A Day in the Life of Perry the Prickler by Perry the Prickler

Originally posted on Sporadic Reads.

Some of you might be wondering who the scorch Perry the Prickler is, but I hope most of you are screaming, “I love you, Perry!” By the end, I hope I can add all of you to my growing list of fans across the world.

Before I get into a typical day in my life, I’ll explain who and what I am to those of you who are a bit slow and haven’t yet read Fire Country by David Estes. A prickler, which is what I am, is what most of you twenty-first century humans call a cactus. So yeah, I’m a cactus. Before you yell out “BORING!” and close this webpage, give me a chance to show you just how awesome I really am. (And if that’s not enough incentive to keep reading, if you don’t read the whole way through I’ll jab you with my prickly barbs. And your friends, too!)

More specifically, I’m a cactus in a place called FireCountry, a rough land of desert sands and barren cliffs, where the few survivors are either built for the hot-as-scorch climate (like me!) or learn to survive over the course of many years, like a few of the human tribes that live here.

You’re probably still thinking that my life as a cactus in the desert would be boring, right? I mean, I’ve got no way of moving around because my legs are stuck in the sand, I have no one to talk to except the buzzards and crows—who like to use me for bathroom target practice—and I have very few friends. Trust me, my life is anything but boring. So let me tell you the story of what happened today…

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…wait, wrong story, let me try that again. Once upon a time…no, no, no, stupid, Perry! Bad, Perry! Maybe I haven’t given David Estes enough credit for how hard it is to write stories. But I can’t let him show me up or I’ll never hear the end of it. I’ll tell this story if it kills me. So here we go:

I didn’t wake up when the Sun Goddess peeked over the horizon because I was already awake. In fact, I’m always awake, because most pricklers are notorious insomniacs. There’s just too much to see in the world and I’d hate to miss something because of a long nap! In any case, the night had been cool and calm. A burrow mouse or two had crept past me, sniffling at my skin, but I’d jabbed them with my prickly barbs and they’d scurried away. Don’t let the sandstorm hit you on the way out, suckers! I’d yelled.

As the sun rose higher across the red sky, I leaned back, basking in its warmth on my face. The gentle breeze swayed my arms from side to side and I felt my juice production increase inside my thick skin. (Side note: if anyone wants to come by for a visit, I’ll give you a sip of my fire juice in exchange for a back scratch.)

That’s when it happened. A strange-looking (aren’t all humans strange-looking?) girl ran toward me carrying something bulky in her arms, screaming bloody murder, as if she had a pack of Cotees after her. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Cotees are the mangiest mutts around, the lowliest of low canines, too small and weak to be dangerous on their own, but absolutely deadly in a pack. As it turns out, this particular human did have a pack of Cotees on her tail. There were five of them and they were drooling something fierce, just itching to sink their teeth into her sun-browned flesh.

“Perry!” she shouted, which is when I realized I knew this particular human. I didn’t like her that much, but I would call her a friend. Siena. A skinny girl who always seemed to get herself into plenty of trouble. Like now, for instance. She’d run into me—to her detriment—on more than one occasion, but now it was clear she was scorch-bent on using me as a barrier between her and the Cotees.

Heya, Skinny, I said in her head. What can I do ya for?

“Shut yer searin’ mouth, Perry, and git outta the way!” she shouted, her long strides carrying her closer. Her knees knocked together and she almost went down, but just managed to keep her balance while clutching the large, awkward object to her chest.

I didn’t respond, because she knows searin’ well that I couldn’t “git outta the way,” as she put it, even if I’d wanted to, which I didn’t. So I said nothing, just did my best to look menacing as I chanted, Die Cotees, DIE!

Those stupid Cotees pulled up sharply, their filthy claws skidding in the dust, giving Siena enough time to duck behind me and drop what she was carrying. It was long and odd-shaped and wrapped in a thick tug-skin blanket.

What the scorch are you doing, Siena? I asked, and then shouted over to the mutts, COTEES! You’re trespassing on private property! Get going before I bury your butts in a fire ant hole!

“Ya think that’ll work, Perry?” Siena said, her hand touching my skin in between my prickly barbs.

Not a chance, I said, watching the Cotees look at each other, their tongues lolling out the side of their mouths. One of them seemed to shrug as if to say, It’s just a regular old prickler, even if it’s talking to us.

And then they charged.

Siena might do a lot of wooloo things—like trip over her own feet and run into sharp-barbed pricklers—but she can shoot her pointers like no other. As the Cotee pack came at us, she withdrew her bow and grabbed a pointer, nocking it like a pro. She shot the first pointer from a position just above my right arm, and it flew straight and true and slammed into the head of the lead Cotee, right between its eyes.

He yelped and flew back, crashing into one of the others while the remaining three kept a-comin’. Siena whipped out another pointer and strung it up and ziiiiiip! She nailed one in the chest, dropping it like a sack of ’zard meat.

The remaining two dogs were so close I could smell their foul breath, see the half-starved desperation in their blood-shot yellow eyes. Siena ducked around one way; they went the other, with me caught in the middle. They circled me two or three times, a game of Cotees and burrow mice, until the Cotees finally wised up and realized that splitting up was the best course of action. So one went one way and one the other, with Siena trapped between them.

So she shot one in the eye with her next pointer, jumped over its dead, bleeding corpse, and kept on hustling around me. By this point I was getting so dizzy from trying to watch all the action at once that I felt like lying down—but of course I couldn’t do that ’cause I was stuck firmly in the sand. I just wanted it to be over, because I was itching to know what was in that tug-skin blanket Siena hauled all the way across the desert.

Siena fumbled around, trying to get her next pointer out, but it was stuck in her satchel and that Cotee was picking up speed, determined to catch her, snarling and snapping its jaws. And, of course, Siena tripped.

She went down hard, all knees and elbows, reaching for me as if I could reach out and help her. The Cotees eyes grew huge and hungry and she was dead tugmeat—my only human friend was going to die.

No! I shouted, catching a bit of wind and leaning into it, forcing my sway as far as I’d ever let it go, to the point where my main trunk felt like it was cracking, like I might break in half and topple over—but I kept stretching even further, until I was so close to the Cotee I could feel his matted fur brushing up against my skin…

ARGH! I yelled, leaning even further, smashing myself into him, stabbing him with a hundred prickly barbs and knocking him off balance. He yelped and twisted to the side, missing Siena by the slightest of margins, his coat blooming with red spots of blood.

As I sprung back to my normal position I was praying to the Sun Goddess that I didn’t have any internal damage. Siena rolled away from the sprawled out Cotee and then leapt to her feet, finally managing to extract her pointer. The Cotee, looking more haggard by the second, scrambled to its feet and charged, its mouth open wide. Siena calmly strung her pointer, aimed it, and shot it.

Right into the Cotee’s mouth. The beast’s head snapped back and it did a full backflip, landing hard in the dust, which quickly formed a cloud around it.

And I let out a deep breath even though I don’t have lungs and don’t need to breathe. Do you always have to make a big entrance? I asked.

Siena, breathing heavily, laughed and said, “Only for you, Perry.”

That’s when I saw it—the last Cotee. Not the one she’d just shot, but the only one she didn’t—the one that had got knocked back by the first one she killed. It seemed we’d both completely forgotten about it, and now it was racing toward Siena from behind, while she was turned away from it.

Siena! I shouted. Somehow, someway, she seemed to understand exactly what was happening and ducked just as the Cotee sprung at her. The surprised mutt blew past her, its claws outstretched, just missing her…

…and flew right toward me.

In an act that Siena would later described as “Heroic” and “So like Perry,” I didn’t move even the tiniest bit. I stood there, stalwart and prepared to do what I had to do to save my friend, even if it would hurt me.

As it turned out, it didn’t hurt me in the least. The Cotee crashed into me, a thousand prickly barbs stabbing into its skin, its eyes widening, its jaws clamping shut, its body going limp. The Cotee got stuck to me, which was both exhilarating and disgusting in equal measure, its dead body hanging from my barbs.

“Yuck,” Siena said, and I hoped she was referring to the dead Cotee.

Carefully, so as to not break any of my barbs, she eased the Cotee carcass from my skin and placed it aside with the others. “We make a good team, Perry,” she said.

At least one of us does, I said, and she rolled her eyes because she thought I meant me. When really I meant her. It was my little secret and I laughed inwardly.

“I’ve got a surprise for you, old friend,” she said, returning to where her tug-skin blanket sat covered in dust.

For mwah? I said, genuinely surprised. No one’s ever given yours truly a gift. What is it?

She pulled out a shovel, which I thought was an odd gift, but then she started digging a hole next to me. What are you doing? I asked. She ignored me and kept digging.

I was about to check to make sure she wasn’t planning on burying the Cotees in that hole, when she said, “That’s plenty deep enough,” and threw down the shovel.

And then she did the most unbelievable thing.

Siena lifted that tug-skin blanket and gently picked up the most beautiful lady-prickler I’ve ever laid eyes on. She was a mesmerizing light-green color with delicate white flowers springing from the tips of each of her limbs. Tiny red-tipped barbs sprouted at evenly spaced intervals. And you know what?

Siena stuck the lady-prickler in that hole and filled in the gaps around her base.

Hi, Perry, the lady-prickler said, her voice as soothing as honeysuckle.

Uh…hi…uh…hiya, I said. Hiya? Really, Perry, that was the best you could come up with?

“Perry, meet Layla,” Siena said. “I met her a few weeks back and told her all ’bout you and she agreed to move so she could get to know you. Surprise.”

If I had a heart it’d have been hammering in my skin. Hi, Layla,” I said, loving the way her name rolled out of my consciousness, like it belonged there.

Hi, Perry, Layla said again. It’s so nice to meet you.

Uh, yeah…uh, you too. And Siena laughed because she’d never seen me so tongue-tied. I glared at her and she got the hint.

“I’ll leave you two to git to know each other,” she said. “Sorry ’bout the mess,” she added. “The buzzards’ll be ’ere soon to git it all cleaned up.”

As she turned to walk away, I said, Siena, and she stopped to look back. Thank you.

She smiled and winked and walked away, leaving me alone with Layla. I like your flowers, I said.

I like your smile, she said.

I hadn’t even realized I was smiling.

And as the Sun Goddess said her final goodbyes, casting beautiful shades of pink, orange and red across the sky, Layla and I talked and talked and talked, staying up all night, as most pricklers do.

So now, my friends, maybe you can appreciate a day in the life of a prickler in Fire Country. It’s not as boring as it sounds. Every day is a struggle of life versus death; but at the same time, every day is worth the struggle. We suffer, we fight, we laugh, and we love. But most of all, we live.

What Dystopia Means to Me

The following is included in the new YA Dystopian Boxed Set, called What Tomorrow May Bring, a collection of 11 awesome YA dystopian novels, including my book, The Moon Dwellers. Download it now for only $2.99 only on Kindle.


I love dystopian novels. And I don't just mean The Hunger Games and Divergent, although I love those ones, too. I've read dozens of dystopian novels and I never seem to get tired of them. For me, dystopian novels capture so much of what makes reading awesome. They explore social issues and imaginative futures that may be only decades, or even years, from coming to pass. They are dark and suspenseful and funny and interesting, and, most of the time, scary.

But what I love the most is that they almost always contain an element of hope. The characters, who are many times thrust into terrible situations, endure and persevere and usually accomplish what they set out to do, against challenging odds. Hope.

 

Do I think any of the themes in dystopian novels will actually come to pass? Absolutely. Hopefully not in my lifetime, or my children’s lifetimes, but bad things will happen and new heroes will have to rise to the forefront and meet the challenges of their day.

 

But for now, I’ll imagine my own futures and the heroes that live them, and do my best to entertain my readers with stories of hope. Starting with my first dystopian novel, The Moon Dwellers. For this series, I’ve created two different societies, one living underground (three books: The Moon Dwellers, The Star Dwellers, The Sun Dwellers), one living aboveground (three books: Fire Country, Ice Country, Water & Storm Country), which then come together in a final epic 7^th book, The Earth Dwellers, where the characters and plot lines smash into one story. I hope you enjoy the dystopian world I’ve created!

 

What Tomorrow May Bring, a YA Dystopian Boxed Set. Get 11 books for the price of 1!

Tomorrow becomes today. What will it bring?

Our potential for good is matched by that of destruction. At any moment, change can fall on the world, people fight and die, and our comfortable lives can be lost to corrupt leaders. These are circumstances we can’t imagine, but places like this exist in the world today.  What if tomorrow brings that grave reality to us, and we wake to find our lives in flux, poverty and confusion? Perhaps humanity’s insatiable appetites drive us to the brink of survival where sanity is redefined and life, as we know it, changes forever.  Tomorrow, our lives could be very dark.  Dystopian tales take us to these lightless places where suffering is a daily chore. But they also show us that in the deepest part of the night, pitched against a backdrop of despair, a beam of hope will shine brighter than ever before. And in our darkest moments, it can show us the way back. 

Released Today on Kindle

Follow 11 authors into 11 dystopian tomorrows, where the dark portions of our humanity have taken hold of today, where the fabric of society is torn and greed consumes us all. Follow us down a dark path. And find out what tomorrow may bring.

Open Minds, Susan Kaye Quinn The Moon Dwellers, David Estes Prison Nation, Jenni Merritt Daynight, Megan Thomason Stitch, Samantha Durante The Annihilation of Foreverland, Tony Bertauski The Girls from Alcyone, Cary Caffrey The Narrowing Path, David J. Normoyle The Rain, Joseph A. Turkot Virulent: The Release, Shelbi Wescott External Forces, Deborah Rix

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The Moon Dwellers is $0.99 from April 21-24!

My most popular YA dystopian novel, The Moon Dwellers, the first book in the Dwellers Saga, is ONLY $0.99 on Kindle and Nook from April 21-24!!  On those dates, you may download the ebook on Amazon and BarnesAndNoble.com for ONLY $0.99!  Take advantage of this chance by getting your copy today!

Download from Amazon HERE
Download from Nook HERE

I'm so honored that The Dwellers Saga was mentioned in a Buzzfeed article as one of "15 Books Series to Read If You Enjoyed The Hunger Games," along with many other well respected series:  The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth; Delirium by Lauren Oliver, The Gone Series by Michael Grant, along with others.  You can read about the books that make up the list HERE.
The Synopsis:
In a desperate attempt to escape destruction decades earlier, humankind was forced underground, into the depths of the earth, creating a new society called the Tri-Realms. 

After her parents and sister are abducted by the Enforcers, seventeen-year-old Adele, a member of the middle-class moon dwellers, is unjustly sentenced to life in prison for her parents' crimes of treason.

Against all odds, Adele must escape from the Pen and find her family, while being hunted by a deranged, killing machine named Rivet, who works for the President. She is helped by two other inmates, Tawni and Cole, each of whom have dark secrets that are better left undiscovered. Other than her friends, the only thing she has going for her is a wicked roundhouse kick and two fists that have been well-trained for combat by her father.

At the other end of the social spectrum is Tristan, the son of the President and a sun dweller. His mother is gone. He hates his father. Backed by only his servant and best friend, Roc, he leaves his lavish lifestyle in the Sun Realm, seeking to make something good out of his troubled life.

When a war breaks out within the Tri-Realms, Tristan is thrust into the middle of a conflict that seems to mysteriously follow Adele as she seeks to find her family and uncover her parents true past.

In their world, someone must die.

ENJOY!

I hope you all enjoy the Dwellers/Country Sagas, I poured my heart and soul into this 7-book young adult dystopian series, and I'm so glad it's complete so the entire story can be shared with you!

And if you enjoy my books, I'd really appreciate reviews on Amazon.com, they are so important to the success of my books, and allow me to do what I love for a living!

And please share the news with your friends on e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, and anywhere else you connect with people!

Thanks for all your INCREDIBLE support!!

2,000 Members in My Goodreads Fan Group GIVEAWAY!! Win gift cards and signed books!

My Goodreads fan group started out as a tiny idea of mine. I didn't want it to be entirely about me and my books; rather, I wanted it to be a special place where lovers of all kinds of young adult books (and books in general) could come to meet, make friends, and talk about books and anything else on their minds. I wanted it to be FUN.


Which is why I couldn't be happier to announce that my Goodreads fan group, David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite, which started with only me and my wife, Adele, as members, now has over 2,000 members! I'm shocked and excited and just feel so blessed to have met all the incredible and supportive members of our group over the last couple of years. The moderators are awesome, the members are awesome, and I can't wait to see what the future brings for the group.


So to celebrate this milestone, the group and the Estes Angels are hosting a HUGE giveaway! Use the Rafflecopter below to enter for a chance to win awesome prizes like:


-1 winner gets a $10 Amazon gift card (or book site of your choice)
-2 winners get signed copies of The Moon Dwellers (U.S. only)
-2 winners get signed copies of Fire Country (U.S. only)
-10 winners get their choice of 2 David Estes Ebooks


Good luck, thanks for all your support, and I hope to see you all hanging out on Goodreads!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fire Country Book Birthday! Win an Amazon Gift Card and Signed Books!

Today, Fire Country turns one year old! In the first year since Fire Country was born, so much has happened! I've signed with an agent, sold more than 10,000 books, written five more books and published a further three. I just had to celebrate and I'd love for you to be a part of it! I owe so much to my readers and the blogger community, and I want everyone to have the chance to be a part of the Fire Country Birthday Bash.

Everyone goes home a winner, simply follow the link below to download your FREE eCopy of Fire Country from Smashwords using the coupon code. Read and leave a review on Amazon if you enjoy it. Feel free to share the code with your friends, family, neighbors and literary inclined pets.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/280371

Coupon Code: WH62C

Expiration: March 1, 2014

What's a party without prizes? You could win an Amazon giftcard open internationally, U.S residents can win a signed copy of the David Estes book of your choice, or a handful of David Estes eBooks of your choice. Awesome.

Visit David via his Blog • Facebook • Twitter and via Goodreads

Pay Perry the Prickler a visit on Twitter and Goodreads

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SIGNED paperbacks for sale (with virtual signing video)!

After over a year since the last sale, I'm once more offering SIGNED paperbacks of ALL my books (U.S. and Canada only). Sorry about the delay and thanks to everyone who messaged me to ask about purchasing them :) All orders will also receive a virtual signing video of me signing one of your books.

All orders must be in and paid for by February 28th in order for the books to be printed and shipped. Orders can be made via FB message, Twitter message, Goodreads message, or e-mail to davidestesbooks(at)gmail(dot)com. Include which books you are ordering, the quantity of each if more than 1, the shipping name and address, and who the signed book(s) should be made out to. I'll confirm the payment amount which can be made via Paypal. The prices are as follows:

Young-Adult Books: U.S.- $15 per book  Canada- $22 per book
Children's Books: U.S.- $10 per book  Canada- $15 per book
*Note: orders of 3 or more books receive a 10% discount.

The signed books available for purchase are:

Young Adult Books:
The Moon Dwellers
The Star Dwellers
The Sun Dwellers
The Earth Dwellers
Fire Country
Ice Country
Water & Storm Country
Angel Evolution
Demon Evolution
Archangel Evolution

Children's Books:
Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born
Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council
Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers
Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure

Thanks for all your support!

Indie Author Advice Series #7- Do all people sound the same?

Originally posted on Gliterary Girl.


Do all people sound the same?

That’s a stupid question, right? Of course they don’t. In real life everyone is different, everyone has their little nuances, ways of speaking, and unique mannerisms. That’s what makes life interesting and fun. If everyone sounded the same, we’d all die of boredom. There are funny people, serious people, angry people, kind people, and every combination of those qualities and a million other qualities.

Well, the same goes for books, and if you haven’t already guessed what topic I'm writing about today, it’s voice. If you’re like me and are obsessed with the myriad talent competitions that are out there, the first thing you might think of is The Voice, an entertaining singing competition with talent coaches Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Ceelo Green, Christina Aguilera, and Blake Shelton. Although that’s not the “voice” I’m here to talk about, it’s actually a good example. Each of the four coaches on The Voice has a very different voice. (And I don’t mean that Blake’s voice is deeper than Christina’s!) Blake’s the comedian, constantly cracking jokes. Adam’s more serious, although he’s sort of Blake’s witty counterpunch. Christina is all business, ruthless when it comes to winning over the hearts’ of the contestants she wants on her team. Ceelo is the poetic low-key coach. They’re all VERY different.

That’s exactly the way characters in books should be. Easy, right? NOOOOOOO! Differentiating your characters’ voices is EXCEPTIONALLY HARD. If it was easy, everyone would be a bestseller, as voice is one of a handful of challenges that an author has to master in order to write a good book.

So how have I done as a writer when it comes to voice? Let’s just say, I’m working hard at it and improving with every book. Have I mastered it? Not by a longshot, but I won’t give up until I do. Many critics of my earlier works, the Evolution Trilogy, said some of the characters sounded too similar, that they didn’t have their own personalities. That’s a failure on my part. Even my most popular book, The Moon Dwellers, has received mixed reviews in terms of voice. Some reviewers think my two main characters, Adele and Tristan, are as different as night and day. Others think they’re too similar. I knew I still had work to do. It wasn’t until my 7^th YA book that I got it right. Siena from Fire Country is a strong voice, and regardless of whether the reviewer liked the book or not, they all agreed on that. So yes, even an author of 14 books has to work hard to get character voice right!

You might be asking yourself, “How do I know if I’ve done a good job on character voice?” I’ve read a number of books and articles on the subject, and they all agree that dialogue is exceptionally important. A good test is whether you can tell which quotes are from which characters when you remove the dialogue tags. Do the words they’re speaking ring true for that particular character? If not, you have to change them. Is a character with a hot temper being far too easy going? Is a flamboyant character being boring and uninteresting? Is your hero acting anything but brave? If so, you’ve got a problem.

After the dialogue, you have to tackle the inner thoughts of each character for which you have a point of view for. Are each character’s thoughts true to their voice? Do they sound too much like each other, or are they unique? A feisty character’s thoughts should match her dialogue and actions. She should be feisty inside and out. Obviously, there are exceptions, when a character is undergoing inner turmoil and trying to hide it on the outside, but for the most part these things should match.

A little trick I’ve learned is to read my books out loud during the revision stage. Use different voices for the characters, exactly the way you envision them to sound. Do the words match the voice and personality you’re trying to convey? If not, change them.

Another trick if you’re writing from multiple points of view is to write from only one point of view per day, rather than jumping around. If you jump from viewpoint to viewpoint, there’s a greater chance that your mind will still be stuck in another character’s head when you’re meant to be writing from your new character’s head. I might write three chapters from one character’s point of view on Monday, and then do three chapters from another character’s point of view on Tuesday. If the story is alternating chapters, I’ll then go back and slot the chapters accordingly.

A final trick I use is to list out the personality traits I want each of my main characters and key supporting characters to have. When I’m writing each character, I keep these traits in the back of my mind, or refer to my list from time to time. If those personality traits aren’t coming through, then I need to add dialogue or inner thoughts to fix it. If different personality traits are coming through (that aren’t on my lists), I need to remove those lines.

If I haven’t belabored the point enough, think of writing like acting. The best actors and actresses appear as characters in different movies and become completely different people. As a writer, you have to do the same thing, except all within THE SAME MOVIE. That’s why it’s so hard. Get in your characters’ heads and become them while you’re writing about them. Tell their stories the way they want you to tell them. Practice, practice, practice!

I hope this helps! Writers are all in this together, and we’re all learning and growing and trying to become the best writers we can be. I highly advise reading other books (by authors far more talented than me) on writing, which include commentary and advice on mastering character voice. Some books I’d recommend are: On Writing, by Stephen King, and Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass.

Flashes of Humanity

Originally posted on JuliaBabyJen's Reading Room

When I started seriously writing about three years ago, I NEVER (like in a million-zillion years) thought I’d be doing it full time at this point, with 14 published YA and Children’s novels and more than 1.2 million words written. Never. And I certainly wouldn’t have believed you if you’d told me that my wife and I would be 15 months into a two year trip around the world that would take us to six continents and more than a dozen countries, all while continuing to write and publish my books to a rapidly-growing worldwide ebook market. Seriously, I still slap myself sometimes and thank the Kindle gods for their merciful ways.

But none of that is what I want to talk about today. All of that is awesome and life-changing and a complete and utter dream come true, but it’s not what matters the most. What truly matters is what I take away from the experience, what I learn, and how I grow as a human being. There will always be more words to be written, more publishing deadlines to hit, and more promotions to organize, but sometimes you have to stop, take a deep breath, and just watch the world around you. Otherwise life might just whip by on its Harley, wearing a black bandanna and a leather Angels jacket, knock your hat off, and send curls of dust around you while it speeds off into the distance.

What do you see if you stop and observe? Do you see wars? The threat of nukes from cruel dictators? Global warming and melting polar ice caps and overpopulation? Rapes and murders and babies left in cars and financial fraud? It can be a bleak and hopeless world sometimes, and I must admit, many of the terrible events that dominant most of the news airtime most certainly provides me with inspiration for my dystopian novels…

…HOWEVER…

…my novels also contain a LARGE MEASURE OF HOPE in them, and that’s not me being an eternal optimist or a glass-half-full kind of a guy. That’s me being real, because hope is real and hope is evident in even the worst situations. And the hope comes from real people. Good people. And that, my friends, leads me to the single most important thing I’ve learned from everything I’ve experienced in the last three years: There are flashes of humanity all around us; we just have to look for them.

Some are big flashes, like when there’s a major catastrophe and people from all over the world come together to pitch in, to roll up their sleeves, to donate their much-needed money, TO HELP OTHER PEOPLE. That’s a BIG flash of humanity.

But most others are smaller, like when you see someone on a packed-like-sardines bus give up their seat for a pregnant lady or an elderly man with a cane. That’s a tiny flash of humanity, barely a blip on the radar, but SO MEANINGFUL. And when you pack those tiny flashes all together, they too become something BIG, something WORTH WRITING ABOUT.

I’ve seen so many flashes in the last three years that my glass half full is now overflowing, pouring over the edges and pooling around its stem. Today I want to share just a few of my favorite flashes of humanity:

1) FLASH! Christmas Eve, Merida, Mexico. Adele and I were staying with a Spanish family, planning on spending our Christmas Eve away from home eating cheap takeaway. But no, our host insisted that we join her and her family for a proper Christmas meal. She was the only one in the family that spoke English (her young daughter was learning and her father didn’t), but I swear to you, we laughed more that night than ever before, and most of the time it was at a joke that her father made. Using gestures and context as a guide, we were cracking up well before the translated punch line. On that night, we were their family, too, having only met them a few days earlier.

2) FLASH! Winter in Mexico, 80 degrees Fahrenheit. For just a moment, try to forget about the drug cartels and the gangs and all the other awful things you hear on the news about Mexico. Yeah, that stuff happens and yes, it deserves attention and concern. But that’s not Mexico. Not really. Mexico is families. Ginormous families and extended families who CHOOSE to spend their free time with each other, doing simple things like playing soccer in a dusty field using goals with no nets or having a basic lunch of beans and tortillas on the beach. Family is everything, and despite living in conditions that many of us would consider on the border of impoverished, the people ARE HAPPY. I learned a lot from the people of Mexico.

3) FLASH! Springtime in St. Lucia. On a touristy island that has constant cruise ships coming into port, some of the locals want to take advantage, just like in many other tourist destinations around the world. Everyone’s selling something, and if you want to take a photo of a local doing something “cultural”, you can expect them to ask for a small tip in return. Fair enough. Such was our surprise when we were walking down a long hill one day, only to happen upon a local man juggling a soccer ball using every part of his body but his hands. He was smiling, laughing, having a great time doing it, and he was very talented. “Take a photo!” he exclaimed when he saw us out of the corner of his eye. We were wary at first, because we’d been offered photo ops before, only to be harassed for “donations” afterwards, but soon it became obvious that this man wanted us to take his photo simply because he was proud of what he was able to do with that soccer ball. Adele snapped several photos, which we’ll cherish for years to come. And that man just kept juggling that soccer ball, probably long after we’d finished our trek down the hill.

4) FLASH! Moroccan desert storm! Morocco is a magical place that feels like you’re stepping back in time. From huge cities with cars, scooters and donkeys narrowly passing each other on thin cobblestone medina streets, to beautiful mountain villages, to seaside towns, to desert oases, Morocco has a bit of everything. Staying in Merzouga, Morocco, we decided to venture from our riad just outside of the village into town to have a peek around. We took some photos of camels, bought a bus ticket, and then had a long chat with a man in Arabic (Adele did the talking since she knows the language), when billowing dark clouds rolled in overhead, rumbling like they had a bad case of indigestion. We thought we had time to make the fifteen minute walk back to our riad. We were wrong. Caught in no-man’s-land (basically a cracked-earth desert tundra), the dust began swirling around us, getting in our eyes, covering our clothes, whipped into a frenzy by heavy winds. Thunder crashed, lightning flashed. The rain came seconds later and we started to run. We never had a chance. It was a torrential downpour and the conditions were dangerous to say the least. A truck passed us, stopped, and rolled down the window. The cab was full but clearly they were willing to let us jump in the truck bed, but then another car pulled up, one with a backseat. They motioned frantically for us to get in, which we did. They were hotel workers, wearing traditional garb, and we thought they were from our riad because their uniforms looked identical. Turns out they worked in a different riad and were cousins of the ones who owned our riad. They drove us all the way home and refused to offer payment for the gesture.

5) FLASH! Lake Peipsi, Estonia (Kallaste). We attended a wedding of two close friends, a Chinese girl and an Estonian guy, who we’d met in Australia. Upon arrival, the groom’s family invited us to their home. The groom’s father was a fisherman and offered us smoked fish caught earlier that day. BEST FISH EVER! For the whole four days, they invited us to everything, treating us like part of their family, only having just met us. It was enough that we were their son’s friends. Two barbecues, lots of smoked fish, a rousing game of soccer with—I swear to you—every single boy and guy in the town, ages six to sixty. I couldn’t speak a word of Estonian or Russian, but it didn’t matter. There were cheers, hugs, laughs, and bonds of friendship that will last a lifetime.

6) FLASH! Organic farm, Maiori, Italy. Some people don’t have much, and yet they give it all away anyway. Such were our hosts in a beautiful little bed and breakfast with stunning views of the Amalfi Coast. The 318 daily steps to our temporary home were well worth it! And our hosts were so generous, giving us fresh produce from their garden on a daily basis, as well as “samples” of their traditional Italian dinners that were the size of full meals. We laughed so hard at meal time, because the stories they told were so funny and interesting. And they laughed at us when we ran from their particularly unfriendly and brooding rooster, because, of course, they’d done the same many times before. (There’s even a video of our host running from their rooster on YouTube!) When we left, Adele and the host hugged and cried, and I might’ve teared up a little too.

I could go on for pages and pages about the incredible people and experiences we’ve had on this trip. There’s SO MUCH good in this world, even if it’s hard to see it sometimes. If nothing else, my experiences over the last three years have taught me to look for the spark of light in the darkness, to find the ray of sunshine peeking through a cloud-shrouded sky, and to never—not ever—pick a fight with a moody rooster.
 

Bloggers, Join the Fire Country BDay Bash and get a FREE book!

Calling all Bloggers!

I want to invite you to the first Book Birthday Party for my popular YA dystopian novel, Fire Country, which will take place between FEB 24th - 27th, 2014. In the 1 year since Fire Country was born, so much has happened (signed with an agent, sold more than 10,000 books, wrote 5 books and published 3) that I knew I just had to celebrate and I’d love for you to be a part of it!

I owe so much of my support to the blogger community, and I want you all to have the first chance to be a part of the Fire Country Birthday Bash. So what's in it for you?

• First off, I want you and your members to get the chance to read Fire Country FOR FREE, if you haven't read it already! A code will be provided so that you and your members can download Fire Country for free in your preferred format on Smashwords.com.

• Only for the participating bloggers, if you've already read Fire Country, you can choose another David Estes ebook of your choice, and you'll get it for FREE! All I ask in return is that those who enjoy the book they choose post a review on Amazon.com.

• Randomly selected bloggers will have the opportunity to do an interview with David Estes, receive a Guest Post from David Estes, or get an exclusive excerpt from Fire Country. Spots are limited, so get in early to guarantee your exclusive!

• The Book Birthday will include a giveaway that you can post on your blog with prizes such as an Amazon giftcard, signed David Estes paperbacks, eBooks and more!

If you decide to participate in the Fire Country Book Birthday Party, you will receive a complete media pack with everything you require to prepare your post, a HTML post that you can simply copy and paste, buttons for your sidebar and the code for your FREE eCopy of Fire Country (or the alternate book you choose), that you can share. If you would like to attend, please contact davidestesstreetteam@gmail.com

Thank you so much for all your support and for everything you do for us Indie authors, and keep on reading and blogging!

 

How I name my books

Another question I often get in interviews and from readers is: How do you name your books?

First of all, what’s in a name? Well, for books, EVERYTHING is in a name, especially for Indie authors, like me. The name of the book defines it, becomes its legend, or possibly its downfall. The name garners interest or makes a potential reader say, “Eh, doesn’t sound that interesting.” But you haven’t even read the synopsis yet! Unfortunately, that’s the truth of the world we live in. There are A LOT of books and A LOT of authors, all trying to catch readers’ eyes. So that’s what I’m thinking about when naming my books. Is it appropriate for the genre I’m writing in? Is it attention-grabbing? Will it work with any other books planned for the series? Are there any other well-known books out there with the same name?

So how did I name my books? I’ll focus on The Dwellers Saga and The Country Saga, because they’re my two newest series and happen to be sister series, the stories of which are inexplicably intertwined when they crash together in The Earth Dwellers.

1) My YA dystopian series, The Dwellers Saga: The first book is always the hardest! Why? Because the names of the sequels will flow from that, or at least they usually will. A good example is Delirium by Lauren Oliver. By setting the tone with ending in the letter M, Oliver decided to continue with that theme for the series. Pandemonium and Requiem are the sequels. Another popular dystopian series, Divergent by Veronica Roth, has a sequel called Insurgent, again following a theme with the endings of the titles being similar. This allowed a lot of speculation as to what the title of the third book would be, some noteworthy guesses being Convergent or Resurgent. The author even joked that it would be called Detergent. In the end, the title turned out to be Allegiant, a fitting final title.

So back to the Dwellers! I ended up naming the books after the three disproportionate classes that make up the underground society. The middle class are called The Moon Dwellers, which became the title of the first book. The sequels followed with The Star Dwellers (the lower class) and The Sun Dwellers (the upper class). But more importantly, how did I name the classes? Dwellers was easy. The people live in underground caves, or dwellings, so the name flowed from that. But why moon, sun, and stars? The answer is twofold: First, it immediately makes the potential reader wonder why the book is called that. Do the characters live on the moon, in space? The cover adds to the mystery because it shows nothing of the moon or space. By making people want to know what it means, it increases the chances they’ll try reading what’s inside. Secondly, the deeper you go underground, the further you are from the outside light. The sun dwellers are at the top, and are comparable to the brightness of the sun, then the moon dwellers, as bright as the moon, and finally the star dwellers, the dimmest of the bunch. It adds a bit of mythology to the naming of the classes, from the time when they excavated deep beneath the earth and began living there.

2) My YA dystopian series (a sister series to The Dwellers Saga), The Country Saga: There are three books, Fire Country, Ice Country, and Water & Storm Country.

So again, you can see I stuck with keeping the second part of the name consistent throughout the series, Country, which breaks up the dystopian world I’ve created into distinct areas with very different climates and tribes. Fire Country was easy to name, as I wanted a hot, desert climate with cactuses (which the tribes call pricklers). Everything about the climate and arid desert makes you think of heat and burning and fire. Following that logic, Ice Country was also pretty simple. I knew the second country I would write about would be up in the mountains in a cold, snowy place. Snow Country? Nah, too soft. Cold Country? Didn’t sound quite right. Ice Country? Perfect! On to the third book, Water & Storm Country, which you’ll notice is the only one with two countries being mentioned. The first two books are set in a single country, with a single point of view. The third book, however, is set with half the chapters in two different, warring countries, each with a different main character’s point of view. Thus, the slightly different title. One of the tribes sails around on the ocean like pirates in large ships. Again, I had some options, Ocean Country, Sea Country, Fish Country (I’m sort of joking with that one!), but Water Country just sounded the best to me. And the “pirates” enemies live on shore on flat plains where great storms rage most of the time, which made that half of the book title really easy: Storm Country. Water & Storm Country was born!

So that’s it, I hope you enjoyed a bit of an inside look into the inner workings of my strange and random brain as I came up with the names for my two newest YA dystopian series! Even more so, I hope you enjoy (or have enjoyed) reading the books behind the names!

HAPPY READING!

Extras!

In case anyone is wondering about the titles for my other series, here’s a quick rundown. My debut YA paranormal novel, Angel Evolution, was originally going to be named Angels, with the sequel as Demons and the second sequel Archangels. Well, as I got closer to publication, my wife, Adele, and I both agreed it was too generic and bland. So Adele threw out the idea of incorporating Evolution into the title, as that’s a major theme in the books. You see, my angels and demons and archangels aren’t spiritual figures, they’re evolved from humans. The titles Angel Evolution, Demon Evolution, and Archangel Evolution were born!

My children’s series, The Adventures of Nikki Powergloves, were really fun to name. It’s all based off of the name of the main character, a young girl named Nikki. She discovers magical gloves that give her powers, named powergloves by her best friend and sidekick, Spencer. Nikki Powergloves is born! Each of the four books in the series carries her superhero name, Nikki Powergloves, as well as a subtitle. Book 1- A Hero is Born (a pretty obvious choice), Book 2- The Power Council (Nikki meets other superhero kids), Book 3- The Power Trappers (Nikki faces a secret organization trying to trap the kids with powers, and Book 4- The Great Adventure (Nikki competes in an amazing around-the-world adventure against the other kids with powers).

 

Where NOT to write

Originally posted on the Promiscuous Diva

Readers ask me quite frequently where I do my writing. At a desk? On the couch? On the floor? Where? Well, because of my somewhat unique circumstances, this is quite a complicated question!

 

 (My office on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii)

You see, while I feed my fledgling full time writing career snack crackers and corn chips, I’m in the midst of a two-year trip around the world with my beautiful and supportive wife, Adele. So on any given day, I’m usually writing in a completely different place. But before I get into MY ALL TIME FAVORITEST PLACE TO WRITE, I want to tell you about some of the many places I’ve written my books, as well as tell you about a place I probably should NOT have been writing.

OK, here goes! Well, my burgeoning career started none other than on the Manly Ferry in Sydney, Australia. Yep, Aussies, that’s right! My wife is Australian, though I am not, and we were living in Australia, working glorious 9-5 jobs in the city, while living at Manly Beach. Every day we rode the Manly Ferry to the city, and that’s where I would write. Half an hour there, half an hour back, rolling on the waves, catching an occasional glimpse of a dolphin or two out the window. All in all, not too bad, eh? Squeeze in an hour at a café at lunch in the city, and I was churning out about two hours a day, perhaps 2,500 words. That’s how it all started. That was definitely fun, but in the scheme of things, neither the ferry nor the cafes were my favorite places to write.

Fast forward a year and a half. Four books published and it’s time to quit our jobs and do this full time, yeah! We decided that if I was going to write fulltime, we might as well make an experience out of it, travel the world for two years, meet people, live life to the fullest. So we took the show on the road, quitting our jobs, selling, giving away, or storing almost all of our belongings, getting plugged with more vaccinations than I knew existed. First stop: Hawaii!

Hmm, who wants to stay cooped up writing all day when you’re in sunny Waikiki, or on the North Shore of Oahu? Not me! Well, I thought, I’ve got a tiny laptop that can easily fit in the beach bag with everything else, so I might as well take advantage. That’s when I started writing on the beach. We bought a couple of cheap beach chairs and I would write while Adele would read and take photos. If I got hot, I took a dip. I was churning out LOTS of words now, somewhere in the 4-5 thousand mark per day, writing full time, publishing a new book every 2-3 months. Living the dream! Only…laptops aren’t really meant to be in the sun. Duh! We were on the beach and I’d just finished the sequel to The Moon Dwellers, and ZAP! FRY! BZZ! (Yeah, the above pictures are EXACTLY where it happened.) My laptop goes black. Like blank-screen black. Like pressing-all-the-buttons-won’t-get-it-to-do-anything black. NOOOOO!!! Yeah, I freaked. Not my best day. I’d saved a zillion times, of course, and even backed up parts on an external hard drive, but there was LOTS that was ONLY on the laptop’s hard drive, and if it was fried I was completely ready to shamelessly break down in tears in a public place. Enter my hero: Adele! She made some calls to a friend, who called a friend. A computer whiz friend. So I trustingly handed over my computer, and two days later, voila! Dead computer with SAVED hard drive. Woot woot! Lesson learned, right? Well, sort of. I continued writing on the beach, but first we bought a nice beach umbrella. Ahhh shade! How obvious was that? Apparently not obvious enough for my pint-sized brain. In any case, I borrowed Adele’s computer to write the rest of the time we were in Hawaii, until I had a chance to buy a new one. OK, so was the beach my favorite place to write? Notwithstanding the fried computer incident (which, from this day forward we shall never speak of again), the beach was still NOT my favorite place to write. Too much sand trying to get into the keyboard, concerns about sudden rainstorms, lots of wind, distractions, etc.

Get to the point already! Where do you like to write? The pub? The library? A big, comfy chair somewhere in Morocco? A hammock in Mexico? Nope, nope, nope, and nope. Believe it or not, despite having travelled (so far!) for about a year to four continents, my ALLTIME FAVORITEST PLACE TO WRITE continues to be...drumroll…IN BED! That’s right, for me nothing beats waking up and getting right to it. And Adele is super supportive of this, uh, let’s call it a “creative choice” (because it sounds better than “lazy choice”). She brings me breakfast, coffee, and sometimes even lunch in bed when I’m working on a project. It’s comfortable, warm, and there are generally zero distractions. On a typical day I churn out 4-5 thousand words before lunch. Then Adele and I go out and enjoy the day in whatever city we happen to be in.

All in all, it’s an absolute dream come true, one that NEVER would have come close to coming true without the remarkable and selfless support of the bloggers, fan group members, beta readers, street team members, family, and friends who have supported and helped me along the way. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you thank you thank you, and HAPPY READING!

 

Fire, Ice, Water and Storm

Originally posted on Lola's Reviews

Why did I choose Fire, Ice, Water and Storm as the four countries for the world I created for the Country Saga?

To be honest, when I started the series, I had no real idea where it was all going. One day while writing the third book in the Dwellers Saga (a sister series to the Country Saga), the main character, Siena, in Fire Country just started speaking to me. She got stuck in my head with her strong voice and slang and metaphors, and I couldn’t get her out. I also pictured her in the desert, and I liked the idea of the world being a place of extremes: extreme heat, extreme cold, fierce storms, churning waves.

With heat, I immediately thought of fire, and the thought of countries named after the overriding weather-related themes made a lot of sense to me and was something I could get excited about. Fire Country was born! From there, I knew I needed the antithesis to fire, which could only be ice! Yeah, I could have gone with snow or cold or frost, but ice just seemed more powerful and a perfect contrast to fire. So I created Ice Country.  

Now to my connection to the sea. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I NEVER saw the ocean. My family didn’t really go on vacation to the beach either. So it wasn’t until I was in my teens that I first saw the sea. WOW! I was immediately taken with it. With the power of its waves, with the teeming life beneath its surface, with its vastness and majesty. Since then, I’ve loved the ocean and always wanted to live near it (which I finally did when I moved to Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia). So, having a “country” and a people who lived on ships on the ocean made perfect sense for me. That’s where Water Country came from.

Lastly, were the Stormers, the dark and mysterious tribe that first make an appearance in Ice Country. Something kept tugging at my imagination while writing the first two books, something powerful, something as sharp as lightning and as heavy as thunder. I couldn’t get the thought of dark, mounted warriors backlit by jagged streaks of lightning out of my head. I knew I had to create them and figure out their place in the new world I was creating. Storm Country was the result.

Because I wanted the series to be a trilogy (before it connects with the Dwellers Saga in the 4^th book of both series, The Earth Dwellers), I knew I had to combine two of the countries. Due to their close proximity, Water & Storm made the most sense for the third book!

That’s it! That’s where the Country Saga came from. I hope you all enjoyed finding out a little more about how my crazy mind works and where my ideas come from. And I really hope you all enjoy getting to know all the different tribes and countries in the Country Saga!

HAPPY READING!!
 

Welcome Laurie Faria Stolarz to my Fan Group and get a chance to win a prize!

GO TO THE Q&A HERE!

I'm SO EXCITED to welcome the AMAZING author, Laurie Faria Stolarz, author of Deadly Little Secret (Touch series), to the David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite group on Goodreads!


Not only is Laurie Faria Stolarz going to be around from Jan 27 to 30 to answer ALL your questions for her, but she's generously donating TWO books for a giveaway, a paperback of Deadly Little Secret and a paperback of Deadly Little (U.S. only). Here are the two books you have the chance to win:

 

So how do you enter the giveaway? Simply go to the Q&A discussion thread in my Goodreads fan group HERE and ask a question to Laurie Faria Stolarz. It's that simple! So think up some fun questions for Laurie and I hope you win the prize!!


Have fun and I can't wait to see all your questions :)


Note: You must be a member of the group before you can ask a question--Goodreads rules, not mine.

The Book that Changed My Life

Originally posted on Book Gift Guide 2013

I read The Hunger Games and it made me want to read more dystopian novels. I read Divergent and it made me want to write dystopian novels. And then I wrote The Moon Dwellers and it changed my life.

When I started writing The Moon Dwellers while holding down a fulltime day job as an operational risk officer at an investment manager, I never would’ve guessed it would turn into a 7-book series with thousands of sales and fans. Not in a million years would I have guessed it would be listed on Buzzfeed as one of “15 Series to Read if you Enjoyed The Hunger Games,” alongside bestselling series such as The Mortal Instruments, Divergent, and Delirium. And if you told me that 18 months later it would be compared to Divergent in The Book Gift Guide 2013, I would have said you were crazy.

But life’s funny that way. It throws you curves when you expect it to be straight—and is like an arrow when, from a distance, it looks all twisty. That’s what keeps it interesting.

So here I am, almost two years after finishing my first draft of The Moon Dwellers, shaking my head and pinching myself. I’m an agented full time writer of YA and Children’s novels travelling the world. I sometimes wonder if I’ll wake up from an exceptionally vivid (and long) dream. I think I’d cry on the way into the city, completely unready to take my place back in my tiny cubicle.

So where did The Moon Dwellers come from? Was it the result of a strange dream about people living underground or did I simply watch one too many episodes of Fraggle Rock growing up? Honestly, I have a terrible memory, and I can never seem to pinpoint the exact moment that the idea popped in my brain, but I do remember cocking my head and thinking “Hmm…interesting.” I thought about it during meetings, during my commute to and from work, and in the shower, and as I did I got more and more excited at the potential. There are so many dystopian novels out there, but one thing they almost always have in common is that they’re set aboveground for most, if not all, of the story. So I went deeper, deeper, deeper…underground.

It’s hundreds of years in the future and the citizens of the United States have been forced underground due to the earth’s surface being deemed “uninhabitable.” Living conditions are harsh for the lower classes and plush for the upper classes. Rebellion is stirring. And at the center of everything is a middle class girl, Adele, whose parents have been arrested for treason, and the upper class son of the president, Tristan, who’s quickly learning of the inequalities of the world he’s destined to govern over.

The Tri-Realm’s are about to explode in violence; and in this world there’s only one truth: Someone must die.

Honestly, I’m just thankful that I had the inspiration to write the book, and the motivation to see it through for six sequels. I’m even more thankful for the thousands of people who have given The Moon Dwellers a chance and written the most moving reviews and messages I’ve ever read. You are my inspiration every day of my life. And to my future readers, I hope you enjoy the world and story I’ve created!

 

Happy reading!

 

Romance and Dystopia

Originally posted on Boricuan Bookworms

I write dystopian novels. I write dystopian novels with romance. Does that make you cringe or make you smile? I’ve heard a million opinions on the matter, some who say dystopian novels should be completely free of romance, because “Who’s thinking about love when the world is crumbling around them?” Others say romance is important in all settings: it’s what gives people hope, something to live for, and perhaps something to die for.

In the explosion of dystopian novels, we’ve seen all kinds of romance. Some series, like Chaos Walking and Gone, have just a touch of romance set amongst harsh worlds where people do terrible things. But romance is far from the focal point. Others, like Delirium and Matched, put romance and love triangles at the forefront of the story, making it every bit as important and captivating as the plot and world building. All four of these series are popular. So which authors made the right decisions? Or did they all choose right, in their own way?

Well, I’m sort of in the middle, which I’ve tried to reflect in my combined Dwellers/Country Saga (7 books, starting with The Moon Dwellers and Fire Country in each series). I personally believe that humans will find a way to love, even in the darkest, most corrupt worlds, but that doesn’t mean they’ll obsess over “the way the sun hits Simon’s sparkling blue eyes even as he swings his sword at the demon-zombie.” I believe there has to be a balance and that the “romance” needs to take a back seat to the more important aspects of dystopian novels.

So what are those aspects? In my opinion, dystopia should be more focused on 1) world building, 2) plot, 3) character development (villains in particular), and 4) twists. Those are the elements, which, if done well, make for a good dystopian novel. So that’s what I focus on in my dystopian novels. However, I do include a touch of romance in each of my novels, because, well, because my characters are only human and they have the need to be close to others, to care, to grab hold of their feelings and clutch them to their chests and never—not ever—let go. They fight for those they love. Love gives them purpose, gives them strength, and sometimes, gives them terrible sorrow.

For me the key is realism. The love should feel real, natural, not forced, not included just for the sake of including romance. That either means it needs to develop slowly over time, or be there from the start because the characters have a long and powerful history. In Fire Country, for example, the protagonist, Siena, and her best friend, Circ, have known each other their whole lives. Although they aren’t been romantically involved at the beginning of the novel, their bond and connection has been growing for years. It’s time to take the next step...but only after they go through the harsh trials that their world requires. But…and this is a big BUT…the romance NEVER gets in the way of the story, never BECOMES the story, never takes precedent over building the world. It simply exists amongst the threads of the story’s fabric. And for me that’s what makes it real.

Am I right? Am I wrong? Probably neither. I’m just one opinion amongst thousands. So what’s your opinion? Do you love romance in dystopian novels? Hate it? Are you indifferent? I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting below, and I hope you enjoy my dystopian novels as much as your other favorites!

Happy reading!
 

Ice Country ON SALE for only $0.99!!

For those of you who have been waiting for the chance to get Ice Country (the sequel to Fire Country) on sale, now's your chance! From now until January 23rd, Ice Country is ON SALE on Kindle and Nook for only $0.99 (regularly $4.99).

Get Ice Country on Kindle!

Get Ice Country on Nook! 

Thanks for all your support and ENJOY!!

And for those interested in the entire Country Saga (a Dwellers Saga sister series), check out all three books!

Dream Big!

I feel so blessed that 2013 was the best year of my career so far. I reached so many milestones in 2013 that at one time I NEVER thought I'd reach, and it really taught me an important life lesson: to Dream Big! No dream is too big and reaching for the stars is something we all should do. If you say "I can't" it only hurts you. Cross out the negative words and keep the positive ones.

 Everything in the image above, which was created for me by the talented and creative book blogger, Dre Wolf (Sporadic Reads), shows the milestones I thought I'd never reach, but reached in 2013, with the exception of the last one, to get a publisher. I've told myself a million times that I'll never get a publisher, but recently I've stopped saying that. I've started saying I'll get a publisher, and I now truly believe that 2014 will be the year!!!

So Dream Big, Never Give Up, and Remove Negativity From Your Life!!!

Welcome Susan Dennard, Author of Something Strange and Deadly, to my fan group!

GO TO THE Q&A HERE!

I'm THRILLED to welcome the awesome author, Susan Dennard, author of Something Strange and Deadly, to the David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite group on Goodreads!

Susan will be around to answer questions from Jan 20 to 23, so think up some creative questions that you've always wanted to ask a major published author :)

Enjoy and I can't wait to see your questions and Susan's responses!

Note: You must be a member of the group before you can ask a question--Goodreads rules, not mine.