Tag: Divided We Fall

Fresh website design!

Published by Adam on April 27, 2015

I took this selfie just before seeing the new Avengers movie. It was awesome. — I took this selfie just before seeing the new Avengers movie. Guys, It was so awesome.

You may have noticed the site looks different. I mean, assuming you’ve been here before. If this is your first time on my website, that’s cool, but–hey don’t click away! Ok, click away, but at least check out one of my novels or something!

Still with me? Cool, so I’ll point a few things about the new design. First off, it’s way more modern in appearance, and the responsive design means it looks great on mobile devices, too.

It’s also a little less “bloggy.” I used to have a separate website and WordPress blog, but a little while ago decided they were a bit redundant and it made sense to kill the increasingly dated-looking website. The only problem with that approach was that my old blog design didn’t quite give me the flexibility to highlight news about my writing, and it felt a bit plain for presenting my novels.

This brings me to the next thing, which is that I’ve also killed the individual book websites I had up at wethewatched.com and wethedivided.com. Those links still work, but now they redirect to pages on this website. As much as I loved those old sites (heck, I designed them myself!), they were only kind of, sort of responsive design. I really tried, but they never actually looked that good on phones or tablets. I lived in denial about this until Google itself told me so.

I'm happy to report that Google has come around to liking my website. — I’m happy to report that Google has come around to liking my website.

So there you have it. Brand new web design. I think I’ve transferred over all the great stuff about my old websites, and I’ve even brought back some stuff like web samples of my novels WE, THE WATCHED and DIVIDED WE FALL. There’s also some new stuff coming soon and maybe a few more design tweaks.

Please let me know if you notice anything missing or if something just plain doesn’t look right!

Yes, yes. You’re welcome, eyes.

-Adam

World building in dystopian novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall

Published by Adam on March 1, 2015

We, The Watched and Divided We Fall are set in an unnamed nation that is not unlike the US, UK, Australia or other “western” countries, but is much further along in its use of government surveillance.

While technically science fiction, I purposely avoided any out-there, overly futuristic elements in order to keep these books as grounded in reality as possible. The surveillance technologies discussed in the book mix what’s available today with what there is potential for in the future. I wanted to create a place that, while fictional, didn’t seem like much of a stretch given the current debate over government surveillance.

My novels have two interlinked, overarching conflicts, with three sides.

Within the country, you have the government and the Church together in a fight against revolutionaries who call themselves the Underground. Essentially, I took America’s First Amendment promise of separation of Church and State and turned it on its head. By uniting, they exercise totalitarian control over the people. The government provides physical enforcement while the Church spreads the psychological propaganda that keeps the people in line.

Illustrating the merger of Church and State is the motto of the Guard, the nation’s army:

PATRIOTS ARE THE TRUE. HERETICS ARE THE DAMNED.

Holding to that policy, the Guard keeps a Watched list of suspicious citizens. Those who are found out as Heretics face public execution.

Are you being watched? Take the quiz!

Naturally, not everyone’s going to agree with that, and the strongest opponents have formed a revolutionary group called the Underground. Funded by a mysterious benefactor, the Underground collects evidence of the government’s wrongdoing in an effort to gather followers and spur an uprising.

The symbol of the Underground. — The fire-eyed graffiti symbol of the Underground.

Meanwhile, there is a second conflict–an international war between the nation and an unnamed Enemy. The division between the government and the Underground makes the nation weak against the Enemy. The more internal division, the worse things seem to get in the war against the Enemy.

The hero of my novels, Seven, enters this nation without memory. Like the reader, Seven finds it all very strange and forms an opinion of who is in the right and who is in the wrong. But what can one man do, especially when the punishment for treason is execution?

Find out this answer and more in We, The Watched and the sequel, Divided We Fall, available now from Amazon and other major online booksellers!

You can also get the first book free by signing up for my newsletter via NoiseTrade below! If you sign up in the next month, I’ll throw in the sequel! (eBooks only)

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Film review: Citizenfour — Truth scarier than fiction

Published by Adam on February 7, 2015

Edward Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald make a plan. Credit: Madman

This week I had the pleasure of seeing an advance screening of Citizenfour in Sydney, hosted by Greens Senator Scott Ludlam. The movie is coming out in Australia as the government here considers data retention legislation that would require telephone companies to store customer metadata for two years.

Citizenfour is a documentary that unfurls like a spy movie, focusing on filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald’s first meeting with Edward Snowden at a Hong Kong hotel in June 2013. During their visit, they would reveal details of the classified documents Snowden took from the US government about America’s secret surveillance programs. This is largely a cinematic version of the experience reported by Greenwald in the first part of his excellent book, No Place to Hide.

At one point in the film, Snowden says he wants the world to focus on the documents and not on his own personality. Ironically, Poitras focuses her lens squarely on Snowden and provides a sympathetic view of his emotions as he speaks to the journalists and his reactions as he watches the story appear on news channels around the world. Perhaps with it now two years since the great reveal, the players involved are okay with their story being told.

While the film gives an overview of some of the shattering revelations revealed by Snowden, watching Citizenfour acts as more of an introduction than an analysis. For more detail, the viewer will have to read Greenwald’s book or go back to the original news stories that broke at the time of the Snowden revelations. Even so, the film gives one the immediate sense that some pretty dystopian stuff has been going on behind the scenes. It is sure to spur discussion and debate, which is exactly what Snowden, Poitras and Greenwald want.

As a piece of history, it’s a pretty incredible film. Never before has a whistleblower leak been documented in real-time. Usually, you only get the aftermath, or at best a dramatization. Rarely do you get to see the whistleblower himself and experience the sacrifice he has made to do what he believes is right.

As you may know, I’ve written a couple of dystopian novels. I thought I’d imagined some pretty crazy stuff for those books, but at a few points in Citizenfour I found myself thinking, “Damn, I should have included something on that!” It’s pretty incredible to think that the reality of government surveillance might be more frightening than fiction.

Black Friday deal: free dystopian novel Divided We Fall by Adam Bender

Published by Adam on November 28, 2014

Sorry folks, this deal is over! However, you can still get a free copy of Divided We Fall by joining my newsletter, The Underground.

Black Friday is all about great deals, so in that spirit I’m giving away my dystopian novel Divided We Fall on Story Cartel!

That’s right, you can get the eBook version of this dystopian love story about surveillance right here without spending a single [insert your favorite unit of currency here]! And Divided We Fall will continue to be free for the next three weeks!

All I ask in return is that you write an honest review of the novel on Amazon, Goodreads, your blog or any other place you see fit. You can submit the review to Story Cartel for Amazon gift cards and other great prizes.

As an indie author, I have a smaller marketing budget and word of mouth is very important. One of the best ways to convince readers to give my books a try is to show them reviews by other readers like them. I’m not just talking about super-glowing reviews (though these are nice). I’m talking about honest, objective customer reviews that clearly lay out the good and bad elements of a given novel.

Divided We Fall by Adam Bender — What are you waiting for? Get this book for free on Story Cartel!

If you have already read Divided We Fall, I’d of course still love to hear what you think. Please leave a review on the website of the store you bought it, as well as Goodreads if you are a member. Please also spread the word about this giveaway to your friends.

As an indie author trying to expand his audience, I really appreciate all your help!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Writing update

Published by Adam on November 3, 2014

It’s been a big year with the release of my second novel, Divided We Fall. But as they say in journalism, you’re only as good as your next story! So here’s a quick update on my current projects.

Short story

I’ve just finished a new short story called “Fire Eyes,” set in the same world as my novels We, The Watched and Divided We Fall.

Taking place before the events of either of those stories, “Fire Eyes” follows an underground street artist called Ignatius who for years has dodged surveillance cameras to spray paint a dissident symbol: a dark visage with fiery eyes. Dissatisfied with the impact of his work, Iggy sets his sights on tagging the most important government building in the nation.

I have just submitted this story to a sci-fi short story magazine. I’m hoping to show it to you one way or the other by early next year.

Screenplay

I began work a while back on a screenplay of We, The Watched. It’s about two-thirds finished and looking pretty solid, but I have to admit it’s taken the back burner to my other projects. I hope to get back to work on this in the near future with a view to finishing it next year.

New novel

This is where I’ve been spending the bulk of my time. My next novel is a completely new and original story, unrelated to any of my past work. It mixes elements of several genres, including western, adventure and speculative fiction. Like my previous novels, there is a political twist. Whereas the We, The Watched stories focus on government surveillance, my new novel takes on gun issues in America.

The working title is: The Wanderer and the New West

I hope to have more updates for you soon!

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