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Asking for Blurbs was hard

Publishing a book is an incredibly new experience for me and the number of things that I had to do after signing the publishing contract was really quite astounding. One that I was absolutely not looking forward to was asking for blurbs. Just the idea of reaching out to established authors and asking them to read a debut novel from someone they didn't know was terrifying, let alone getting them to say something nice. So I steeled myself for rejection and started sending out requests.

I think I prepared myself for rejection so well that it was surprising when people accepted, and even ore when blurbs started to come in. I have a hard time accepting praise and I certainly am feeling that way with the kind words that came in for "Under the Full and Crescent Moon". I think going over the blurbs and talking about how they make me feel is going to help me process these emotions.

Islamophobic attacks continue

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic Nominee for Mayor of New York City, has faced constant attacks targeting him for his faith since his campaign for Mayor started to see success.1

On the 2nd of July 2025, one day after Canada Day, a Muslim woman was swarmed in the city of Osahwa, her hijab pulled off of her as she was stomped in the head.2

Three Palestinian men were shot in Burlington Vermont for the sin of speaking Arabic and wearing keffiyehs, one of them will never walk again. 3

Six year old Wadea al-Fayoume was stabbed to death by his landlord in Plainfield Township, who yelled "You Muslims must die." 4

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day everyone. Let's take the opportunity to talk about something our Prime Minister, Mark Carney said on CNN in late June 2025. He said, and I am paraphrasing slightly that we cannot have peace in the Middle East unless we have a 'Zionist, if you will, Palestinian state' that recognizes the right of Israel to 'not live in fear'.

This is so incredibly insane that I am left wondering what Canadian values even are anymore. Let's quickly analyze this.

Being Shia

Us Shia people are in the news a lot lately. What with the groups and countries that are directly resisting Israel outside of Palestine being Shia, and Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City being Shia as well. And since it's the start of the Islamic Month of Muharram, which is an incredibly important time for us. It's a good time to talk about what that means.

The drumbeat succeeds once again

I was in Saudi Arabia in 1990 when the First Gulf War erupted. While I was never in real danger, I vividly remember, as a 9 year old, crowding into my parent's bedroom and putting on gas masks to ward off any chemical weapons Saddam might have lobbed at Saudi Arabia in retaliation for hosting American bases and troops.

Then, at least, there was a clear justification for the war, Iraq had invaded Kuwait, and the entire world, under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, was united in authorizing the use of force to liberate Kuwait.

In the 35 years since however, the pretexts for wars in West Asia, by the West, have grown increasingly flimsy, and yet the war drums never fail.

The reason why seems obvious to me.

Iranian Bias

I think it is safe to say that most people who grow up in the West have a negative bias towards Iran. This is neither a good thing or a bad thing. Being biased is just a core part of being human.

The problem comes when we treat our biases as conclusions instead of the first reaction that they actually are

Review of Oxford Soju Club

Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park is an incredibly satisfying combination of spy intrigue and rumination on the struggle immigrants face with finding identity and meaning while navigating different cultures.

Time is running away

So here we are less than four months away from the launch of my book and I'm five days late in making my monthly post.

It's kind of reflective of where I find myself. It's been a very busy month for me personally but my book marketing has suffered as a result.

So instead of giving an overview of how my month went as I usually do I want to talk about why I think I haven't been focusing on getting the word out about "Under the Full and Crescent Moon".

The InterFaith we can do, but between ourselves?

I attended an inter faith dialogue event a few months ago in my hometown that was setup by a Shia Muslim group on the topic of end times prophecies. It was a well attended and well run panel with a number of religious leaders explaining their own theology's views of the end times. Most of the presenters were incredibly respectful of each other and the topic itself was a pretty neutral one.

So I was pretty flabbergasted when the Muslims on the panel started going after each other with aggressive rhetoric.

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