Global Burning {+ Giveaway}

I’m delighted today to welcome author Jonathan Sturak to Thoughts in Progress today to talk about his soon-to-be-released novel, GLOBAL BURNING, and what the future might hold for us.

Jonathan is graciously offering a giveaway where one lucky visitor can win a copy of GLOBAL BURNING. International visitors can win an eBook copy while US residents can win either a print or eBook copy (their choice). Please see the end of the post for more details.

          It’s the year 2045 and global warming has turned the world into a fireball. Nothing can survive outside and the last humans are confined to the underground. Recently, scientists have discovered the temperature has been rising at a much faster rate and in one month, the shields that protect the underground oxygen supply will be destroyed.

All life will be exterminated! Follow Melissa Mercer, James Wilson, and the President of the New America as they try to save the human race from extinction.

Please join me now in giving a warm welcome to Jonathan as we think about what might lie ahead for us. Welcome, Jonathan.

Where will you be in the year 2045? Catching a drone to work? Retired and sitting in front of your 32K virtual reality TV? Or perhaps someplace far, far away from your current self? What if you were trapped underground, a member of the last of the human race as the world above burns?

This last question is exactly where our main characters find themselves in my new novel Global Burning. Nothing can survive outside and the last humans are confined to the underground. Recently, scientists have discovered the temperature has been rising at a much faster rate and in one month the shields that protect the underground oxygen supply will be destroyed. All life will be exterminated!

I’ve always been a fan of the apocalyptic blockbusters over the last few decades--The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, Waterworld. But most of these plots involved an ice age or global water crisis. I asked myself what if the ozone had been depleted to the point where the sun has ignited the sky.

With this twist, the setting of the story was set. All I needed were characters. But I needed them at different ends of the spectrum of what remained of society, a society that has become a dystopia of darkness, greed, and conspiracy. James Wilson represents our working-class family man who is simply trying to protect his family and give his son a chance to live any sort of civilized life.

But things are far from civilized as the underground has been broken up into 6 distinct quadrants with each protected by aging ventilation systems providing oxygen to the last of the human race. James works as a blue-collar technician tasked to fix these ventilation systems, which are manufactured by UVASHIELD, the last business conglomerate controlling the infrastructure below and what’s left of above.

We also follow the CEO of UVASHIELD, Melissa Mercer, an engineer who runs her company as the sun runs the earth. She is a family woman, trying to live up to the same type of principles as James, but her perspective puts her in the crosshairs of this dystopian society. This brings us to the President of the New America, Jonathan Brooks, a man with a loyal heart, surrounded by a disloyal cabinet.

The lives of these three characters intertwine and form a unity of survival, a unity that will have only one chance to save the human race from extinction.

You can see the influence from some of my favorite movies and books. Total Recall mixed with The Hunger Games, for example. But Global Burning is unique due to the souls of its characters thrown into a world unlike any other. Who will survive? What will become of the world? And the question still stands: Where will you be in the year 2045? Only one thing is for sure: on January 10, 2017, Global Burning hits shelves and you can take this riveting journey of survival.

Jonathan, thanks for joining us today and sharing this interesting look at what the future could hold. I like hot weather but this sounds a bit too hot for me.

Global Burning is the new post-apocalyptic novel by Amazon bestselling author Jonathan Sturak. It will soon be available in paperback and on the Amazon Kindle.

For those unfamiliar with Jonathan, here’s a bit of background on him.

Author Jonathan Sturak

Jonathan Sturak grew up in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He is a Penn State University graduate and holds degrees in Computer Science and Film. He currently lives in Las Vegas where he uses the energy of the city to craft stories about life and the human condition.

“The Place Called Home,” Sturak’s essay about Eastern European heritage in Northeast Pennsylvania, was featured on Glass Cases, literary agent Sarah LaPolla’s pop culture blog. Sturak is also a contributing editor at NoirNation.com, the premier location for international crime fiction. His debut thriller novel Clouded Rainbow was published in December 2009 and has over 200,000 downloads on the Amazon Kindle.

Sturak keeps updated information on his website at sturak.com and you can connect with him on Twitter.

This giveaway is for one copy of GLOBAL BURNING by Jonathan Sturak. If the winner is a US resident, they will have the choice of either a print copy (available after the release date) or a Mobi copy. If the winner is an international visitor, they win a Mobi copy of the book. This means EVERYONE can enter to win this fascinating book.

Due to the Christmas holiday, the giveaway will run a bit longer than normal. The giveaway will end at 12 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, Dec. 27.

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient. A winner will be selected by the Rafflecopter widget and I’ll send an email with the subject line “Thoughts in Progress Giveaway.” The winner will have 72 hours to reply to the email or another winner will be selected. PLEASE be sure to check your spam folder from time to time after the giveaway ends to make sure the notification email doesn’t end up there. If you win and you’ve already won the book somewhere else or you just decided for whatever reason you don’t want to win (which is fine), once again PLEASE let me know.

Thanks so much for dropping by today during Jonathan’s visit. Do you enjoy apocalyptic thrillers? Have you imaged what our future will look like say in 2045?

a Rafflecopter giveaway