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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Thanks to the World of Publishing Naysayers!

So, this is a day where I'm feeling great about being a writer. I had an essay, "Love At Third Sight" published in a beautiful and gusty Anthology Love, Inshallah The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. This is my week to be profiled on their website LoveInshallah.com . Thanks to the work of the editors Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi and the contributors, the anthology is selling well. Really well. And how many publishers and agents I've I heard say, "There's no market for antholgies. They just don't sell!"

Well, surprise!

I never thought of my love life as secret. I'm pretty open and out there with my stuff often to the discomfort of those I'm being "out there" with.
Still, when your writing about love it's hard. It's hard not to be sappy of course. It's also hard to be vunerable on the page. I'm wondering now if I had not heard so many publishers and agents say, "Anthologies, just don't sell," if I would have had the guts to submit my essay. If I had, I know I would have spent many hours worrying about what people were going to say.

It's not often that I feel grateful to the "traditional" "conventional" publishing world, but today I am very grateful!

Monday, January 23, 2012

I'm so proud to be in this amazing anthology!




The stories that are included in this anthology are amazing. The writers and their stories are brilliant, brave, bold, and beautiful, and I'm running out of B words, but you get the point. And it seems that the New York Times agrees with me. Cut and paste the URL below and see what they have to say --http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/books/in-love-inshallah-american-muslim-women-reveal-lives.html?_r=2



Love InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, Valentine's Day 2012 - available for pre-order on Amazon now!
http://www.loveinshallah.com