The Earth Dwellers is OUT and Another David Estes Interview!

It's that time again...
Yes, I do mean another Dwellers book by David Estes!
And what else does that mean? INTERVIEW!

But I first want to take a little mosey down memory lane.  If you've never had the chance to mosey before, what on earth is stopping you?

Dark Obsession has had the priviledge of hosting David Estes numerous times.  Seriously, I think he holds the record for most appearances on this blog!  Hmm... maybe that deserves an award or something?

But let's take that moment to stop and 'smell the roses'...

See, now wasn't that fun?  Of coarse it was!
To find out more about David, and the Dwellers Series, 
be sure to visit the Moon Dwellers Birthday Bash!

Who wants a FREE eBook copy of Fire County?  

Or to enter the GIVEAWAY?

Then be sure to check out the

 Earth Dwellers Release Day Blitz 

for details! 

David, we've learned so much about you... the color of your toothbrush (back in June), what YOU would do for a Klondike bar, why the chicken crossed the road... it's hard to come up with something new and amazing to ask you.  Well, here goes nothing...

Now that you've finished The Country Saga and The Dwellers series, are you going to continue in the dystopian genre or try your hand at a different one?

Ha! Yes, you and your members have learned all kinds of crazy stuff because of your random and off-the-wall (but very fun and interesting!) questions. It’s been awesome being interviewed on your blog so much, and I’m so happy to be back again!

Great first question! The answer is yes…and no. How’s that for wishy washy? Let me explain. I love dystopian books, both reading and writing them. And it wasn’t until I wrote my first YA dystopian novel that I was able to start writing full time. So dystopian novels will always be my favorite genre to write in, and I can’t just stop doing what I love. All that being said, my next series will ONCE AGAIN be dystopian. *cheers and whistles* However, it will also mix in a whole lot of paranormal/fantasy, so it won’t be your standard Sci-Fi evil government dystopian. It will have a ton of imagination in the characters and plot and I hope my readers will enjoy the way I’m combining multiple genres in one book.

I know I usually wait for the funky questions... but I have to keep you on your toes, right? 

If you had a movie made of your (to date) life story, what would the title be?

Ha! As if! IF, and that’s a big IF, someone ever made a movie about my life so far, I think it’d be called Broken Road. For one, Adele’s and my wedding song was God Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts, and it always makes me cry. And two, it really is true that my road to becoming a full time author has been full of potholes and wrong turns and fallen trees. But in the end, that road was always leading me to Adele and to being a writer.

If the TV remote (or any items with buttons) isn't working the first time, do you press harder in hopes that it will work?

Hahahaha! No matter how prepared I think I am for your unexpected questions, you always surprise me! Yes! Absolutely. And I try to point the device at whatever it’s meant to be controlling, in hopes that will help create a better connection.

What is the hardest thing about writing sequels?

The fear of letting your readers down. Everyone talks about “the sequel slump,” which basically means that the sequel doesn’t live up to people’s expectations after the first book in the series. It happens all the time, and readers are really surprised and happy when the sequel is actually better than the first book. For me, a good example is Under the Never Sky. For me, the first book was just okay, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d read the sequel. But then, to my surprise, some people I trusted said the sequel was better. I was skeptical, but I gave it a try, and WOW! What an awesome sequel and the third might prove to be the best book in the series.

Why do I tell this story? Because although I want all my books to be awesome, I also think series should get better as they go. You have longer to develop your characters, to formulate your plot twists, to build the world…so why shouldn’t it get better? Plus, in my case, I’ve been improving as a writer with each book, so I really hope readers can see the improvement from book to book.

Do you know how to do the Macarena? What about the Electric Slide?

Wellllll, I can Macarena reasonably well for a six-foot-three guy with gangly arms and legs and two left feet. It’s a fairly straightforward dance and once I get going, I can’t really stop. The Electric Slide not so much though. I have my limits!

This might be too much information, but I much prefer the shopping cart, the lawn mower, or the sprinkler. And if my wife’s across the room from me, I’ll definitely try to hook her with the good ol’ fishing dance.

And this really might be too much information, but Adele made up a dance called the sideways dance, which is simple and really fun, especially when you get multiple people doing it at once. Basically you just gallop sideways for maybe five or six hops and then turn and gallop back. We had a little house party at her cousin’s once, and we had the two of us, her cousin and her husband, and their two kids going all at once, every other person going in different directions, and it was way fun.

What is one of your favorite fan mail stories?

Hmm toughie! I get a fair amount of fan mail, and quite a bit from other aspiring authors. But one of my favorites was from a teacher in California who said that he and his students (as part of a reading program) had stumbled upon my books because they were getting good reviews and they were reasonably priced, and they were really enjoying the Dwellers/Country Saga. So much so that he was able to use part of his yearly budget to buy a whole bunch of paperbacks of the series. That was a really big WOW moment for me, as not only did it mean that my books were getting into the hands of teenagers, but that teenagers were reading! That’s huge for me. In this world of gadgets and video, my biggest fear is that the new generations stop reading. It’s amazing to hear that the opposite is happening and that the written word is only getting stronger. It was also incredible to be recognized and appreciated by an educator, as I value what they do for kids more than almost anything.

Did you have imaginary friends growing up?

Oh. My. Gosh. Where are these questions coming from? OK, I’m playing dumb. I get it, I really do. As anyone who’s read my book, Fire Country, knows, the main character, Siena, forms a strange and unexpected (and comedic) relationship with a cactus, who she names Perry. Over the course of the series, Perry has received a lot of attention from my readers and has formed his own fan group of sorts.

So back to the question: Surprisingly, I did NOT have imaginary friends growing up, but I sort of do now. When I met Adele, I also met a stuffed bear, appropriately named Teddy, who she’d had since she was a kid. Teddy very quickly became my arch nemesis, as he felt I was stealing Adele’s attention away. (Yes, I’m weird, thank you for recognizing that.) Anywayyyyy, Teddy is the inspiration for Perry. And before you ask, yes, Teddy is suing me for royalties from the sale of Fire Country.

What do you like most about writing YA?

Great question. I love writing (and reading) YA, because it can be so pure and simple one minute, and yet so gritty and complex the next. When you’re a teenager, life is so much less complicated in so many ways, and yet you still have a million complex feelings of hope, of fear, of triumph, of defeat, etc. Plus you’re experiencing so many more things for the first time that it makes life that much more exciting. Young people are interesting. Young people are stronger than anyone gives them credit for. Young people are the future. That’s what makes writing about them so awesome.

What was your first book (that sparked the love of reading), or if you cannot remember that, the last book you bought.

I can’t remember the first book my mother read to me (she read me a ton of books growing up), but it was probably one of the Berenstein (sorry about the spelling) Bear books. I quickly graduated to reading The Hardy Boys on my own, and after polishing off that series, I was hooked! At a very young age, I grabbed everything in the house, from my dad’s Agatha Christie collection, to my sister’s Babysitter’s Club books. I didn’t discriminate. As long as there were words, interesting characters, and exciting stories, I’d give it a shot. I won many a reading competition at school, by reading dozens more books than any of my fellow students. And then…

…I discovered The Lord of the Rings. Yeah, that was the series that REALLY sparked my love of reading. My old copies of The Hobbit and the three books that followed are so worn they look like antiques. I’ve read them all cover-to-cover more than a dozen times.

Wow! Well, once again, you’ve surprised me and given me so many awesome thought-inducing questions, Alana! Thanks for having me on your blog and I hope you’re members enjoyed the interview!! For those of your readers who are thinking about reading the combined Dwellers/Country Saga, I’d just like to clear up any confusion about the order they need to be read, as I’m getting lots of questions about it. You can read EITHER the Dwellers Saga OR the Country Saga first, doesn’t matter which. Although I wrote the Dwellers Saga first, the two series are completely separate in terms of characters, setting, and plot, up until the point where they combine at the end of the third book in each series. Then the 7^th and final book, The Earth Dwellers, smashes the two series together in an epic finish to a very long journey. I hope you all enjoy the ride as much as I have!!!

Have YOU read the Dwellers Series or Country Saga?  Don't miss out!

Highlights from my Reviews: 

The Moon Dwellers by David Estes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"My heart is alive again. Because I see her."

"I don't particulary like confrontation. Unfortunately, confrontation seems to like me" I laughed, I cried (well at least got misty-eyed), I said "NO!", I gasped... it really takes you, wraps you up into this strange new world, and sweeps you away into the story. I cannot recommend this enough!

The Star Dwellers by David Estes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

More twists and turns than a roller coaster, be sure to strap in your belt and return your tray to it's full upright position before beginning this book! Be sure, too, to fire up your brain and get ready for some cryptic clues to what the future holds. My crystal ball was a little too murky to make much out, but I'm keen to find out more secrets and continue the series!

And finally, my review of The Sun Dwellers!

The Sun Dwellers by David Estes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is, hands down, my favorite book of this series (that I've read thus far.) It was just so WOW. The right amount of angst and self-doubt to make the teenage mission so believable. There were brief moments of hormone driven passion, but there is only so much time for that when you're in the middle of a war and a soldier fighting for everything.

The sweet, sweet innocence juxtaposed with sharp pointy weapons. One minute, it's all daggers and bows, arrows and a gun... the next it's the naive worry of holding hands while you're sweating. There are moments, where the reality crashes around them, revealing with stark naked cruelty the extent of what they have signed up for. Everything is in the balance, resting on the shoulders of these young adults. No pressure, indeed.

It's really odd, but I swear the further they journey into the Sun realm (the 'brightest' of all the realms) the darker the story seems to get. I've so eager to see where it further leads... I cannot gush enough. Really, this book raises the entire series to a 5 star series for me!

I received a free eBook in exchange for an unbiased review. I have received no compensation for my thoughts.

I give The Dwellers Series a rating of: