My Story, My Way ~ An Indie Adventure: Take Five And Meet Author J.J. DiBenedetto

Welcome to An Indie Adventure, J.J. Tell us, what inspired you to write your book Mr. Smith and the Roach?

The book actually started out as a joke. A friend had a TV/pop culture podcast, and they were throwing out ridiculous titles for TV shows that would never be made, and one of them was “Mr. Smith and the Roach.” Being the oddball that I am, I came up with characters and a setting and a plot for what that might be. It became a “buddy cop” story between a retired New York detective and his new roommate, a six-foot-tall talking cockroach named Sam.

Then it sat for several years until I finally decided earlier this year to turn it into a novel, and now it’s published!

How do you use setting to further your story?

The setting goes hand-in-hand with the story. It contributes to the mood and the feel of the book. Mr. Smith and the Roach is totally a New York City tale – it really couldn’t take place anywhere else. And the specific setting of the Westview Apartments (the building Mr. Smith lives in) also contributes. It’s a rent-controlled apartment building with a very eclectic mix of residents, some of whom have a big part in the story, and some of whom provide a little extra flavor to things.

How is your main character completely different than you?

Mr. Smith is different from me in just about every way. He’s a somewhat hard-boiled retired cop, and he’s seen a lot of very nasty things in his career, which I obviously haven’t at all. At the same time, he’s a lot more open-minded than I am in some ways – I’m not sure I’d be welcoming of a six-foot-tall cockroach in my spare bedroom, but Mr. Smith just takes that in stride.

You’re having a dinner party. What character from your novel do you hope doesn’t show up? Why?

There are a couple of people in the book that I’d really rather not have show up at my door. One of them is only mentioned (but he’ll have a much larger role in book 2), so I’ll skip him and say Peter Franks. Would YOU want a con artist who stole money from retired police officers and then faked his own death at your dinner party? I didn’t think so!

How do you create internal and external conflict in your characters? I find conflict often the hardest to create when I start planning a book.

One thing I do is to try and work out the backstory and history of my characters so that they’ve already got conflicts built in before we even meet them. We learn right away that Mr. Smith, for example, has some very complicated relationships with his old police colleagues, and also with a close friend who was on the other side of the law and has a very dark past. So that sets up lots of possible conflicts before I even get into the main plot of the book.

When you’re brainstorming for a new story, what usually comes first for you, the plot or the characters?

It’s always the characters. With several of my books, I didn’t really figure out what the main plot actually was until fifty pages in.

With this book, the characters and the plot came at the same time, though. The idea of Mr. Smith sharing his apartment with a giant cockroach obviously implied that he had some need for a roommate, and I knew right away that his money troubles and the Roach’s story would be connected. I didn’t know all the details, but the general idea was there.

Give us a brief summary of Mr. Smith and the Roach:

John Smith is a retired New York City homicide detective. When he discovers that his pension has been wiped out, he’s forced to take on a roommate to help make ends meet.

Sam is a six-foot-tall talking cockroach who rents out John’s spare room while trying to discover his own past.

Working together, they discover that John’s pension, Sam’s origin, and the death of John’s old partner at the NYPD are all connected, and they’re drawn into an unbelievable mystery.

Buy:

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Bio:

J.J. DiBenedetto is the author of the Dream Doctor Mysteries, the Jane Barnaby Adventures, two Welcome to Romance novellas, and other works.

He lives in Arlington, Virginia with his lovely wife and Danny, a white cat who’s trained them both. He’s originally from Yonkers, New York. He loves the New York Giants, fondue, photography, travel, the opera and he’s a huge science-fiction and fantasy geek.