Guest Post
Pros and cons of writing in your genre
When I was a kid, I loved stories about faraway countries. Through them, I discovered that the pathway to understanding people from different cultures was to look for things I had in common rather than what set them apart from me. Finding connection to people became my passion, and n my early teens, I left my safe little bubble in Helsinki and ventured out to the great big world, eventually landing in Paris.
In my early twenties, I returned to Finland and founded a contemporary art servicing company and after an initial success, I branched out to real estate development and market researched. But something was not right. By living the high life, I was neglecting my spiritual needs. I decided to radically downsize and went back to university to study philosophy, because I became obsessed with the question of why it is so hard for us to expand our understanding. And when I found the culprit, I became a writer. It was supposed to be an essay on Rhetoric by Aristotle, but only after half an hour of writing, I knew it was going to be a full-length manuscript. End of Restlessness, a philosophical study into my own coming-of-age, was published in 2001. It attracted a lot of attention for its juicy autobiographical narrative but not for its philosophical contemplation. I realized that if I want to pass ideas onto my readers, I need to switch to fiction.
I wrote several coming-of-age fiction manuscripts about people in their twenties and with two, I was already promised a publishing deals, which were later withdrawn. The publishers got cold feet in fear for a backlash from the critics and the rest of the literary community. I believe in “grand narrative”, a broad, overarching story or metanarrative that attempts to explain the nature of human existence, history, and culture instead of in postmodern literature that controls the publishing world in the west. Also, the publishers were expecting stories about Finnish people in Finland whereas I wrote about diverse people living in a multicultural world outside Finland. During this time, I was working as a volunteer in a Red Cross youth shelter in Helsinki, and I found my interactions with teens very rewarding. I got inspired, and I changed to young adult fiction where writing about spiritual growth was allowed, and I finally I got published.
I wanted to take my manuscript abroad, but I felt that something was missing. Since my early teens I’ve been fascinated by Islam. Sufism, the mystical sect of Islam, played a key role in my own spiritual awakening. Then one day as I was browsing in a bookshop in Amsterdam, I came across Sex and the Citadel by Shereen El Feki about Arab sexuality, which included the history of homosexuality in the Arab world. During the Golden Age of Islam, homosexual yearnings were very well tolerated, even celebrated among the poets, intellectuals and upper echelons of the society in particular. What happened to this open-mindedness over the centuries really captivated my imagination, especially since I knew from Sufism how forgiving and merciful Islam is. Another big inspiration came from within as I had become vegan myself and saw how for our diet, we are not only ruthlessly killing farm animals but ourselves too, while destroying our planet in the process.
I’m not sure if I will stick to young adult for the rest of my life but it has served me well. The process of writing the Rise Up Trilogy had been very gratifying. My primary market is the United States where young adult fiction is read by people of all ages, but of course, you never know what the future will bring.
High school best friends Hashim, Alex, and Maryam must confront real-life issues that loom for Gen-Z today, including the climate crisis, corrupt politics, and racial and gender equity.
When Hashim turns eighteen, he receives a grant from his Mosque that will send him to an Ivy League in New York. His devout Muslim family couldn’t be more proud. And to support their young son on his journey, they arrange a wife for him. There’s only one problem: Hashim is gay.
Hashim’s best friend Alex is struggling with a difficult home life, a non-present father, and financial issues that prove particularly painful when all his friends are planning to go off to college and leave him behind.
Standing confidently alongside these two boys is Maryam, a headstrong Muslim girl who bucks her traditional roots by becoming a vegan activist.
It doesn’t take long until certain evil forces start to draw these three even closer, as their futures and the wellbeing of their community and the world is threatened. They are called to act.
As the three attempt to expose and stop a tragedy that could kill thousands, they end up framed as the bioterrorists responsible for this exact crime, and a team of hitmen is dispatched to hunt them down. As they grapple with their own growing pains, Hashi, Alex, and Maryam hurry to outrun the disaster, prove that they are innocent, and do what they feel is right.
After the President’s Future Rescue Advisory Board hears their climate proposal to set heavy taxes on meat, dairy and carbon emissions, and someone leaks it to the press, chaos spreads across party lines. A few months since they stopped a deadly virus in its tracks, the three uncover a conspiracy on the highest level of the legislative branch.
While the deadly hurricane wreaks havoc along the eastern seaboard, destroying the U.S. Naval Command in Norfolk, Virginia, and hitting New York City with devastating force, Maryam, Hashim, and Alex grapple with forces beyond their control in the government.
How will their stories unravel? What do their futures hold as they mature into adults in a world that may not accept them? Find out in this last book in the Rise Up Trilogy.
From CATCH YOU IF YOU FALL
“And it’s going to happen tomorrow,” Hashim said as he crouched on the couch.
Alex drew his brows closer, but soon his forehead smoothed. “Seriously?” he said and studied Hashim’s face. “Wow. We need to get you out of this mess.”
Sharing his predicament with his best friend had calmed Hashim’s nerves. Not that he had told the whole story, like the fact that he was gay. However, that was a piece of information he had only shared with God, though unwillingly, because from Him, you can’t hide a thing.
Alex’s eyes grew wide. “But you’re just turning eighteen, for God’s sake. Isn’t it a little early to get engaged?”
Hashim pressed his lips together and winced. You tell me.
“His mom knows that once Hashim has committed to an engagement, he won’t break it,” Maryam said. She had been following the conversation from the other side of the room, giving the guys some space after she saw how upset Hashim was when he came in. “Without a solid religious reason to back out, that could shame the whole family,” she added. “People won’t greet you anymore or return your calls. You become a nobody.”
The Rise Up Trilogy is now available also as an audiobook and a weekly serialized audiobook podcast on all the major platforms.
Previously, Henrik as published two books (an autobiographical coming of age book and a YA novel) by a major publisher (WSOY) in Finland before switching to English and self-publishing. The Rise Up Trilogy was inspired by his fifteen-year stint as a volunteer in a Red Cross Youth Shelter and by his vegan activism.
Thank you so much for hosting today.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a fantastic read.
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