Countdown: Spring into Summer

Book launch party announced!

Jun 03, 2026

First things first: it’s almost summer. (Even if the highs are 89 degrees one day, 53 the next.) And that means my second book, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, will soon be released! I am so excited to share this book with you. You’ll laugh. You might cry. You might fall dead on the floor, like my daughter did. You might gossip incessantly about the protagonist, like my teen book club readers did. If you haven’t already pre-ordered, you can now order a signed copy from Frugal Book Store!

If you’re local to Boston, I really hope I’ll see you at the LAUNCH PARTY!

Tuesday, July 28, 5:30pm

Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library

Space is limited; RSVP here

Please join us for a reading, a conversation/interview about the book, book sales by Frugal, and book signing – and of course themed cupcakes! Muna Warsame, a teen leader on the 826 Boston Youth Literary Advisory Board, will be in conversation with me.

Supporting this book

These days, publishers are finding that YA realistic novels aren’t selling. This makes them wary of supporting our stories. Every sale, every library request, every request on Libby, every posted review—it all helps move the needle. Please show publishers that we need these stories that reflect Muslim lives and communities as part of the American story. I am planning more events for the fall, and I am open to collaboration. Please reach out if you have ideas for helping You Only Live Twice reach readers. And please tell everyone you know about this book!

ICYMI: Check out the lovely starred reviews of You Only Live Twice on Kirkus Reviews and Publisher’s Weekly!

Nonlinear writing

I was blessed to receive the Renée Watson Scholarship for a week-long writing retreat at Boyds Mills in May. I am a goal-oriented person, and a recovering perfectionist, so it took a great deal of effort to not hold myself to an impossible standard of producing a complete manuscript in a week.

Every day, I told myself it wasn’t about word count. Every day, I spent hours thinking, reading, taking notes, brainstorming. I journaled and wrote about my projects. In terms of word count, I am not vastly closer to the end of any particular project (except for one picture book manuscript that probably needs to marinate for a year to reach maturity.) But in terms of understanding what I want to do with multiple projects, I have grown and changed, and I have next steps to carry me back into my regular writing routine with momentum. I am a human, an artist, and not a machine, so all of this is a gift.

For the first few days of my retreat, I hid from the other writers on campus, trying to get the most done and not “waste time” chatting. (Look at that cabin! Can you blame me?!) In the middle of the week though, I started to drown inside my own head. I got stuck and anxious and started to panic about my work. I reluctantly left my bubble and had some mind-shifting conversations with other writers, who helped me so much that now I can’t imagine how I would have kept my sanity, much less my motivation, without them.

There were highs, there were lows; I got stuck and unstuck; I self-isolated and I found community. If that’s not the writing life in a nutshell, I don’t know what is.

Beach Writing

A week later, I went on vacation with the family after Eid and was pleasantly surprised: spending hours at the beach (tucked in blankets against cold winds) unlocked a scene I had struggled with at my writing retreat. In the woods, I wrote around the scene, I read for inspiration for it, and I stared at the blank page longingly. At the beach, I just started writing. The scene happens at the edge of the ocean, so it makes sense. And all that pre-work at the writing retreat set me up for success. Good thing I had my notebook with me!

Books in Community

In April, I had my annual refill of time with creative community at the Kweli conference in NYC. In May, I stepped outside my comfort zone as Senior Editor at Barefoot Books. It was Hajj season, time to show off the beautiful book I edited, Zamzam for Everyone: Sharing Water at Hajj, by Razeena Omar Gutta, illustrated by Bassent Dawoud. With a dear writing friend, Zarlasht Niaz, we planned a story time and brought a bunch of copies to sell at local community events. It’s been a joy to participate in the final stage of a book’s life cycle – getting it out to readers. I hope you’ll check out this book if you haven’t already! It’s truly special.