Tag: giveaway

An elderly and fragile lady is helped by a young gentleman into the boardroom of the local TV
station. She puts a large bag on the floor and sits down and is left alone, waiting for a journalist.
After extensive
research, the station has discovered her story. Today is the anniversary of the beginning of the
Blitz, and Sarah’s story is so fascinating that the network is considering airing it on their current
affairs program. She is growing a little impatient as she waits to be interviewed.
Finally, after a fifteen-minute delay, a young and somewhat disorganised journalist wearing an
expensive grey suit opens the door and sits down next to her. He seems nervous, as if it’s his
first interview.
‘I am terribly sorry, Ms Ashdown; it’s been one of those mornings. I am Daniel Warwick,’ he said
as he ruffled through his papers.
‘I’d like to say I have all the time in the world, Mr Warwick,’ she says in a sarcastic tone.
‘Please, call me Daniel, and can I get you a tea or coffee?’ he asked politely.
‘Tea would be wonderful,’ she replied.
Daniel presses the button on the intercom and asks for two teas to be brought to the
boardroom. Sarah stares at him; she seems amused at his nervousness.
‘I want to thank you for taking the time and giving us the opportunity to hear your fascinating
story.’
‘I want to make it clear that any payment you provide for this interview you give directly to the
children’s hospital. They need it more than I do,’ Sarah replies.
‘It has already been done, along with a small donation from the staff themselves,’ he replies,
smiling.
Daniel takes out some papers from a red folder, and he spends a few moments glancing over
them. He takes out his recorder and places it on the table; he is finally ready to conduct the
interview. The tea is
brought in and Daniel turns on the recorder.
‘First, can you start by telling me a little about your family?’
Sarah sips her tea and puts the cup down.
‘I had a very good upbringing as a child; during my childhood, my parents would ensure they
never missed any special event in my life. Birthdays, school plays, and presentations, et cetera.
Then, in late 1939,my mother died from breast cancer. It was as if my whole life was taken away
from me. A piece of me died that day and I never felt the same again. The war changed my
father; he had gone from a man who was always there for me to one I hardly saw. We lived in
the same house for a long time, but we might as well have lived a thousand miles apart. He
worked for MI5—he was a very intelligent and well-respected man. He had risen through the
ranks, becoming so important that he often advised and met with key figures, including the
prime minister himself. I guess the pressures of his job changed him. All I had to do to make
myself feel better was to remember the past—the time when this man
would have given up anything to be with me.’
‘Your father being who he was, did you receive news before anyone else? Maybe advanced
news about how the war was going?’
‘No, he never discussed his work with me.’
‘How did you spend a typical day during the war?’
‘That is a very general question, Mr Warwick—how I spent my days varied greatly. If it were a
peaceful day with no air raids, I would sometimes visit friends or go for walks and things of that
nature. During air raids, I did as most did; I went into the air raid shelter. We had our own below
our house.’
‘Were you scared?’
‘No, certainly not, I refused to be so. Being scared means the enemy gets what they want. If I
was to be killed by a bomb, then it was just my time.’
There is a pause while they both sipped their teas. Daniel skips a few pages of his notes. He
has a confused look on his face.
‘Do you need some more time, Mr Warwick?’ Sarah asks.
‘Once again, I am sorry. I have written too many notes and questions.
I am sure now you wish you had a more experienced journalist?’ Daniel says in an apologetic
tone.

‘Certainly not. Maybe you need some whiskey in that tea,’ Sarah replied, smiling.
Daniel becomes a little more at ease. He puts down all of the notes and questions he has, and
continues on.
‘What is the worst experience you saw during the Blitz, something that, during your entire life,
has stayed with you?’
‘I think anyone who experienced the Blitz had many bad experiences—I certainly had my share,
as you will soon find out.’
Sarah holds tightly onto her cup, staring at it. She seems to be deep in thought; Daniel, pausing
himself, gives her a moment. She raises her head and stares at Daniel.
‘My experiences have stayed with me every day,’ she says, becoming slightly teary-eyed.
Sarah finishes her tea and puts the cup and saucer on the table. It’s obvious he has many
questions to ask her, but thinks asking only one question that will answer all of them will be
best.
‘Can you tell me everything, your entire story from the beginning?’
‘You have nothing to do this week, Mr Warwick?’
‘Hearing this puts anything I have to do aside for the time being.’
‘As you wish,’ Sarah replies.

At the farthest ends of Midgard, where Alfheim begins, the Fae goddess Fand gazed upon
Kallan’s fair city. Lorlenalin. The White Opal. The Dokkalfar citadel. Humming a ditty, she
collected her skirts and idly glided through the wood surrounding the city.
Like threads of gold, Seidr flowed from the tips of Fand’s fingers. It flowed down her
gown and branched across the first autumn frost glistening in the moonlight as if the Fae gods
themselves had emerged from Under Earth and touched down on the lands of Midgard. Like
veins, the Seidr webbed a path to the city. The life she found there was strong, but hollow with
grief for their missing queen. Fand called the Seidr back, and she smiled. Memories of the dead
never survive the ages. It was only a matter of time before the Dokkalfar forgot their precious
queen.
“This won’t be too hard.”
Fand took a step and strips of leather wove themselves around her bare foot. By the time
she took a second step, she wore a pair of fine leather boots. Her gowns of Under Earth
reknitted
themselves into something simpler, but just as suggestive. Just as inviting. The gems she
wore to ordain her bodice became grains of golden sand that vanished with the wind. Her
cheekbones rounded out. Her pearlescent skin darkened to look more like a daughter of Alfheim
than the pale, jeweled complexion of a Fae goddess of Eire’s Land.
Fand pushed a hand through her raven black hair, sending strands of Seidr streaking the
black and changing it to a pale blond by the time her fingers reached the tips.
By the time Fand stepped into a beam of moonlight where the Dokkalfar guards could see
her, all that remained of her original appearance was the stunning rings of gold Seidr that
encircled her pupils and the mesmermizing smile that arched her red lips.
By dawn, only two would remember the name of Kallan, Daughter of Eyolf, Queen and
Lady of Lorlenalin.

It’s bad enough that every night is a theater of her friends’ and classmates’ secret fantasies. Worse yet are the other dreams, the dark ones featuring a strange, terrifying man committing unspeakable crimes.

As the nightmares increase, Sara’s life becomes a blur of waking and sleeping, of terror and urgency. Because if she was given this dream-sharing gift for a reason, it must be to stop the killer madman she’s come to know all too well. But how can she stop him when she’s just a student, and they’re only dreams?

Dream Student is the thrilling prequel to the Dream Doctor Mysteries.

Every night, she sees a different person and a different dream. But every dreamer has one thing in common: they all hate Dr. Morris, the least popular professor in the medical school, and they’re all dreaming about seeing him – or making him – dead.

Once again, Sara finds herself in the role of unwilling witness to a murder before it happens. But this time, there are too many suspects to count, and it doesn’t help matters that she hates Dr. Morris every bit as much as any of his would-be murderers do.

**only .99 cents!**

After Lizzie befriends a young boy on a trip to Washington, DC, and then wakes up in a panic that night because of a “bad funny dream,” Sara knows exactly what it means: her daughter is visiting the boy’s dreams. Complicating matters is the fact that the boy’s father is a Congressman, and he’s dreaming about a “scary man in a big black car” threatening his Daddy. 

Unraveling a case of political corruption and blackmail would be hard enough for Sara under the best of circumstances. But when she has to view everything through the eyes of a toddler, it may be an impossible task.

Clearing her name is her first challenge, but that’s nothing compared to the task of rebuilding her shattered psyche. And the only way she can do that is with the help of the supernatural dreams, the same dreams that have nearly cost Sara her sanity – and almost got her killed – in the past.

The woman in red keeps appearing in the dreams of Sara’s husband and his co-workers. Sara doesn’t know if this mystery woman is trying to steal her husband, drive him mad or something even worse. All she does know is that now she has something she never imagined: a nemesis. And the only thing more dangerous than a nemesis who shares her ability to step into other people’s dreams, is one who knows far more about that ability and how to control it than Sara does.

One of her old classmates is becoming more frantic with every passing night. Sara can’t see his face, but she can see everything else in his dreams, and he’s coming closer and closer to committing a desperate act to try and save his business. Sara’s the only one who can save him, and his family – if she can figure out who he is and what he’s planning in time.

For another, she’s visiting the dreams of an old man who’s seeing nightly visions of a storm that will wipe out the entire town. He’s convinced that the visions are true – and as winter closes in, Sara is starting to think he might be right.

On a family vacation to Paris, Sara’s fifteen-year-old daughter Grace disappears without a trace. The only way to find her is through Sara’s dreams. But her gift has taken an unwanted vacation, and without it, Sara has no idea how to rescue Grace. In a foreign city, with no clues, and her dreaming talent failing her for the first time, Sara must figure out another way to find Grace before it’s too late.

After two months of questions, Sara has attracted the attention of powerful people who don’t want their secrets uncovered, and will go to any lengths to make sure they stay hidden. 

Now, time is running out for Sara to unravel the mystery before anyone else falls victim to the illness. And before her career, her family and her freedom are taken from her by enemies she doesn’t even know she has.

Now, instead of planning her daughter’s wedding, Sara must fight to save her son’s life. And when she discovers who the drunk driver was – someone she thought was a colleague and a friend – she has to fight her desire for revenge. Because Sara knows she has the power to visit the driver’s dreams, and in those dreams, she holds the power of life and death. 

Readers of the Dream Doctor Mysteries know that Sara and her family have a very busy life outside the pages of the ten Dream Doctor Mysteries, and here’s your chance to peek into it.

Twelve stories are included in this collection, and you’ll discover what happened on Sara’s final Spring Break of college; Lizzie’s first day of school; Betty and Howard’s first trip out of the country; and much more!

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 Series was born.

I imagine most authors picture their books being bought by Hollywood and turned into a movie or a TV
series, and daydream about which actors would play their characters. I certainly do, and I’ve got some
very clear ideas about who I’d cast if it were left to me.
Keep in mind a couple of things as you read on. First, the initial book of the series was written in 2012,
so that influences my choices. Second, the books cover 25 years in the life of Sara and her family and
friends, so I tried to pick actors who could play both the college-age versions of the characters we meet
in the prequel novel, DREAM STUDENT, and also the more mature, adult versions we see in the later
books of the series.
For Sara Barnes (later Alderson), the heroine of the series, and a woman who leads a double life – she’s
both a medical doctor (well, by the time we get to the second book, anyway), and also a “psychic
detective” (her brother’s description, which she hates) who solves the mysteries she sees when visiting
other people’s dreams, I think that Danielle Panabaker would be the ideal choice. Danielle stars on The
Flash as Dr. Caitlin Snow, so she can obviously play both a scientist, and also someone surrounded by
weirdness.

For her boyfriend (later husband) Brian, I picked Grant Gustin, who plays Barry Allen/The Flash on The
Flash. He plays a great combination of heroic, earnest and goofy that suits Brian’s character perfectly.

Sara’s best friend, Beth, is funny, compassionate, outgoing and sexy, and I went back to the superhero
world of the CW to cast her. Emily Bett Rickards, who plays Felicity on Arrow, would be perfect.

Sara’s parents, Betty and Howard, were easy to cast, although at first glance it might seem odd that I
chose British actors to play Betty. But all good British actors are masters of accents and can sound
American without much trouble (the reverse, as we all know, is not always true!), so I’m not worried
about that. Nicola Bryant of Doctor Who fame is the perfect Betty (and she actually narrated the short
story Betty & Howard’s Excellent Adventure for Audible!), while I again tapped the cast of The Flash for
Howard. Tom Cavanaugh seems like a great choice, doesn’t he?

There’s one other character I should mention, and it took me until the third book of the series to realize
I’d been unconsciously modeling her on this actress all along. The character is Helen Alderson, Sara’s
mother-in-law, and the actress is Kelly Bishop, who today is probably best known for playing Emily
Gilmore in Gilmore Girls.
So there you have it! If you’ve read any of the books, please feel free to suggest alternate ideas if you
think other actors might be a better fit for any of the roles in the series!

From Dream Student (book 0 prequel) – Sara realizes her dreams are real
I glance at the front page, and then I look again. There’s a photo there. I grab the paper out of his
hands, completely ignoring his protest, and I look closely at it.
I’ve seen her before.
No.
No. It can’t be. It’s not possible. The girl in the picture looks exactly like the girl in my dreams. It’s not
possible, except that I’m seeing it with my own eyes. I start reading the story. “Seventeen-year-old
Amelia Morgan–high school senior–found murdered–body discovered on Old Tree Road…” No, no, no.
I read it again, and the words don’t change. Of course they don’t.
No.
Yes.
I just start wailing, shouting nonsense. I’m standing in the middle of the room screaming my head off.
Ray comes out to me, puts his hand on my shoulder, starts to tell me to calm down and I push him away,
shove the newspaper in his face. “It’s her! It’s her! It’s her, and she’s dead!”
She’s dead, she’s dead. She’s dead and I saw it and she’s dead and–and–that’s all I know. She’s dead
and I saw it and it’s all real and–and what?
I don’t know, so I keep on screaming.

In the middle of a pursuit, it’s easy not to think about what I’m chasing. Remembering it, reminding
myself how it all works and why, connecting all the dots that add up to a picture of a society that needs
someone to do what I do—that’s the hard part. That comes later. Right now, I am focused. I need to be
as inescapable as the harsh realities that put me here. I’ve followed the busboy since he left the
restaurant, first from a distance on my quickbike, then another three blocks on foot, into this crumbling,

stripped-bare tenement in the Dust Pit. He’s glanced back at me twice. He sees me, sees my blue-and-
black Collections Agent uniform. I’m closing in on him as he enters the stairwell, and the tension is

palpable in his stiff, quick pace, in the sweat stains on his white shirt, in how tightly he’s gripping the to-
go bag he’s carrying. So far he’s been smart enough not to break into a run. I should have stopped him

sooner, but I wanted to see where he was going. He’s gone far enough.
Peeking into the stairwell, I don’t see an ambush, just the busboy’s feet hitting the stairs fast and light. I
bolt after him.
By the sixth floor I’m closing in. At the seventh, he throws open the door for the hallway. And then I’m on
him.
I lean a shoulder in and hammer him into the wall. He deflates and falls in a crumple, but he’s still
clutching the to-go bag, trying to keep it and its precious contents away from me as he struggles to
squirm free. I hit him with a deliberate but hard right elbow to the nose. There’s a crack, and his nostrils
are smeared with blood.
The fight goes out of him. I whip a zip-cuff out of a pouch on my belt, slip one end over his wrist and the
other over the door handle, and pull them tight.
Suddenly he’s not a fleeing criminal any longer, just another poor, malnourished kid who took a bad risk.
Rising to my feet, I snatch the to-go bag away, open it up, and look inside. Just what I expected. The
restaurant’s manager was right. The busboy was stealing.
Inside the bag are little gray bones. Probably from chickens, or maybe ducks.
Money.