I am pleased to present a Character Guest post here in my stop of The Star Dwellers Blog Tour. This is my very first blog tour, so it's all very exciting.
The Star Dwellers is the second installment to the Dwellers Trilogy by David Estes.
Enjoy!
A Prelude to The Moon Dwellers
The following is a passage taken from the diary of a young girl, Anna, written in Year Zero,
215 years before the creation of the Tri-Realms, and 499 years before The Moon Dwellers
was written.
Today the President assigns me to my new family. I don’t see the President, but that’s what the big soldiers say when they come for me. They say my last name is Nickerbocker now— except I like my old last name just fine. I don’t say that though, because no one argues with the soldiers.
The Nickerbockers are all right, I guess. They don’t say much, just stare at me and at each other. They explain everything when I move into our new “house”, which is made of stone and barely big enough for us all to sleep in. Mr. Nickerbocker—“Call me Dad”— isn’t exactly married to Mrs. Nickerbocker. He was assigned to her after we moved underground. His real wife and three kids were left aboveground, so they’re probably dead, just like my family. Mrs. Nickerbocker—“Call me Miss Fiona”—wasn’t married when she
got selected in the Lottery. Neither of them smile much, but then again, neither do I.
I cry today when I think about my real family and how they were left above. My last memory: their faces, cold, harsh, and devoid of emotion. I know they did it to help me be strong, but it only makes it hurt more. Their smiling, happy faces are lost to me. When the tears start falling, my new Dad tries to calm me, by telling me stories and singing to me. Miss Fiona tells us both to shut up, which makes me glad I don’t have to call her Mom.
Later the Nickerbockers let me go out to play. The streets are crowded, full of kids and adults milling about with zombie-faces. Under the dim light of the candles and flashlights everything looks an awful, bland shade of gray. I see a few kids trying to get a game of tag going, but no one seems too interested. Me, I can barely will one foot in front of the other.
Before I left, my mom told me that time would make the pain go away, but I’m not so sure.
I go back inside without looking at my new parents who are ignoring each other across the room, staring into space. I huddle under the tiny blanket on my thin bed pad, willing myself to another place, to another time, when bedtime meant a story from my real dad and a tuck- in from my real mom.
My new world vanishes beneath my eyelids and for just a moment before I fall asleep, I smile, the first time all day.
I never really thought about how it must have been like for the first Dwellers. They had to leave everything behind- their families, friends, homes, everything they knew- and live in this crazy underground place. It's heart-breaking and at the very least, a testament to David's skills as a writer. The Star Dwellers picks up from the action of the thrilling Moon Dwellers.
Title: The Star Dwellers
Author: David Estes
Series: The Dwellers Trilogy (2)
Publisher: David Estes
Release Date: 30 September 2012
Date Read: October 2012
After rescuing her father and younger sister, Adele is forced to leave her family and Tristan behind to find her mother in the cruel and dangerous realm of the star dwellers.
Amidst blossoming feelings for Adele, Tristan must cast his feelings aside and let her find her own way amongst the star dwellers, while he accompanies Adele's father to meet with the leaders of the moon dwellers and decide the fate of the Tri-Realms.
Will Adele be able to rescue her mother and make it back to the Moon Realm before the President and the sun dweller soldiers destroy her family?
Can Tristan convince the moon dweller puppets of the error of their ways?
Was Adele's lost kiss with Tristan her one and only chance at love?
In her world there's only one rule: Someone must die
Synopsis
Get
The Star Dwellers: Kindle
The Moon Dwellers: Print or Kindle
About the Author
David Estes
David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife. A reader all his life, he began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010. He´s a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table.
Author Website
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