Ramadan in my book
So as the holy month of Ramadan has started I wanted to talk about the role the month plays in my novel "Under The Full and Crescent Moon", and the answer is... it doesn't.
Writing
Personal Thankfulness
A lot happened in 2025 and, it's just who I am to be focused on the terrible things that are happening in the world.
Islamic History Month and my novel
October is Islamic History Month or so I'm told and what better way to celebrate than picking up my novel that's based on Islamic history!
One week into being a published author
So it's been a week since my book "Under The Full and Crescent Moon" launched and the question becomes, What's next?
Plotting the book, Pantsing the Launch
So I'm a plotter, as a writer. Which means for my upcoming novel, "Under The Full And Crescent Moon", I had a very clear outline of what I wanted the story to be.
Less Than One Month
As seems to be tradition, I am writing this a day late. In less than a month my book comes out. I wish I could focus on just that amidst the devastation of the world.
But I kind of did yesterday!
Less Than Two Months
Yesterday, the book was two months away from launching in Canada. Today it is one day less than that.
I might be a day late again with this update, but that's not too bad and, even though I'll never be satisfied by how much work I have been able to put into marketing "Under The Full and Crescent Moon", I have to be kind to myself and realize I did quite a lot this week, and this month overall.
And of course, meanwhile, the people of Gaza are starving to death and I am helpless in the face of it because of the leaders of the 'free world'.
Asking for Blurbs was hard
Publishing a book is an incredibly new experience for me and the number of things that I had to do after signing the publishing contract was really quite astounding. One that I was absolutely not looking forward to was asking for blurbs. Just the idea of reaching out to established authors and asking them to read a debut novel from someone they didn't know was terrifying, let alone getting them to say something nice. So I steeled myself for rejection and started sending out requests.
I think I prepared myself for rejection so well that it was surprising when people accepted, and even ore when blurbs started to come in. I have a hard time accepting praise and I certainly am feeling that way with the kind words that came in for "Under the Full and Crescent Moon". I think going over the blurbs and talking about how they make me feel is going to help me process these emotions.
Time is running away
The three month countdown to the book launch officially began two days ago and I wish I had more in the hours in the day to do the novel justice in my marketing efforts. Still it is what it is and Alhamdulillah there is so much that I was able to do in this month.
Time is running away
So here we are less than four months away from the launch of my book and I'm five days late in making my monthly post.
It's kind of reflective of where I find myself. It's been a very busy month for me personally but my book marketing has suffered as a result.
So instead of giving an overview of how my month went as I usually do I want to talk about why I think I haven't been focusing on getting the word out about "Under the Full and Crescent Moon".