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Maybe the Present is Dystopian Enough

People keep asking me if I’m going to write about the pandemic — I guess because I write dystopian fiction? The short answer is … no.

First and foremost, I don’t think I’m ready to process all that just yet. Things are better than last fall, though it still feels like we’ve got a long way to go. And, like, what is there to add at this point?

It was a huge relief, actually, writing a silly comedy like Utopia PR. Things have been been dark enough the past few years, and I just wanted to have a little fun! I was thrilled to learn recently that my novel was accepted into Wool author Hugh Howey’s sci-fi contest, the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC). Book review blog Fantasy-Faction has Utopia PR in round one. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic, but I also know my little comedy is going up against a bunch of hard sci-fi books and the competition will be stiff. It’s been nice getting a little buzz around the book just from being accepted into the contest. Honestly, I’m just hoping to get a review or two before it’s all over.

I’ve already had some good luck in competitions. Utopia PR recently got an honorable mention from IndieReader for its cool cover design by Bailey McGinn! That’s after the words won a humor award in IndieReader’s annual Discovery Awards. That cover definitely makes the book stand out at Barnes & Noble:

When I said it was nice to write a comedy for a change, I didn’t mean to imply I’m done with drama. In fact, lately my brain has been buzzing with ideas for another book set in the New West. It’s very early days — basically, I’m writing down a bunch of notes, rereading the first novel, and outlining character arcs at this point. But what I have so far does feel promising.

One thing that’s helped get the creative juices flowing (so to speak) again is taking a writing course by Batman writer Scott Snyder. His technical knowledge and obvious enthusiasm for writing and teaching has been inspiring. I’m not writing a comic book (though I certainly would if I could find the right artist!), but a lot of the lessons apply to any type of story. And superhero storytelling has always been a big influence on my non-graphic work. It’s not too late to join the course, by the way! Look for me in the course’s official Discord.

By the way, what do you think of the new design for my website? Don’t forget to visit the homepage for adambenderwrites.com before you say. If you want to skip straight to the blog, you can also use the address watchadam.blog for a nifty shortcut.

Nifty? How old am I?

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Renamed Blog, Refreshed Design

Attending WordCamp always gets me thinking about ways to improve my website. With Tuesday’s release of WordPress 4.7, I decided it was time to apply a fresh lick of paint to the site. And here you have it — cleaner, darker… classier. And it looks good on mobile, too! I keep finding little things to tweak, but have a look around and tell me what you think!

I’m also excited to reveal a new and shorter web address for the blog: watchadam.blog. That’s right — no www, no dot-com. Isn’t that easy to remember? (Don’t worry, adambenderwrites.com will still get you here!)

Just for fun, here’s a list of names that I’ve called my website over the years:

  1. Adam Bender’s Cool Stuff – I’m not entirely sure, but I think this was the name of the pointless website I made as a kid in the ’90s on Angelfire, which was a free website making tool. It had a hits counter. ‘Nuff said.
  2. Adam Bender Interactive – During high school, I got into game development pretty hard with Klik & Play (and later iterations of Clickteam software). Anyway, my “company” was called AB Interactive.
  3. Stridersoft – I later found people to make games with me (but I don’t think we ever actually released anything as a team). A guy on the team pitched this name and I thought it sounded cool. Didn’t realize it was a Lord of the Rings reference at the time.
  4. Faded Wave – Once I figured out the game dev team thing wasn’t working out, the site became Faded Wave, which also sounded cool, but refreshingly wasn’t a LOTR reference. I started talking about all my projects, including a little novel called We, The Watched.
  5. Adam Bender Writes… – The most recent iteration. The idea really was to bring my name back into it, because people were all like, “Faded Wave? Is that a hair style for balding men?” NO! IT’S NOT!

Anyway, hope you enjoy the new look!

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Life Trade, a short story

What if a stranger took over the part of your best friend?

That’s the premise of my new short story, “Life Trade.”  It’s an idea I came up with a long time ago, but it was only recently that I figured out how to make it work as a story. Last week while off for the holidays, I finally got around to writing it. And now you can read it right here for free!

If you use a Kindle, iPad, Nook or other eReader, you can get the .mobi or .epub version for free at Smashwords.

It’s also available free from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, AppleGoodreads and ‘txtr.

You can also buy “Life Trade” directly from the Amazon Kindle store for 99 cents, if you so wish. The only reason I’m charging there is that Amazon does not allow self-published to give away their work for free. Don’t feel pressured to pay — I’d be happier if you enjoyed the story and left a review or shared it with your friends.

[scribd id=234046431 key=key-Wl7gTsSp9TZgMsJtZkXo mode=scroll]

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