I also write books and illustrate them. Both of the books I’ve written mean a lot to me. My first suspense-thriller for young adults, The Storyteller and the Terrorist in Our Newsfeeds, is about the rise and fall of a passionate storyteller, seventeen-year-old Najmah Qamar, who ends up living through her worst fears as her tales come to life. I took a break from writing the sequel, The Storyteller and the Dangling Girl, because I promised I would write a collection of short stories titled Stories for Syria to say thank you to kind donors who participated in my fundraiser to support USA for UNHCR’s work for humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees and IDPs (internally displaced persons).

Each of the short stories has at least one special character named after one of these donors or one of their loved ones as gesture of gratitude. The basic storyline of the book is that one day while on vacation, a young woman stumbles across a talking fish at the beach. This fish tells her he can only become human again if someone listens to all of his stories. She agrees of course and the fish then recounts many of the tales he knows. The images below are a few sample illustrations that were included in Stories for Syria.