other people’s dreams? Sara was always the person with that
gift/curse, and Brian was pretty much always her boyfriend.
Do you plan several books ahead or do
you work on one book at a time?
I usually just work on one book at a time, but it’s funny – as I started
the book I’m working on now, I’ve been thinking about the one after that, and
setting some things up for it. I haven’t
done that before.
What made you decide to turn your
book into an audio book or were you approached by someone to make your book
audio?
I hadn’t
even thought about recording my books for audio, until my wife’s boss gave me
the idea. She’s close to legally blind,
and she asked if the books were available on audio, and that got me thinking
about it.
Was the process hard? Did you enjoy
it?
It’s been
easy, and I’ve enjoyed it tremendously.
I went through Amazon’s ACX (audiobook creation exchange) service, and they’ve
made it about as simple as it could possibly be.
Did you have much say in who narrated
your book and were you pleased with the results?
I had total
say over it. On the ACX service, you put
your book up for potential narrators to audition for it, and you can also go
out and search for one. There are over
10,000 narrators on ACX, but you can narrow that down based on age, gender,
accent, what genres and styles they will narrate, etc. I ended up with 20 or so that fit all my
criteria, and after I listened to all of them, I had five that I really
liked. One of those five responded back,
because she had “a gut feeling” about my books.
I’ve been
100% thrilled with Heather (my narrator, Heather Jane Hogan)’s work. It’s better than I could possibly have hoped.
How has the finished product been
received by readers?
All the
feedback I’ve gotten so far has been positive; they love Heather’s take on the
books and the way she brings the characters to life.
Will you be making all your books
available in audio?
That’s my
plan. The first two books are finished
and for sale, and the third is in production now. I think/hope Heather will do the fourth book
in my Dream Series, and I’ve finished a fifth book as well. I’m hopeful I can talk her into doing that
one, too.
Please share any experience you had
that you would like to share while you and your book were going through this
process.
The first
time I heard Heather narrating from the first chapter of my first book, I was
just blown away. And it was thrilling to
hear my work brought to life. It’s the
next best thing to seeing them filmed as movies.
“I didn’t expect to be woken up by someone I don’t know
dreaming about killing somebody. I thought I was done with that once and for
all…”
But Sara’s not done with it. As if adjusting to life as a
newlywed and starting medical school weren’t difficult enough, she’s started
seeing the dreams of everyone around her, again. Before everything is said and
done, those dreams might destroy Sara’s hopes of becoming a doctor, wreck her
marriage and even end her life…
“Dream Doctor” is the thrilling second novel in the Dreams
series.
Links:
I'd like to thank James for doing this interview with me.
