This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award the winner’s choice of an audiobook set via Spotify or a digital book set of THE RISE UP TRILOGY. Click on the tour banner to see the other stop on the tour.
It’s been a long learning curve. Before I had published the Rise Up Trilogy, I had very little presence in the social media. But then, like all the other unknown writers, I really needed to learn a new skill set. Fortunately, I had found a great virtual assistant company (taskbullet.com) to help me with graphic design, with my website and other related stuff. I decided I was going to keep my personal life out of it as much as possible, showing my face as little as possible. Instead, I let my writing do the talking. I started making 30-60 second videos first on TikTok, then on Instagram. To my surprise, I really enjoyed making them and some of them went even viral, gaining over million views. Unfortunately, after two viral posts, the views and likes dropped dramatically on Instagram. I would get just few hundred or few thousand views. I assume it was because of the exposing corporate and government corruption is considered political, even if it takes place in a fictional world. On TikTok, I’ve been banned temporarily by then already many times, but I could still pull a good number of views from non-controversial posts. But it’s fine. I already had dozens of good posts about the Rise Up Trilogy and I decided to take a pause from posting new material until I figured a way to get my viewers back. Anyway, social media posts don’t have much impact on book sales or podcast downloads even they go viral, at least in my case.
Next, I became active participant in animal rights and climate change discussions, but I found myself recycling same ideas in different context over and over again and got bored. This is not my thing. I’m a storyteller and through stories relay my ideas and understanding. That’s where these ideas come alive. I also tried posting political commentary not connected to my stories but after just one post, I learned that it was not my thing either. There are plenty of great commentators out there, and I better stick to things I’m good at.
The Rise up trilogy is a coming-of-age story about Hashim, Alex and Maryam, three best friends on the threshold of adulthood. Before they can find their place in this world, they must come to terms with their past and learn to confide in each other as they are confronted by intolerance, ignorance, and corporate greed that threaten to rob them of their future. Inspirational, harrowing, intense and deeply moving, this trilogy presents a ray of hope amidst terrible hardship, misfortune and loss.
Book One: Catch You if You Fall
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.
Book Two: Merry Farm
In the second installment of the Rise Up Trilogy, best friends Hashi, Alex, and Maryam stumble upon a huge government coverup. When more people get sicker and sicker, and nothing about the outbreak makes news, it becomes clear the corruption goes up high.
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.
Book Three: Collusion
Now a well-known activist, Maryam, along with her two best friends Hashim and Alex, is chosen by the President of the United States to draw up a proposal to help fight climate change, mere weeks before superstorm Roxanne makes landfall in the Northeast.
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.
Enjoy an Excerpt 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.”
About the Author: 
Henrik Wilenius is the author of the Rise Up Trilogy, a young adult coming-of-age story about Hashim, Alex and Maryam confronting real-life issues like climate change, corrupt politics, animal cruelty and racial and gender equity.
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.
