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Utopia PR is a Sci-Fi Finalist in Indie Author Project 2024 Contest

Utopia PR is a Sci-Fi Finalist in Indie Author Project 2024 Contest

Published by Adam on November 4, 2024

Talk about an October surprise: Indie Author Project (IAP) selected my dystopian satire novel Utopia PR as a runner-up in the sci-fi/fantasy category of its annual contest!

Click here to read IAP’s blog post about the contest. IAP connects indie authors with public libraries and their patrons across the U.S. I’ve personally used their service, formerly known as SELF-e, to submit eBooks and audiobooks of my novels to join a growing collection of high-quality, self-published books at libraries. IAP ensures the quality of the books by vetting submissions through industry editors and librarian editorial boards.

Sci-Fi finalists in the Indie Author Project 2024 Annual Contest, including Utopia PR by Adam Bender — IAP announced the awards via WebEx on Friday, Nov. 1. I quickly snapped a screenshot of this slide revealing *Utopia PR* as a runner-up.

This was my first year entering IAP’s annual contest. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I submitted Utopia PR back in April. It was long enough ago that I had almost forgot I even entered, so it was wonderful to hear the news on Nov. 1 that my book made it to the top 3 of all sci-fi/fantasy novels. (It just occurred to me that this technically means it’s a November surprise, but I don’t care! I’m not changing the lede!)

In addition, while I have won awards for my novels in the past (including a humor award for Utopia PR), this was the first one that came with a a cash prize! Not in this for the money, obviously… Did I mention I’m an indie author? Still, it sure is nice. I’m also hoping that I will get a promotional boost from this honor that will lead more readers to find my book.

In case you’re one of those fine people who haven’t picked up a copy, Utopia PR is a sci-fi satire about seeking work-life balance while doing public relations for a dystopian president. It’s available now in eBook, print and audiobook formats from all your favorite retailers and streaming services. Here’s the synopsis:

PR extraordinaire Blake Hamner (the n is silent) put off his honeymoon for his big break: joining a major political campaign for president. Now, the “Hammer” struggles to make time for his marriage as Crisis Communications Manager for Our Leader, who since taking power has become increasingly mad and totalitarian.

The Hammer starts to reconsider his career choices when one of Our Leader’s savage steel hounds attacks the Comms team at a press conference. He’d love to talk about his erratic job with his wife, Triple-N news anchor Maria Worthington, but they have a rule: the broadcast journalist doesn’t ask Blake for inside information about his work, and the spin doctor doesn’t use their relationship as leverage on what Maria reports. They say you shouldn’t keep things from each other in a marriage, but it’s OK—the only secrets between Blake and Maria are professional.

When a revolutionary levels grave allegations against Our Leader—and accuses Blake of distributing disinformation and propaganda to cover it up—the PR rep who thought he could talk his way out of any crisis finds himself utterly trapped in a dystopian job.

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Social media that doesn’t make you feel bad?

Social media that doesn’t make you feel bad?

Published by Adam on May 17, 2024

Sometimes it feels like we’re living in a dystopian world–and social media doesn’t help. Like any communications channel, it can be used to spread good messages or bad. In my day job as a journalist, I’ve been writing quite a bit about attempts by government policymakers to try to make social media a safer space. However, there doesn’t seem to be much consensus on how to get this done.

In the meantime, we can try to control how social media affects our own mental health simply by choosing what platforms we use ourselves.

You’ll see from the social icons under my name at the top-left of this website that I’m on a bunch of them. As an indie author, I’ve often felt that I have to be in many places in order to (hopefully) find potential readers and communicate with current fans. But let me tell you, it’s exhausting to be everywhere at once, and I can’t say for sure I have accomplished my goals.

I told you a while back how I decided to get off Twitter (I did it before the name change!) and move to Mastodon. Well, Mastodon is a fine Twitter clone, and people do seem nicer there, but honestly I don’t feel passionate about tooting (ew gross). Lately, I’ve been spending more time on Bluesky (follow me: @adambenderwrites.com), another Twitter clone. It’s got some cool features, too, like using your web address as your username.

However, one thing I’ve never liked about Twitter–and it’s the same on Bluesky and Mastodon–is that certain users tweet/toot/post extremely frequently. Much more so than others. As a result, my feed ends up being dominated by one or two users. It’s not that I don’t want to hear from these people–I did follow them, after all. It’s just that I don’t want to hear from them this much and I don’t want them to always be drowning out the other, less chatty folks I’ve followed. In addition, the people that talk the most–at least in my feed– seem to be the ones who most make our world feel like a complete dystopia! So much bad news and cynical humor! I tend to leave the site in a bad mood as a result.

I think that’s why a Wired article caught my attention yesterday. The headline was “Maven Is a New Social Network That Eliminates Followers—and Hopefully Stress.”

Yes, please!

The platform eschews likes and follows in favor of letting pure chance play more of a role in what appears in users’ feeds … On Maven, you don’t have followers, so you don’t have to worry about what your followers want to hear from you, or how to gain more of them.
Wired.com

This idea of getting rid of likes and follows struck a chord with me. What if I didn’t have to choose people to follow? What if I didn’t have to worry so much about likes and retweets? That sounds like some sort of utopia!

I signed up yesterday. Uh, I’m not actually sure how to link to my own profile or if that’s even possible. But that’s OK! Maybe that’s even the whole point! I hope we connect serendipitously!

So far, I’ve had a couple friendly chats with folks that weren’t stressful at all. Will I stay on Maven? Who knows! It’s early days and I may lose interest like I have on other networks. That said, it’s exciting to see a new approach to this idea of social media — one that seems to consider users’ mental health as a core value. That’s why I’m rooting for Maven — or other platforms with a similar mantra — to disrupt what has become such a negative space.

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My Dystopian Bookshelf at ALA 2023

Published by Adam on July 10, 2023

Libraries are an important place for book discovery. As an indie author, it’s even more important that I find ways to reach a critical audience of curators: the librarians!

This year I was excited to have an entire shelf to myself featuring my four dystopian novels at the American Library Association’s 2023 conference in Chicago. The event ran from June 22-27. My books appeared in a booth managed by the Independent Book Publishers Association. I’m a proud IBPA member.

Novels by Adam Bender on a shelf at the ALA 2023 conference on a stand for independent publishers. Also displayed are bookmarks for Utopia PR and postcards for The Wanderer and the New West.

Utopia PR bookmark with a quote: "Maybe you see a vicious killing machine that got loose and went on a rampage, but I sure don't ... Why, that there is a hero pup!" — Utopia PR bookmark

I made some really fun Utopia PR bookmarks specifically for the event! I’ve got extras and will try to find a way to make these available in the future. Let me know if you’re interested by tagging me on social media.

I had previously displayed and signed copies of The Wanderer and the New West at a pre-pandemic ALA conference in Washington, DC. I was unable to attend this year’s show in person, but I hope to get out to this excellent conference again in the future.

I love finding out that my books are available in libraries, whatever the format. All four eBook editions of my novels, plus the audiobook editions of my last two books, were accepted into the Indie Author Project and available to participating libraries. Books in physical and digital formats can also be acquired separately through distributors including Ingram and Smashwords. Please contact me if you need help finding my books.

Here are few more photos from ALA 2023. Here’s a fun idea: Try to find my novels in each picture like it’s a Where’s Waldo book!

People waiting in line at ALA 2023 in Chicago.

An author signing books at ALA 2023 in Chicago.

Thanks to IBPA for taking all of the photos in this post!

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Six Straight Roads, a new short story by Adam Bender

Six Straight Roads, a new short story by Adam Bender

Published by Adam on June 19, 2023

I have a new short story out! It’s called “Six Straight Roads,” and here’s the short description:

Matt tries to be the hero at his friend’s annual Capture the Flag birthday tournament in this coming-of-age short story set in the Philly suburbs. Sweating and covered with sap, Matt learns who his true friends are beneath the shade of a 20-foot-tall pine tree. In the tradition of fellow sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, Adam Bender reflects on his childhood experiences and the innocence of youth.

You can read it for free through Smashwords!

It’s fair to say that “Six Straight Roads” has been a long time coming. I began writing the short story back in 2016. I was trying to come up with ideas, and my wife suggested I should write a short story based on a random title.

“Okay, so what’s the title?” I asked nervously.

She thought for a moment and said, “Six Straight Roads.”

I was stupefied more than inspired. What story could I possibly write with such a mundane yet cryptic title?

But then, as I kept running the title through my mind, I started thinking about the games of Capture the Flag my friends and I used to play in our suburban neighborhood in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The various pleasantly named streets formed a kind of grid that we used to set the boundaries and midpoint of the game’s map. It occurred to me that “six straight roads” could form just such a grid.

So, yeah, even though I’m allegedly a sci-fi author (and a dystopian one at that), I began writing a short story inspired by my childhood adventures in suburbia. But hey, if Ray Bradbury could do it, then so could I!

I quickly wrote the first draft of “Six Straight Roads.” However, I guess it never quite felt finished, because I didn’t release it in 2016. Then I guess I forgot about it for a few years, had a child in 2019 (Happy Father’s Day!), and got caught up in writing Utopia PR. It wasn’t until summer of (gasp) 2021 that I gave it another look.

I had just joined a Philly writers’ meetup group and was looking for something to submit for the group to read. I realized this would be a great opportunity to polish up my rough draft of “Six Straight Roads.” I ended up getting a really encouraging critique from a bunch of great writers. They liked the story and had a bunch of great ideas to make it even better. I took many notes, excited to finally finish the damn thing.

And then I put it off for another year. Okay, but in December 2022, I stopped clicking snooze on my to-do list, sat down, and got to work implementing my fellow writers’ suggestions. I finally whipped the thing into shape!

But then of course I dilly dallied on releasing it … until today! I really hope you enjoy it. It’s been on my mind for forever. Please leave a review on Smashwords or let me know what you think in the comments below.

By the way, there’s something pretty cool about the cover. Can you guess what it is? (The answer is below!)

Cover of “Six Straight Roads” by Adam Bender

Yes, I created the drawing with AI! Like probably all of you, I’ve been pretty flummoxed and frightened by the whole AI craze, but I thought one good use might be to help design a quick cover for a free short story. I’ll still hire real people to design my novels but I can’t afford to do that for every little piece I write.

I used DALL-E through the Microsoft Bing AI chatbot. At first I was thinking more literally about the title and tried to get an image of suburban streets from above, but it was kind of boring.

An AI generated suburban neighborhood. Credit: DALL-E/Bing

My other idea was to focus on the story’s main characters hiding out beneath a pine tree. At first I got some really f-ed up looking children, but specifying a cartoon style helped fix that. I still got a weird one with blank eyes….

Not bad but what’s with that kid’s eyes? Credit: DALL-E/Bing

But then I got the one I ended up using. I was intrigued by how the one kid looked kind of melancholy. It looks like there’s a story there!

Oh yeah, those kids really do have a story! It’s called “Six Straight Roads.” Hope you like it!

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I Still Walk Beneath Dystopian Skies

Published by Adam on June 9, 2023

Walking down Broad St in my mask again. Sky is full of smoke from Canada.

Is it bad that, upon seeing a smoke-filled sky, these were some of my first thoughts?

At least it’s not a pandemic.
The air quality danger is down to “very unhealthy,” so I can probably go for a walk!
I’m still going to a rock concert tonight (Temples — very good!).
Hey, now I can use some of my leftover N95 masks! Or maybe I can really get stylish and break out my old cloth masks!

Are we getting used to the kind of thing we used to read about in dystopian novels and post-apocalyptic films like The Road Warrior?

People often ask me if this kind of thing inspires me to write. Honestly, what it inspires me to do is to retreat into a popcorn video game like Marvel’s Midnight Suns or an optimistic TV show like Ted Lasso. Ah… fictional England, all they care about there is the next ~~soccer~~ football match!

I have been working, slowly, on a new novel. I am not addressing the COVID-19 pandemic or our imminent environmental doom. Those are great topics for other authors, but not much of an escape for me.

Yes, I’m still writing in the dystopian genre, and it’s not another comedy (though writing a political satire was a great escape from a depressing series of years!). I’m having a good time figuring out what makes my characters tick, as well as spending more time on the world building as well. In other words, I’ve been taking a lot of notes. However, I’m feeling optimistic that the end product from all this will be worth the effort.

Assuming the world doesn’t end first.

Stay safe, everyone!

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Adam Bender Posts

Utopia PR is a Sci-Fi Finalist in Indie Author Project 2024 Contest

Social media that doesn’t make you feel bad?

My Dystopian Bookshelf at ALA 2023

Six Straight Roads, a new short story by Adam Bender

I Still Walk Beneath Dystopian Skies

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