Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 366
Published: October 17th 2011
Author: David Estes
Source: Author for an Honest Review
Format: E-book
Summary from Goodreads:
Angel Evolution- the first book in the young adult fantasy trilogy: The Evolution Trilogy... When Taylor meets Gabriel at college, she is in awe of the subtle glow that surrounds him. No one else, not even her best friend, seems to notice. Something about him scares her. Is all as it appears? While Taylor struggles for answers, she finds herself in the middle of a century old war centered on one miraculous revelation: evolution.
Well, hello there everyone! I've got a special person in the blog today! It's David Estes, the author of Angel Evolution, the first book in the Evolution trilogy! Before that, can we please just look at the cover once more and adore it? Gorgeous right? Now give a round of applause to welcome David Estes, an American born author who currently lives in Australia with his lovely wife!
David has kindly agreed to answer my questions for the interview! Let's see his answers to them.
1. What are your inspirations in writing Angel Evolution?
To be honest, it just popped into my head one day. I have been an avid reader my entire life (I even won a reading contest at school when I was little once), and I always wanted to give writing a try, but felt like I needed a “Big Idea.” Really that was just an excuse to put it off though—I know that now. When I met my wife, my perspective began changing. She encouraged me to give it a shot with whatever idea came into my head, and when I had three weeks off between jobs, I thought of the initial idea for Angel Evolution. Yes, Angel Evolution was my first book and I took it all the way through to self-publishing, although I must apologize for its imperfections—I have since written 7 other books and have improved drastically as a writer.
Anyway, I fell in love with writing in less than a day of really trying it. Even after I started my new job I kept it up, writing a half-hour on the ferry to work, an hour at lunch, and a half-hour on the ferry back home. I was averaging 2 to 3,000 words per day, which allowed me to finish Angel Evolution in less than a month. So I started a new project, leaving the Evolution Trilogy unfinished. But I always came back to it, finishing the trilogy and self-publishing it about 13 months after I first put fingers to keyboard.
2. Which character did you enjoy writing most?
Great question. In Angel Evolution I liked writing from Gabriel’s perspective. In the first book he’s such a conflicted character, who really can’t decide what’s right and what’s wrong. I thought it was fun to start him as a pretty evil character and slowly morph him into something better (although I won’t give away whether he ever makes it to the good side!)
In Demon Evolution I preferred writing Taylor’s character because I think her personality picks up quite a bit. She is a sarcastic person by nature and she has quite a few zany thoughts that show her good sense of humor a bit.
Lastly, my favorite character of the whole trilogy doesn’t really come out until the third book, Archangel Evolution, although he is involved in all three books. Gabriel’s brother, David (named after me, but hopefully not like me at all!), is probably the most interesting (but very scary) character. I’ve had one of my beta readers suggest I do a spin off series that is all from David’s point of view. I really hope that readers decide to read all the way through to the end of the series if only to get a chance to appreciate David.
3. Did you do any research before writing Angel Evolution?
Very little. Unlike some authors, I really do not like research and much prefer to create a place from scratch. However, as I got into some of the other books in the Evolution Trilogy, I have some scenes that take place in New York City so I had to do some very small amounts of research on where places were located. But I much prefer to create worlds of my own, similar to the way Suzanne Collins did in The Hunger Games.
4. If Angel Evolution was to be a movie and you could choose the casts, which actor or actress would you pick to play the main characters?
I’ve done a few interviews and this is the hardest question I’ve been asked. My wife, Adele, and I have talked about this several times just for fun. I’ve also had quite a few people say that my books would make good movies. Honestly, I think I would go with actors/actresses who are relatively unknown, similar to the way Twilight was casted. I wouldn’t want a hugely popular actor or actress to come in and reshape the characters based on their own image. I would prefer it if my characters shaped the actors, if that makes sense. So I know I didn’t answer your question, but I think the actors/actresses would be unknowns who would hopefully become known after starring in my movies!!
5. During spare time, do you read YA books as well? If so, please name a few recent reads that you really enjoy.
Absolutely, I love almost every genre of books, with a particular fondness for YA. Given I am currently living in Australia, I thought it made sense to read the Tomorrow When the War Began series, which was written by an Australian, John Marsden. I’m on book six and loving the series! I have also recently read the Fallen series and Hush Hush, to see how my books stack up to other series about angels and demons. I loved them both, but think my books are very very different to them. Lastly, I just have to mention The Hunger Games because it is one of my favorite books of all time. I haven’t read it recently, but loved it from start to finish.
6. Quick question: Chocolate or chips?
If you’re referring to chips as in what we Americans call French fries, I would choose the chips. I love hot fries with Heinz Ketchup (I’m from Pittsburgh where Heinz is headquartered so I am biased to them!) If you mean potato chips, then I would probably go chocolate, although I do love Red Rocks Deli sweet chili and sour cream chips!!
Thanks to David, I have 10 E-books of Angel Evolution to giveaway! TRUST ME, YOU WANT THIS BOOK! I REALLY ENJOYED IT! Just fill out the form below to join. It's easy, all you have to do is enter your name & email. The rest is just extra entries if you want to. Thank you for checking out this post and good luck!
Thanks to David, I have 10 E-books of Angel Evolution to giveaway! TRUST ME, YOU WANT THIS BOOK! I REALLY ENJOYED IT! Just fill out the form below to join. It's easy, all you have to do is enter your name & email. The rest is just extra entries if you want to. Thank you for checking out this post and good luck!
