It’s always such a blessing to usher in this incredibly special month.

What a year it’s been since last Ramadan.

Last year I was feeling so shaken with regards to my writing craft and skills, but not my faith, and this year I’ve managed to slough a lot of that trepidation off.

I feel more content in my abilities, more confident that the stories I’m pursuing are worthwhile and (quite importantly) publishable.

I feel like I’ve been working for so long in the trenches, piling up rejection after rejection and yet striving towards something I couldn’t quite see, couldn’t quite articulate, but I felt ultimately was good.

I realized that when I’m developing a new presentation, the first few times I do it, they’re rough, like first drafts, and then over time, my ideas begin to consolidate, and I realize what I’m really trying to say.

It all starts out with ad libs, thoughts off the top of my head, conclusions that I haven’t even realized I’m coming to.

And over the years I started to look back at the work I’ve done and realize that some of it might feel ahead of its time.

What with the #metoo movement, and this new approach of women standing up against the abuse of other women, I look back at my third book Dahling if You Luv Me Would You Please Please Smile and realize that I told a story of #metoo long before it was a movement.

And I got to thinking about what makes it big, and what doesn’t.

There’s a whole bunch of new Muslim authors out there telling all kinds of stories, and some of them are really good! Masha Allah.

It sometimes brings tears to my eyes to see how all of a sudden there are so many books that it’s hard for me to keep track, and my humble little Muslim booklist is in woeful need of an update!

And that’s a very good problem to have!

With greater competition we can all strive to higher feats of literature!

It’s all good!

We can’t control how the world sees our work. All we can do is struggle to produce the best possible stories from within us.

And this Ramadan I have a lot of work to do!

But really, despite all the turmoil in the world I thank God for all the blessings He has bestowed on me!

God is great! And Ramadan is sublime!

And most of all we are blessed to be allowed to break our fast at the end of the day with food and clean water when there are so many in the world who don’t even have that.

God have mercy on us all!