The Reasons Why I Wrote The Broken
J.J. Hernandez
I was sitting on the floor in my own house babysitting a warm bottle of Corona and
staring at the images on my television screen. My daughter had just graduated from
high school and my house was full of friends and family (hence my sitting on the floor).
My brother had spent a lot of time on his Imovie app cutting home video clips together
and synching them with one saccharine song after another to create a thirty minute
tear jerker on par with any crappy Nicholas Sparks film adaptation.
Now I’d be lying if I said the sap reel didn’t get to me (my youngest daughter had just
graduated from high school afterall). But it wasn’t so much the heart pulling images of
my daughter through the years as it was the heart breaking video clips of my mother,
Diana Hernandez (née Rivera). Some of you may recognize the name Diana Rivera from
my book, The Broken.
She’s been gone thirteen years now, but seeing her face and hearing her voice reminded
me of what a strong and unique woman she was; and how she did whatever she
wanted, whenever she wanted. My mom didn’t sit around waiting for things to happen,
she made things happen. Sitting there with my butt going numb on the hardwood floors,
I realized the only thing stopping me from making the transition from dreamer to author
was my own bullshit.
Those memories kicked me in the butt, and I was out of excuses. I sat down and I pulled
from every part of my life to build the world within my book; and to make it somewhat
unique from the thousands of books released in the crime fiction genre every year. I
decided all the main characters in anything I wrote would be of Latin descent or
heritage. I’ve always heard you should write what you know; and if I know anything, I
know what it’s like growing up in a Puerto Rican household. I used little quirks from
people I have loved and who loved me to create realistic characters. I combined
anecdotes from my childhood and experiences from my career in law enforcement to
come up with the plot and stage the scenes.
I don't know if this book's any good, that's for other people to judge. My book is a pretty
straight forward thriller, with the only difference being my protagonists speak Spanglish
and eat a lot of arroz con pollo.
Hello everyone, this is J.J. Hernandez author of The Broken. I'll be checking in on the comments section for the next few hours if anyone has any questions.
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