Betty & Howard's Excellent Adventure (A Dream Doctor Mysteries story)

By J.J. DiBenedetto

A Christmas gift for fans of the Dream Doctor Mysteries...

Just in time for the holidays - spend your vacation with Betty and Howard Barnes as they go on a "dream" European trip.

You'll see a whole new side to two of the unsung heroes of the Dream Series in this fun and lighthearted romantic adventure...

Other Books By JJ Dibenedetto:
The Dream Doctor Mysteries (all ten books!)

Betty and Howard's Excellent Adventure

The Jane Barnaby Adventures (all three books to date!)

Mr. Smith and the Roach (coming soon!)

Finding Dori (Welcome to Romance)

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.J. DiBenedetto
• Release date: Oct 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311345240

Book preview

Betty and Howard’s Excellent Adventure

(a Dream Series escapade)

by J.J. DiBenedetto

Also from the author

Dream Student

Dream Doctor

Dream Child

Dream Family

Waking Dream

Text Copyright © 2013 James J. DiBenedetto

Published by James J. DiBenedetto at Smashwords

All Rights Reserved

This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

Author’s Note

First things first: thank you for picking this story up! I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Second: usually a story should stand on its own, but I think this one requires a little bit of explanation, depending on how you came across it. If you’ve already read any of the Dream Series novels, then you don’t really need much explanation. You know all about Betty and Howard Barnes already. The only thing that you need to know here is that this story takes place in December, 2000, at the same time as the first three chapters of Waking Dream.

If you haven’t read any of those books, then let me give you a quick introduction. The Dream Series is all about Sara Barnes, who we meet in her first novel, Dream Student, in the winter of 1989 when she’s a junior in college. Sara’s pretty ordinary…until she discovers she can step into other people’s dreams. This newfound talent helps her meet her boyfriend (and later husband, as the series goes on), but it also causes her no end of difficulty and nearly gets her killed more than once.

Over the course of the books (there are five so far), we meet Betty and Howard Barnes – Sara’s parents. In the third book, Dream Child, Betty discovers that she, too, can step into other people’s dreams. And in the most recent book, Waking Dream, we learn that Betty and Howard are missing the usual family Christmas because they’ve gone on a trip to Europe.

And the story of that trip is what you’re holding in your hands right now. I wanted to write this for a couple of reasons. First, Betty and Howard are two of my favorite characters in the series, and they deserved some time in the spotlight. Second, it gave me a chance – for the first time in the whole series – to give readers a perspective other than Sara’s.

So, there you have it. Thank you for coming on this trip - I hope you like this glimpse into Betty and Howard’s lives, and into Betty’s thoughts!

This story is dedicated to everyone who’s supported or encouraged or helped me in my writing journey. You know who you are, and I definitely know who you are!

Dear Kat,

I know when I get home, you’re going to want to hear every detail of our trip. And I don’t want to let my best friend down, but the memory isn’t quite what it used to be. So I’m going to do something I haven’t done since – I don’t even remember when. Maybe high school? See what I mean about memory?

What was I saying? Funny, right? Anyway, I’m going to just add to this letter every day, like the diary I used to keep whenever it was that I kept one. Right now, we’re somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.