The Dream Doctor Mysteries Book Tour, Guest Post, and Giveaway

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.