Every book requires research, some more than others. Part of the fun of setting The Union Series in the future was the ability to make up my story world according to my own rules. This is true of science fiction, fantasy and a number of other genres. Authors get to define the political structure and the rule of law. While this can reduce the amount of research required over historical fiction or a contemporary thriller, it doesn’t eliminate the need altogether.
Even though The Union Series is set in a fictional future, I still wanted as much authenticity as possible, meaning I needed to do my homework. Not only did I need to investigate current technology, but where this technology is likely heading, and how much the collapse of the world’s largest economy might impact its advancement.
Those were the safe searches I conducted, the ones unlikely to raise any red flags if the NSA is monitoring my internet usage. But The Uprising is about a counter-revolution, war, hand-to-hand combat, shootings, blowing stuff up. In order to make sure my plot remained plausible, I had to Google where someone could get their hands on black-market weapons, how to set explosives, and a few other things I won’t mention to avoid spoiling anything, but you get the idea.
My editor posted the above image on my Facebook page, saying we both needed a coffee mug or T-shirt with this printed on it. I know why I need it, but wasn’t sure why she did, until she explained that she always does her own research to make sure what I’ve written is accurate.
I had no idea she went to such lengths. It’s one thing to put your own future freedom on the line for the sake of craft, but it’s above and beyond the call of duty to take that risk for a client, even if said client is also family. At least if they come for me, I’ll have someone I know to hang out with. Plus, we both know a few cool new skills thanks to some scary internet searches.
I’m so excited to finally share the cover to The Uprising, book three in the young/new adult dystopian romantic adventure series, The Union! Once again, Mark Sgarbossa created a true work of art that so perfectly captures the story. See below for the cover, information, and a preorder link.
The Uprising (The Union Series #3) by T.H. Hernandez
About the Book
Title: The Uprising Series: The Union Series #3 Author: T.H. Hernandez Release Date: January 19, 2016 Genre: Young Adult/New Adult Adventure Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Synopsis Recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound, eighteen-year-old Evan Taylor must find a way to stop the Uprising, an underground movement committed to destroying the Union, before her homeland is attacked.
After spending the last four months in the Ruins trying to get back to the only girl he’s ever loved, nineteen-year-old Cyrus needs to get past his jealousy over Evan’s involvement with Bryce or risk losing her again.
Together, Evan and Cyrus join with their friends to devise a plan to save both the Ruins and the Union, but when the pressure’s on, bickering and infighting threaten to undermine their goals. New information revealing a weakness in the Uprising is uncovered, forcing them to act quickly or risk losing everything.
With the help of old friends and new allies they set out to make history, but it might just take a miracle for everyone to make it out alive.
THE UPRISING is the third book in THE UNION series, a young adult romantic adventure set in the near future..
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Excerpt The unevenly paved Mexico streets are as jacked up as any out in the Ruins. Rainey and I make our way past colorful buildings with chipping paint and rusted railings surrounding precarious balconies. But at least the ground isn’t moving.
“You’re looking a little less ripe, there, Cyrus,” Rainey says with her raspy voice.
I cut my eyes to her, but don’t respond. I’ve never been as sick in my life as I was on that boat. All I want to do is get to a hotel and lie down. Aside from the sea sickness, we had an uneventful trip. No one paid any attention to us when we docked, and we’ve walked for several hours now without being accosted.
Since we’re posing as a couple, when we approach the center of town, I reach down and take Rainey’s hand. It’s even smaller than Evan’s and feels foreign resting in mine.
Rainey lifts her gaze to mine and smirks. Yeah, she’s about as thrilled with this ruse as I am. We enter the lobby of a stained green two-story hotel with crooked, worn shutters. A stone floor lists to one side as we make our way to the registration desk where a guy with a thick mustache and a bright orange button up shirt greets us. He says something in Spanish with enthusiasm, smiling so hard his cheeks nearly touch his ears.
Rainey responds, indicating me and continues on in a rapid fire conversation. She hands him a few bills and he gives her a key.
I follow her back outside, carrying our bags. One duffel is filled with a handful of clothes and toiletries and the others are stuffed with more bags to carry guns and ammo back to the Union. Money is sewn in hidden pockets in our fatigues, a knife is strapped to my ankle, and a gun sits in the waistband of my jeans.
Rainey heads down an alley only wide enough for us to fit through single-file. Behind the hotel is a staircase that wobbles with each step. Great. She stops at a door at the end of a narrow balcony with only a suspect railing to keep us from tumbling down the rocks to the beach a hundred feet below.
We enter a dark room smelling of vomit and dirty socks. A queen-sized bed is against the wall and a beat-up upholstered chair and ottoman sit in the corner.
“Only one bed?”
“We’re supposed to be a couple visiting from the Northern Territories,” she says. “I couldn’t very well ask for two beds.”
Rainey is about half my size, but there’s no way I’m letting her sleep anywhere but the bed.
“Okay, I’ll take the chair.”
She snorts. “You don’t have to do that. Your virtue is safe with me. Plus, you’re not exactly my type.”
My head swings her way. “Wrong plumbing?”
“Ego much? Wow, just because I don’t want to get all sweaty and horizontal with you, I must not be into guys. Is it really that rare for a hetero girl not to fling herself at you?”
I roll my eyes, not in the mood for this, but if we’re going to share a bed, might as well get this conversation over with. “No. It was the way you said it. I don’t know, forget I said anything.”
“You’re not bad to look at or anything, I just prefer my guys to be…less pathetically in love with someone else.”
“Point made. I’m gonna lie down until my stomach stops heaving. Join me or don’t.”
I flop on the bed and close my eyes, still feeling the gentle, and then not-so-gentle, rocking of the waves until I doze off.
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The Ruins (The Union Series #2) by T.H. Hernandez
About the Book
Title: The Ruins Series: The Union Series #2 Author: T.H. Hernandez Release Date: June 16, 2015 Genre: Young Adult Adventure Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Synopsis Heartbroken, grief-stricken, and wracked with guilt, seventeen-year-old Evan Taylor returned to the Union, leaving behind the boy she loved.
Now, she and her friends must find a way to do the impossible – warn the citizens of the Union about an impending rebel attack without alerting the government and risking retaliation against her friends in the Ruins.
When every move Evan makes is thwarted, it soon becomes clear she’s being watched.
Faced with a daily fight to stay one step ahead of her pursuers, she returns to the Ruins. But life in the Ruins has its own dangers, and soon she’s fighting a different battle – to stay alive long enough to discover the truth.
THE RUINS is the second book in THE UNION series, a young adult romantic adventure set in the near future.
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The Union (The Union Series #1) by T.H.Hernandez
About Book 1
Title: The Union Series: The Union Series #1 Author: T.H. Hernandez Release Date: November 18, 2014 Genre: Young Adult Adventure Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Synopsis After global warming and a second civil war devastated the former United States, two different societies rose from the ashes – the Union, a towering high-tech utopia, hugging the perimeter of the continent, and the devastated, untamed midsection known as the Ruins.
Seventeen-year-old Evan Taylor has an easy, privileged life in the Union. What she doesn’t have is any idea what to do with the rest of her life. She only knows she wants to do something meaningful, to make a difference in the lives of others.
When she’s kidnapped and taken into the Ruins as a pawn in a dispute involving her boyfriend, Bryce, her ideal world is turned upside down.
What she learns while in the Ruins shakes her faith in everything she’s ever known, from Bryce, to her family, and even the Union itself.
Now Evan must choose whether to stay with Cyrus, the sexy, resourceful survivor who believes she’s in the Ruins for a reason, or return to the only life she’s ever known.
But when she stumbles upon a dangerous plot that threatens both worlds, her decision could tear her apart.
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Author T.H. Hernandez
About the Author T.H. Hernandez is the author of young adult books. The Union, a futuristic dystopian adventure, was a finalist in the 2015 San Diego book awards in the Young Adult Fiction category.
If she’s not writing, you can usually find her reading, finishing more than 200 books over the past two years. She loves pumpkin spice lattes, Comic-Con, Star Wars, Doctor Who marathons, Bad Lip Reading videos, and all things young adult, especially the three young adults who share her home.
When not visiting the imaginary worlds inside her head, T.H. Hernandez lives in usually sunny San Diego, California with her husband and three children, a couple of cats and a dog who thinks he’s a cat, often referred to as “the puppycat.”
About the Artist Mark Sgarbossa is an award-winning artist from San Diego, California. A partial list of his clients include Three Seconds of Summer, Jason Mraz, Target Stores, Tony Hawk, Franz Ferdinand, Major League Baseball, San Diego State University, Snowboarder Magazine, 3 Doors Down, and AC/DC.
In addition to art, Mark is a talented musician. He played rhythm guitar and sang vocals in the indie band The Shirlies as well as playing synth and singing in the live electro duo ROTATOR.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Time. Here’s a couple of lines from Cyrus’s POV from The Uprising.
I can’t pretend her sleeping with that douche doesn’t piss me off. I want to punch something every time I see him, which is pretty much every fucking day.
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is the Last Line of a Chapter. Here is the last line from Chapter 12 of The Uprising.
Evan’s POV: I realize what I want, what I’ve always wanted. Stepping back, I take his hand, lacing our fingers, and lead him to my tent.
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Questions. And the question is, which one? So many to choose from. Here are a few lines from Evan’s POV.
Chapter 6 – Evan’s POV: He stares at me, spoon midair, milk dripping onto the table.
“Are you going to say something?”
“Have you lost your fucking mind?”
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Short Lines. Basically, conveying your message in as few words as possible. Anyone who’s read The Union series knows brevity is not my strong suit, but here is my attempt.
Chapter 10 – Cyrus POV: I reach the end of the alley and peer around the corner. Straight into the barrel of a gun. Shit.
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Senses. So much to choose from here, it was hard to pick a favorite, so once again, I’m choosing one from Evan’s and one from Cyrus’s point of view.
Line 1 – Chapter 2 – Cyrus POV: The cry of a seagull cuts above the ocean roar as the briny air slams into me like a wall of odor.
Line 2 – Chapter 15 – Evan POV
My lungs expand, filling themselves with clean, fresh air, while my eyes drink in the raw beauty of the Ruins.
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Similes or Metaphors. This might be my favorite theme to date. I never metaphor I didn’t like (bu-du-bum, I’ll be here all week). This from Chapter 5 of The Uprising from Evan’s point of view.
I stare at his retreating form, feeling as if I’ve just consumed a buffet full of emotions.
And to celebrate revisions being complete and the final edits before going out to beta readers, I’m including a second one from Chapter 13 from Cyrus’s point of view.
She whispers my name like a plea, and I’m falling, stepping off a ledge into the unknown.
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Hooks, or the last line in a chapter, that line that makes the reader need to turn the page. Hooks are not my specialty, so this took a little digging, but also a reminder that I need to do a better job with these! Here is the closing line from Chapter 9 of The Uprising from Evan’s point of view.
Tony turns to glance at us, a slow smile spreading across his face. Holy shit…we hit the jackpot!
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Coffee. Seriously, coffee. Anyone who’s read The Union series knows that my main character, Evan, has a love affair with coffee. The hardest part was finding the right line. This is Cyrus’s first taste of coffee in the Union from The Uprising, book 3 in the series.
Setting my cup down, I turn to Ev. “I don’t get what it is you love about this stuff. It tastes like burnt piss.”
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Names. Now there’s an open-ended theme for you. Here is a line from Cyrus point of view, when he first meets Jack and Lisa.
A pretty blonde stands beside a douche-bag-looking dude. “Jack,” he says, tipping his chin, proving my assessment.
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is Page 2, 22 or 222. Here is a line from Cyrus point of view from page 22 of The Uprising, book 3 of The Union series.
I bite into my first burger. Damn, I might have found something in the Union better than hot showers. Shit this is good.
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Today’s theme for 1 Line Wednesday, sponsored by RWA’s Kiss of Death Chapter is to choose any line from any page. Here is a line from Chapter 2 of The Uprising, book 3 of The Union series. It’s from Cyrus’s point of view. I’ll let you guess who he’s talking about.
“Fine, I don’t like the guy. Never have. Why the hell does he need to be here?”
You can see previous week’s themes and lines here.
Every book requires research, some more than others. Part of the fun of setting The Union Series in the future was the ability to make up my story world according to my own rules. This is true of science fiction, fantasy and a number of other genres. Authors get to define the political structure and the rule of law. While this can reduce the amount of research required over historical fiction or a contemporary thriller, it doesn’t eliminate the need altogether.
