NaNoWriMo is in full swing, and I’m here today to convince you to just start writing, even if you haven’t planned or plotted or thought about your characters or finished your research. Why? Because there’s nothing as powerful as a messy first draft. Dear impossibly long and jumbled collection of sentence fragments and unfinished scenes
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Lately I’ve been having a crisis of confidence—like imposter syndrome, but worse. I’d been reading books by writers I admire, and something unexpected happened. Instead of making me eager to write, they made me painfully aware of everything wrong with my own WIPs. I can recognize beautiful writing in other people’s work. I can’t recognize
Have you ever thought about publishing your writing? Or wondered what process it went through to get from an idea in someone’s mind to an item on a bookshelf? Before working at Daybreak Press I had no idea what it took to get a book from an idea to a tangible product. I’d like to
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In 1992, Damascus was a world of corner stores and corner soldiers. Of kids drinking soda from straws stuck in plastic bags and of buying baby chicks from a little boy carrying them in a box on his head. It was a world of fresh vegetables and ripe apricots that gave way to ripe watermelons
Classics on the Hallway Floor Read More »
One of things I probably miss most about school is summer vacation—that glorious three-month stretch in the calendar when there’s sooo much more time to read. Nowadays, my job expects me to keep working all twelve months of the year… Unfortunate, but understandable.
A Summer for Reading: Some New Releases from Muslim Authors Read More »
In a world that often feels shattered, patience is rarely the first virtue we reach for. When images of devastation fill our screens and the weight of distant suffering sits heavy on our chests, patience can seem passive and, at times, inadequate. But there is another kind of patience—one that is neither passive nor silent.
If you’re of a certain age, or even if you’re younger but you have access to YouTube or streaming services, you probably know a cat named Tom and a mouse named Jerry. If you were asked to describe them, it could be done in very few words. “Bully” comes to mind for Tom and “smart, sassy underdog” for Jerry. Their show finds them enacting these roles episode after episode, with very rare glimpses of the personalities behind their archetypal masks. Even as a kid I found this uber-boring.
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Nobody knew why Leroy Maxfield was called Bus. No one except Milt. And he wasn’t about to tell a soul that it was because when the head umpire was six, he had set fire to the family home while using his mom’s kitchen matches to see if twigs would heat the oven. After all, his mom used the matches to light the burners on the stove, and the stove in the living room was heated with wood… His pa’s cries of, “He’s busted me! He’s busted me!” had jarred the neighborhood, and Leroy was “Bus” from then on.
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Recently, in a writing critique group, I nervously shared my idea for a book I want to write. I prefaced this idea with “I am not a writer, but…” As soon as that sentence left my mouth, I knew it was the wrong thing to say around this group of people and I promptly heard
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“I can’t see anything!” Someone exclaims, trying to push away the cloudy fog in vain so he can see the road.
“You should get used to it,” Anyone replies, nonchalantly, walking further and further until Someone can barely see Anyone, “It’s like this everywhere except The County.”
“I’m telling you,” Someone insists, “I’m not from The County!”
“Then where did you come from?” Anyone replies, sneering. “Earth?”
The World of Rethar Read More »
