For a few years now, I've had this image in my mind of an oracle figure sitting in a dank little cell, and then that same oracle figure on the run, being hunted by pursuers. I think it came about after watching Minority Report (2002) years ago with my dad. These two scenes were the beginning of a story, I could tell, only they were lacking something to truly bring them from the 'spark' stage into 'development' mode.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was talking with my friend Hyba about isekai stories (specifically in webcomics). I have long been a fan of portal and isekai stories, and I love mashing up tropes and adding twists to them. Talking to Hyba got me wanting to dabble in this genre. 

For those who don't know and don't want to click on the link, isekai is a Japanese term for a genre of story where a person is transported into another (often fictional) world; sometimes this involves reincarnation. Some of these stories are portal fantasies, however not all isekai stories involve portals.

I don't know how many of you remember, but I briefly posted about a new project of mine that was tentatively titled Chimken Tendies (based on a very silly inside joke). I talked a lot about it with two of my friends and this wip has since grown massively. I finally have a better working title for it too! It's now being called the Glitch wip, which is fitting for the direction I'm hoping to take the story in! Before I dive into that though, let me re-introduce it to you!

(I'll be posting a wip intro under my books once I have one ready!)

Set several hundred years into our future, body modifications are becoming more common for those who can afford them, and many of the diseases we're familiar with have been completely eradicated (including most forms of cancer) thanks to various corporations' efforts and research. The technology for prosthetics has also come a long way and become more affordable and advanced. 

One of the biggest corporations involved with all that is the LeMarque Foundation, a family run organization hailed for their incredible medical breakthroughs, known for being leaders in the field of bio- and gene-modification. They are, of course, shady as hell.

This project of mine is not only my first attempt at writing cyberpunk (and sci-fi)! It'll be my first time writing something with aliens. They don't come from outer-space though. Instead, they're interdimensional beings from an entirely separate plane of existence. Ok, so not entirely separate, because they've often purposely (or accidentally) crossed over into our reality, and are the source of many fairytales and mythologies, especially those pertaining to any kind of shapeshifting or physical transformation!

Which brings me to the characters:

Sacha | A bodyguard for the LeMarque's son and heir, Etienne. She's a cyborg, and due to shenanigans, is technically the LeMarque's property (at least, the tech parts of her are, and she can't survive without those). Her service to them is in payment of her debt to them. She takes her job very seriously but has a secret fondness for her charge which she does an all-too-good job of hiding. When on duty, she often wears a mask to obscure the lower half of her face.

Etienne | The son and heir to the LeMarque's, he kicks off the story by running away the day Sacha's out for repairs (which is the only reason he managed to get away at all). A sweet if naive kid, he hates his parents and can't stomach being around them after he discovers the secret behind their company's success and the horror of the mantle they're planning to pass on to him. 

Cipher | A shapeshifter and one of the most skilled of the very few shapeshifters that have been identified. He has the ability to change every part of his body down to his fingerprints (although not DNA, and he's limited to human forms). He's a direct descendant of the aforementioned aliens, though he has lived his whole life in our plane of existence, Ostensibly, he's a government agent. In reality, he's got no choice about it. He's on loan to the LeMarques to be Etienne's doppelgänger until Etienne is found and brought back. 

So why is the working title Glitch? Well, because it's going to be dealing with the intersection of humanity and technology, and both Cipher and Sacha have bodies that in different ways...glitch. [Cue evil laughter here]. This story will also be exploring a lot of themes related to agency, family, identity, and class warfare. There will be no romance between the main characters! There may be a revolution, or the start of one, though it won't be the main focus. It will probably be a standalone.

But wait, there's more! Glitch  is actually—drumroll please—the spiritual prequel to Rivener 2.0! Maybe even literal prequel, if I can manage to sprinkle references to Glitch into it. But basically, my plan is for Rivener 2.0 to take place in the same world, only much, muuuuuch later on. We're talking about a thousand years later!

So Glitch wip is actually me setting up the world to be what it is in Rivener. Initially, Rivener was supposed to be more of a fantasty post-apocalyptic story than a sci-fi one. I've moved away from that entirely though. Kai's shifter abilities are actually a result of the evolution of shapeshifter genes mixing with the bio-mods that happen during Glitch's time. And this does mean, unfortunately, that the world of Glitch is one barrelling towards an apocalypse. [Cue more evil laughter].

Now I'm not a science person, and though I will be doing a little research into these concepts, for the most part (or at least, in the first draft) I'm gonna just have fun and hand-wave away any big questions of how all this is possible. Hello, we've got aliens. 

Anyway! I'm super excited for this wip! I haven't written any new content for it, I've just been thinking and talking about it, and waiting for the story to finish brewing in my head before I try and write it. But this is the last of my major updates, and I hope you enjoyed reading and following along with me on this. Check out the pinterest board I have for it, for more glimpses into the characters, world, and aesthetic. 

If you have any questions or thoughts on this wip or anything I'm writing, please do not hesitate to hit me up. I'd be ecstatic to hear from you! Also I do my best story-building in conversations with people. 

Until next time, happy reading and writing! 

Several months passed where I stopped writing almost entirely but didn't stop thinking about this, and after some more recent chats with Trade and Hyba, I decided to scrap my first rewrite of Rivener (which, if you don't know, I'd been sort of attempting to do) and properly pick up this AU. 

And now it's an actual thing! I've written 6k for it so far over the past couple days, planned a good chunk of it out, and have the writing bug again (such a good feeling, when you just wanna write and write and write, like an itch). It's going fantastically, if I do say so myself. However...

I was (am still? sorta?) a little nervous to share this version of my story (creatively titled Rivener 2.0) because...this Wren is awful. She does awful things and is complicit in awful things. Internet purity culture has me worried about what the response will be to this character who can lightly be described as ~problematic~. She changes, of course. This story is still about two very damaged people healing, the journey they go through together and because of each other. But it's also a lot darker. Or I delve into the darker aspects more.

Wren is not exactly a villain, but she's not a hero either, not for a long while. She is, in fact, closely aligned with the main villain. Not entirely of her own free will, but...well. Some may think she's irredeemable, which is valid. But I think it's rare that people are truly irredeemable. I do believe everyone has the capacity to change, if they want to, if they decided to, if they commit to it and keep trying and learning and unlearning, if they work hard to not repeat their mistakes or the way they've hurt people, if they apologize by word and action.

I don't think anyone is owed forgiveness, but I believe everyone can earn some sort of...grace? I don't know if that's the word I'm looking for, maybe redemption is closer to the mark.  So yeah. Wren will have a pretty significant redemption arc. I hope I can do a good job conveying the complicated person she is, with pretty severe faults but equally admirable qualities and depth to her. Her journey is not easy. She can never erase the things she's done. But I hope you cheer her on as she grows to be a better person, even if she can never fully make up for who she was. I hope you understand where she's coming from, even if it doesn't excuse her actions or beliefs. 

Now this AU is not all about Wren, and Kai too is changed from the original story. Firstly. we're meeting him in vastly different circumstances, when he's arguably a much rawer character? In the original, he'd been enslaved to Cormac for a while by the time he met Wren, and a few years before that he was "stock" on a "farm" (for spoiler reasons, I won't explain what that means).

In this AU, he meets Wren having just been removed from the farm. He's less docile, but at heart, still the same sweet, gentle, traumatized Kai of the original. They have a long way to go before they like each other, given who Wren is and how they meet in this AU. She treats him pretty terribly. Not as terribly as she could've, and not as terribly as others, but...oof. They have an uphill battle ahead of them.

Still! I'm really excited to write this story, difficult (in topics and tone) as it is! I get to explore the world a little bit more, flesh out Cormac a lot more, and write some scenes I always wanted to, which didn't end up having a place in the original! I hope you guys will come along with me on this journey!

Have you ever written or read a character who starts out as awful and slowly transforms for the better (or the reverse)? How did it go? Do you think they managed to become sympathetic or appealing to the reader, despite their faults? Do comment below, or drop me an email, and let me know! I'd love to talk about this!

In the meantime, have an excerpt:

Stay tuned for P.3 of my writing updates, where I will talk about my Glitch wip! Happy reading and writing!

Hello hello! I've been writing and plotting for Chronicles of Mourra, Rivener 2.0, and the Glitch wip, and it has been going incredibly well, due in huge part to my writing buddies! (You know who you are, and I adore y'all). 

I've been meaning to let you guys know how and what I've been doing, and I have SO MUCH to share! Which is why this is only part one of the updates!!!! We shall start with...

Since very nearly the beginning of this iteration of CofM (which, if you've been following me for a while, you'll know is one I've been working on for about ten years, though this latest version is about two years old) I've been wanting to incorporate a prophecy into the plot. The question was how. CofM is, at its heart, my exploration of the Chosen One trope, and what's a Chosen One trope without a prophecy? (See: King Arthur, Harry Potter, Heroes of Olympus, the Lord of the Rings, Narnia etc). 

Anyway, so I managed to write about 40k without said prophecy actually being developed or incorporated in any way, and it was like a rock in my shoe, very irritating but ignorable with some effort. But finally I sat down (literally, by my local creek), opened my computer, and tackled it. About twenty minutes and 700 words later, I had...something. A good something!

A few days later, after talking it out with my friend Hyba, I ended up creating loads of backstory, character development, and a complexity to the overall plot that I'd been missing until then, and I am so excited. ​Here's a quick breakdown of what I've developed, somewhat spoiler free!

• Nur (the main antagonist) is a complex, tragic villain. Her mother raised her with certain beliefs about her destiny, and all her choices are guided by those beliefs, her mother's unjustified resentment, and her own very justified bitterness. (She's still definitely a villain though).
• I've used the 1001 Nights/Arabian Nights' premise as the inspiration for Nur's mother's backstory, and given her a name: Hayat.
• Nur's full name is now Nur-al-Hayat, or light of life. Her mother named her, partially, after herself. Take that as you will. 
• The prophecy could apply to two different main characters, although one (or both) will be framed as a false saviour.
• The prophecy warns of great calamity but also foretells a "golden age" heralded by the saviour figure...but here's the thing. A golden age will be coming, but for whom? Also, with the way the prophecy is constructed, the implication is that the golden age is dependent on the calamity happening first. Which further implies that the saviour figure will bring that about too. 
• In a sense, the prophecy comes true (or...might...come true) because people believe in it. Certain characters believe in it so much, in fact, that they make stupid and/or terrible decisions because they believe the prophecy is 1) infallible and 2) being interpreted correctly (by themselves)
• Nur and Qusaiy are mirrors of each other! So are Sirin (Qusaiy's mother) and Hayat (Nur's mother)! This probably means nothing to you because you don't know these characters, but this was a fun and unintentional development for me and I'm very excited to explore it further.
• Halah's grandfather now plays a larger role in the backstory of the major inciting event of the plot! Which is great and helps explain how and why Halah is caught up in this at all. (As a refresher, Halah is a character who gets caught up in something much bigger than herself and is, in a way, a minor character for these Big Events, although the story is told from and [mostly] limited by her perspective).
• Nur will not be redeemed, but she will do one (1) good thing, for her own reasons, that will positively impact the Good Guys™. And she'll do it out of spite. It's delightful, I'm delighted by this. This will also be happening in Book 2.
• Oh yes, I don't know if I ever said, but here it is officially: CofM is actually a duology! Chronicles of Mourra is actually the series title. I'm also planning a spinoff set in the same universe based on Aladdin, featuring a yet-to-be-introduced minor character from the first book (Halah's story). Book 2 will be Qusaiy's story, set when he's (spoiler alert) grown up.

Given all this behind-the-scenes tinkering, the 40k I'd already written needed some adjustments to reflect these changes or plant the seeds of future events! It took me about a week and a half of on-and-off-again writing (twice in a little virtual session with Hyba), but I managed to get what I'd written to a place I'm very pleased with! Here's an excerpt, a little descriptive piece I'm really fond of:

I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know any thoughts you have, or any questions! I love to talk about my stories so I will probably answer any questions you have, although I may skirt around spoilers. Anywho, I hope you're doing well! Do let me know.

Happy reading and writing!

Why yes I am updating at an unprecedented rate but that's not what's important here, what's important here is that I came to a Realization™ and it Explains Everything but has also filled me with Existential Despair (hence the emphasized capitalization for appropriate dramatic effect).

I have struggled throughout my entire writing career to write as much original fiction, with as much joy and consistency, as I write fanfiction. I have struggled throughout my entire writing career to complete my original fiction the way I complete fanfiction (at a frankly insane rate). In the past three months ALONE I wrote 185k words of COMPLETED FANFICTION. 

It took me approximately two years—or ten years, depending on how you look at it—to write 40k of my novel.

And today, as I was brushing my teeth, the reason why hit me like an ANVIL. 

I am a character driven writer. I don't really care about plot except as a vehicle for character development and relationships! Therefore, fanfiction (which is about the characters more than anything else), is incredibly appealing and fulfilling for me!

Original fiction, on the other hand, requires me to be invested enough in my characters to want to write about them. And unfortunately, as these characters exist in my head and I have not spent [insert egregious amount of time here] hyperfixating and consuming content about them, I simply do. not. care.

(Well, I don't care enough. And nobody else cares enough, which is part two of my problem: I thrive off of engagement the way my body thrives off of oxygen. Hard to get that with OG fiction I am not allowed to post lest it sabotage the potential for publication). 

Which means the probability of my completing original fiction or writing with consistency and passion and dedication? SLIM TO NONE.

Cool I'm going to go cry into my pillow now. 

But Sumayyah, I hear you saying, why don't you just write fanfiction and then change enough details that it's safe to claim it and market it as original fiction a la Cass!e Cl@re and other authors? And to that I say:  

In essence, I'm SCREWED. I would like to rescind the writerly instinct that was given to me. Clearly it was intended purely to torture me with everything I want but cannot have because of the way I Am As A Person. 

​Nice.

Surprise!!! I'm still here!!!

January.....was a terrible month. Terrible. The Worst™. Condense all of 2020 into one month, and name that month January 2021, and you'll understand that ya girl has been Going Through It. 

But it's February! I'm working again (I, in fact, have two jobs, both of which I love and enjoy), the sun is appearing once every ten days instead of once every three weeks, and I've sort of clawed my way to some semblance of normalcy. (Sorta).

I have not written anything for my wips since December, and not for lack of trying. I can't tell if I'm burnt out, or bored, or simply suffering from writer's block. I just know that I try to write, and nothing happens except that I get increasingly frustrated and riddled with despair because I just...don't want to write these stories. But I still want to write. Truly, it's agonizing.

Back in December, I had decided to dedicate February to writing daily prompt fills with Hyba, since I had so much fun doing Fictober. But I was so low in January that I regretfully told Hyba I wouldn't be doing it. Disgruntled, I thought: this was what I got for having the temerity to plan anything, because the moment I plan is the moment all my plans blow up in my face. This has been the tradition of my life.

...Figures that seven days into February, I would be seized with the desire, energy, and motivation to actually take up that writing challenge.

Basically, I wanted to write, but I didn't want to work on any of my wips, and I couldn't come up with any ideas for new wips. To this, my brain very proudly went "AHA! DO A PROMPT!" As if I hadn't been wanting to do that since December.

So I took out my 'everything and the kitchen sink' journal (a notebook I use for...everything and anything), googled some prompts, chose the first one that caught my interest, and wrote. By hand. It was immensely satisfying, even though I'm feeling this simmering sort of resentment that 1) I couldn't make progress on my wips, 2) that I'm doing this seven days later than I had planned to, and 3) that I'm doing this after having gone through the mortifying ordeal of flaking out on my friend.

Am I gonna do this every day of February? No idea. I don't want to say I will or won't, because clearly that is just tempting fate to laugh directly into my face. I wrote. I updated my blog. I'm about to send out a newsletter. That is three things I've been wanting to do for weeks, and that's enough for me. 

It's the little things, babes.

Happy reading and writing!

So I was flipping through my bullet journal yesterday, looking at the very beginning where I wrote all my optimistic goals for 2020 (hah!) and how many I just uh...didn't achieve. (HA!) And one of those goals, listed right at the top, was to try and write 50,000 words of CofM before 2021. To finally make proper headway with my novel, instead of just thinking about it for oh, I don't know, another ten years (😭). 

And I was looking at that goal and the way I couldn't cross it out because while I had written (what is to me a very impressive) 20k, 50k seemed such a long way away considering I...hadn't written anything other than fan fiction in about a month.

I just. Got stuck. Got in my own way, stressing about hypotheticals and plot plans rather than just opening the doc and writing a crappy version of it all, so that at least the words existed on paper, ready for me to improve. But something happened last night.

I was talking to my wonderful friend Hyba (who has a novel coming out this January!) and she really got me so excited and rejuvenated about CofM by both listening and exploring possibilities with me. So I sat down, and despite all my own fear and self-imposed pressure, I opened my google doc, and started reading the last chapter I had written.

As one does, I edited a little bit here and there, noticed certain holes and patched them. (At one point, a character takes her shoes off to climb a wall and never puts them back on, which is a problem because then she runs through the city). Then I got to the heading Chapter Eight, and all the blank space underneath.

And immediately I started feeling antsy and bored, a stress response if ever there was one. I had to stop myself several times from opening Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, and my mobile games. I had to stop myself from getting out of my chair and spur-of-the-moment reorganizing all my drawers. I had to resist the urge to procrastinate with all my might.

But I managed to power through all my uncertainty and fear of failure, teeth literally gritted, just to write the first line, which had been bouncing around in my head all day, fully formed. ...And then I wrote a little bit more. And a little more. I recalled the way I had phrased something in an earlier draft, went to find it, and found a whole section that could fit into this chapter with some tweaking and adaptation. (This is why I try to not delete anything).

And then it felt like I blinked, and looked up, and it was 3am, and I had written 20,000 more words! Putting me at 40,000 words total. Meaning I'm only 10,000 words away from achieving my goal, with thirteen days until the end of December! AAAHHHHHHH!!!!

Which is to say, guys. I might actually do it! I might be able to write 50,000 words of CofM before 2021!!! I can't believe it, I have never written this much for CofM before! I honestly doubted if I ever would! And yet! Here I am!!!

You might be wondering why I'm celebrating now and not when I hit 50k. The answer is twofold. 1) I'm literally too excited to keep this to myself. 2) I am still worried I won't hit 50k, and I'd rather celebrate 40k than beat myself up about it. Anyway, enough about me! Have an excerpt from the latest chapter, featuring  Halah, my main character, and my darling Ilyas.

You may or may not know that I'm rewriting Rivener, my post-apocalyptic novella and first original, completed, long-form work! I currently have about 14k in the doc, much of which is new content expanding upon the old. I'm having a lot of fun with it, and I'm excited for all the ways Rivener is gonna improve. I'm not actually changing much of the plot, but more of the structure and characterization to, hopefully, make it a stronger story.

And unfortunately, to do that, I am going to have to delete about 50% of the new words.

A huge part of my brain is having a temper tantrum about this, full out wailing and kicking at the ground and sobbing huge cartoon tears, the works. The other, rational part of my brain is saying, finally. The truth is, I kinda got stuck with Rivener 2.0. I went in a new direction, plot wise, and though it was fun to write, it didn't really serve the story as a whole.

I wrote myself into a corner with it, and then I couldn't find a way out without—to continue the metaphor—having to stomp over the freshly painted area. Which I was loath to do. Alas, I have no choice. I gotta kill my darlings, those darlings being the new words and by extension, the hours of work that went into writing them, which makes me feel like it was a whole lotta wasted time and effort. Boo. But actually, that's just a bad perspective. 

Those words weren't a waste, even though they're gonna be removed. (Strictly speaking, I'm cutting and pasting them into a new document because I may end up using those words in some way elsewhere. Never actually delete your work folks! Hoard them words! You will regret it otherwise!!!) Those words helped me figure out several things, develop my craft, and guide me to the right path to take with the story as a whole! 

And now that I've accepted what I need to do, I can hopefully get myself out of my rut and write on! Exciting!

You may or may not know that I'm writing a Muslim-themed fantasy epic temporarily titled The Chronicles of Mourra (or CofM for short). I've been working on it off-and-on for about a decade now, which means I've been doing research for it for the same amount of time. I'm quite blessed in that I grew up surrounded by easy access to an excellent Islamic education (any and all ignorance is a reflection of me entirely lol).

My parents especially instilled in me a love of my history, traditions, and religion. Both my parents are educators and storytellers, in different ways, so that I haven't really needed 'outside' research to create the world of CofM (as it stands now). I base a lot of it on my lived experience!

​Still, when someone on Facebook asked me if I was able to do my research easily, and lamented struggling to find resources on notable women in Islam, especially in positions of power and leadership, I went on a researching binge and compiled a very non-exhaustive list of resources on magnificent Muslim women.

This is more a jumping off point so you can have a direction when researching online (there's a lot of books out there too!) I focused mostly on medieval women, as there's a wealth of easily accessible information out there on all the incredible female companions and contemporaries from the Prophet's (ﷺ) time. (Although, if y'all want a list of them, do let me know and I'll make a part 2 to this!)

1) Via Ballandalus, a truly excellent online resource on Islamic history:

• 15 Important Muslim Women in History 
• 20 Influential Medieval/Early Modern Muslim Women 
• 20 Influential Medieval/Early Modern Muslim Women 
• Women in Islamic History 
• Famous Historical Muslims of African/Black Origin
• 27 Prominent Medieval Andalusi Women

​
2) Extraordinary Women from the Golden Age of Muslim Civilisation via 1001inventions
​
3) Women’s Contribution to Classical Islamic Civilisation: Science, Medicine and Politics via MuslimHeritage

All these links include references that should lead you to more information! I did my best to make sure they're all credible too. Some standout favourite women I want to learn more about include:

Do you know of notable Muslim women of history that are absent from this list? I would particularly like to find more women from outside the Arab world! Comment below and let me know!