Alhamdulillah!!! I’m going to be publishing my first book!
Given the last ten or so years of my blogging history, you’ll be surprised to hear it isn’t actually full of mortal wounds, kids stories, and personal reflections. It’s actually a children’s book, and I’m very excited.
The reason why I’m so excited is that the story is part of My Legacy. Yes, I’ve made it a proper noun for emphasis. For more information, see the new My Legacy tab on the top of the page. The way I see it, if I am not around to have important conversations with my children later, that doesn’t mean that I can’t script them now. So I’ve started writing stories for children, specifically, mine. And yours might enjoy them too.
I want to have at least one published story for Khalid, Iman, and Musfira. Iman’s has been accepted. Khalid’s was rejected, but the very kind publishers said they’d give it another look-over to see if reviewing it one more time will make it seaworthy. Musfira’s has been imagined but not yet completed, but hey, well begun is half done!
I’ve asked the publisher if they can actually illustrate the books to look like my kids, because if I’m not there, I want the kids to be able to see themselves still talking to me. I know, it’s kind of sappy- maybe even melodramatic, but when I think about passing away, the thing that tears at my heart most is not being away from my husband (sorry HF), it’s actually the thought of my children looking for their mother and not being able to find her. Of Iman seeking a cuddle and finding my empty room. Of Musfira crying for me and being hurt and confused why I’m not coming for her. Of Khalid panicking because I’ve disappeared and he can’t understand where I’ve gone.
If you think that’s bad (gee, look who’s crying again) the absolutely, positively worst thing I can think of is my children finding out that I’ve “gone back to Allah,” and then resenting Allah for having stolen their mother. My worst case scenario is my death pushing my children away from Islam, because as sad as I am to face leaving them in this life, that’s still nothing compared to the thought of any of my children turning away from Allah. So the stories serve a dual purpose, InshaAllah- of creating memories for my children in case I’m not there to make them, and of teaching my children about Allah in a way that reminds them of me positively (happy stories) versus negative (Allah took momma away).
But, back to being cheerful- Alhamdulillah! My first story has been accepted and I’m very excited. I’m fairly sure that if I hadn’t been Not-Dying-Yet, I wouldn’t have had the urgency to overcome my fear of submitting anything to a publisher. I would be too scared of being rejected to even try. But I did it, and they said yes. And now I’m going to do a little happy dance.
I’ll let you know when it’s published, InshaAllah. In the mean time, check out Greenbird Books, they have lots of really adorable Islamic stories for kids. And soon, InshaAllah, they’ll have mine too. 🙂
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