Okay, I had always wondered how anyone could receive emails and not respond.

I thought these types of people had gotten ‘too big for their britches’.

I’ve always tried to respond to the emails I receive, even if it takes me a long time to get to them. The very least I do do, is at least respond in my head to any greetings they give me.

But for the first time I’m actually considering not responding to a query.

Thing is people seem to think I write Islamic books.

I don’t think I do.

I write books about Muslims.

There’s a difference.

I often have strong aspects of Islam in my books, but they are not, primarily, scholarly books. They are not religious texts.

I don’t ever pretend to be a scholar in Islam! Yikes! No way do I have those kinds of credentials.

I am a story maker. I make stories.

And because Islam is dear to me, and the world is filled with misunderstanding and conflicts between cultures, many of my stories serve a dual purpose of entertaining while at the same time illuminating Muslim culture and even tangentially dealing with some Islamic concepts within their cultural contexts.

But somehow certain Islamic publishers, publishers who are writing didactic stories to teach Muslim faith, have been contacting me to endorse them.

Before I was only getting a few requests here and there.

But now…

Wow.

And there’s a bit of a creep factor involved.

I feel like I shouldn’t even engage some of these people. I should completely avoid them.

And so, yeah, I’m considering not even responding.

Never thought I’d get to this point.