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Tag: dystopian

Divided We Fall is an ABNA quarterfinalist

A couple of months ago, I entered the manuscript for my second novel in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Now I’m happy to report that Divided We Fall has made it through the first two rounds and is a quarterfinalist!

There were 500 novels across five genres that made the cut. Divided We Fall was one of 100 sci-fi/fantasy/horror entries.

A couple Amazon.com reviewers had a look at the first few chapters, and here’s what they had to say:

Amazon Reviewer 1:

This novel has some serious promise. Here we are in the first few thousand words and we already have a love triangle and a religious/political rebellion. Seriously, the author has provided some interesting angles to work out what the pitch promises to deliver.

Amazon Reviewer 2:

Its flows and is good. With a few fixes it may outpace “The Handmaids Tale.” I hope to see more.

Even if I don’t make it any further in the contest, I will still get a review by Publishers Weekly. This will be a great tool for convincing literary agents and publishers to take a look (unless PW hates it, but I’m feeling optimistic).

What’s that you say? If I win the contest, I won’t need to convince anyone else?

Hey dude, take a chill pill! I’m trying to measure my expectations here!

For now, please check out the sample and–if you like what you read–leave a review. Please also give my first novel We, The Watched a go. I appreciate all your support!

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New Cover for We, The Watched

Just a quick update to say that I’ve just redone the cover for my dystopian novel: We, The Watched.

www.wethewatched.com
New cover! Click to see it big and in all its glory.

The idea behind the redesign was to make it a bit more obvious what my book is about. They say not to judge a book by its cover, but most people do. I think the new look says exactly what to expect in We, The Watched. Please tell me what you think in the comments below.

By the way, if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, the book is on sale for the entire month of July during the Smashwords summer/winter sale. You can pick up the entire tale about struggling to conform in a surveillance society for just USD $1.50! That’s half off the regular price.

Click here to enter the sale. Just use the coupon code SSW50 at checkout to get the discount.

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Divided We Fall

To everyone waiting for the sequel to my dystopian novel, We, The Watched, I thought I’d provide an update with a few juicy details.

First of all, the title is Divided We Fall. I’ve been couching that as the “tentative title” for a while now, but it’s been that for long enough now that it’s unlikely to change. Besides cleverly bringing the word “We” back into the title, the title nicely captures two major elements of the story — the made-up nation’s masochistic conflict between “Patriots” and “Heretics,” and the complicated relationship between our hero Seven and the lover from his former life. Originally I was calling the sequel “The War Comes Home,” but I decided that was a bit too literal.

Here’s some trivia for you: The original tentative name for We, The Watched was “Ignited.”

Divided We Fall is divided into two parts. Each is about the same length or a little shorter than the entirety of We, The Watched. I’ve completed writing Part One and am a few chapters into Part Two. I’m planning this as the conclusion of the Seven storyline, though I’m not writing off the possibility of coming back to this world later.

Of course, if you haven’t read We, The Watched yet, you’re missing out. You can sample the first few chapters of the Kindle, Nook, iPad and PC-compatible eBook for free at Smashwords and other popular eBook stores. If you like what you read, you can get the whole thing for only $2.99 (about the price of a Starbucks coffee).

Update (4/28): We, The Watched is featured today on NewBookJournal.com!

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Adam Bender | adambenderwrites.com | watchadam.blog