Author * Writer * Stoker of Flames
#Openbook
How do you feel about killing off one of your major characters?
No. I have absolutely NEVER thought of killing off a major character. No…nehi…la!
Check out the video below, where I share my perspective on the elements of romance and why the two main characters must stay alive.
Original Post: I Love Diverse Romance
Good morning Diverse Romance Readers.
We were able to catch up with author Lyndell Williams and ask her a few questions about her latest release, Open To Love. Enjoy this short interview with the author.
Interview question #1: Describe what your hero and heroine would consider the perfect date night.
The closest thing to date for Hafsah and Faheem is to meet under the purview of a chaperone. Given the heat between them and the no contact before marriage many Muslims observe, a third party is needed. So, for them, a perfect date for Faheem is one where he can take Hafsah and be alone. It can be in public. A nice restaurant would be great, as long as nobody sitting at the table with them, all caught up in their business. He follows the rules though, grateful when he can snag a friend who will keep their distance to chaperone.
Interview question #2: What does your hero love about your heroine and what does your heroine love about your hero?
When he gets a chance, Faheem will open his office door and sit at his desk, waiting and hoping that Hafsah’s laugh will drift in and brighten his day. He fell in love with her quick wit and humor. It helps him shed his seriousness and just have fun.
Hafsah first thought Faheem was all stiff. Then she made him laugh so hard during a working dinner that it filled the board room and shocked their co-workers. He quickly gathered himself and commanded everyone’s attention and respect. She loves how confident and takes charge without being an arrogant jerk about it. He knows when and how to loosen up and gives everyone their dignity.
Click here to read the entire interview.
Continue reading “Steamy Muslim Novella Open to Love Interview”
Hello, readers! I am thrilled to introduce author Talia Hibbert. Talia is a USA Today bestselling author who lives in a bedroom full of books. Supposedly, there is a world beyond that room, but she has yet to drum up enough interest to investigate.
I have reviewed Talia’s books Damaged Goods and That Kind of Guy. She expertly fuses humor and sensuality. Her book A Girl Like her is book one of her popular Ravenswood series. Check out the blurb.
Available on Amazon
![A Girl Like Her: A Small Town Romance (Ravenswood Book 1) by [Hibbert, Talia]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512zr2PNGKL.jpg)
She’s the town pariah. He doesn’t give a damn.
In Ruth Kabbah’s world, comic books are king, silence is golden, and human contact is a pesky distraction. She doesn’t like people, which works out just fine, because the people in this small town don’t like her. The exception to that rule? Evan Miller, her way-too-charming next-door neighbor…
Ex-military man Evan is all tattooed muscle on the outside—and a big, cuddly teddy bear beneath. He’s used to coaxing prickly people from their shells, but he’s never met a woman quite like Ruth. Blunt, sarcastic, and secretly sad, she’s his exact opposite. She’s also his deepest desire.
Continue reading “LWL Interview: Bestselling Author Talia Hibbert on Writing Her Way to the Top”
#openbook
Are audiobooks considered reading?
The busy American lifestyle often limits the time one has to pick up a book, which can devastate someone who loves reading. Audiobooks offer a solution, giving people access to amazing (and not so amazing) titles that they can enjoy during their commute while running errands or traveling. Some people suffer from motion sickness if they look down and read. They don’t enjoy the luxury of reading a book when on a long train, plane or car ride. So, audiobooks are a blessing.
I belong to a lot of avid reading groups on Facebook. As I read posts, I often see people defending using audiobooks. While I have encountered no one who would purport that listening to an audiobook is not “real reading,” I suppose the argument must exist, or else there wouldn’t be posts about it. Ironic because the origin of the word read does not involve or restrict the activity to the written word. Yeah, you can not ask a literary critic about a word and things not get geeky.
Continue reading “Audiobooks And The Multifaceted Ways We Convey Words”
Guest Post by Author Sara Allen
Every morning at around 10 a.m., I sit at my desk and prepare to create, to write those words that spill from my fingers. Some days, the words flow like butter off a hot knife. Other days, it’s like pulling teeth without the anesthetic. I take what I can get.
Compared to other authors, I haven’t been writing for what I would consider a good length of time. Although my desire to be an author was fostered many, many years before, I still pinch myself sometimes when I sit at my desk and realize that what I’m doing is fulfilling a dream. It can be a humbling realization.
One of the most difficult aspects of being an author, a fiction writer whose main content focuses on romance and relationships, was that being Muslim was almost a serious deterrent. I had to understand what the doctrine taught to me since reverting meant in light of my writing. For example, was it okay for me to write erotica, to go in-depth on scenes, where intimacy was central? How would Muslim readers react to the words, expressions and sexual scenes that I was conjuring into existence?
Continue reading “A Day in The Life of A Muslim Romance Author”
Share how you keep your characters, storylines, etc., organized. Do you use an outline? Notecards? Post-its all over your walls?
I am back, everyone. I’ve missed writing for this blog hop, but I was slammed…hard…with a number of illnesses and was laid out for weeks.
Yeah, it took a while, but I am better now and ready to go!
Okay. How I keep track of everything needed to write a cohesive novel, novella or short story. What fun! And how convenient that I recently wrote articles about high and low-tech productivity for the awesome Haute Hijab blog. Below are some tools I use to keep things in check while story writing, even rebellious characters like Quinn Ang and Raad Khouri.
Original post- NbA Muslims
NbA Muslims Staff
The Black Muslim Atlantic is a concept coined by the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative co-founder and managing director, Margari Aziza.
The Black Muslim Atlantic draws from Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic. Aziza describes the Black Muslim Atlantic as an endeavor of transnationalism through literature, intellectual exchange, visual & performance arts, and travel.
The Black Muslim Atlantic is looking at past connections when Muslims from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas shared ideas and produced a unique and transcendent culture. We can look at that richness and heritage and glean it happening now on social media, where we are networking, sharing and debating each other. – Margari Aziza
Continue reading “The Black Muslim Atlantic, African American Muslims and The Single Story”
A fellow Muslim romance writer? I am here for all of it! I was thrilled to learn about Sara Allen and her extensive work writing in a genre often frowned upon by Muslims, despite the rich history of sensual literature in Islamic culture. She has written seven books, including her latest, Disposable. Check out the blurb.
![Disposable by [Allen, Sara]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41v8g1fqk7L.jpg)
When Caryn Blake, a prominent, black litigation expert, walks in on her cheating husband entertaining his latest girlfriend, she goes a little crazy. After everything she’s done for him; giving him the space to live it up, while she makes the moves securing a name for herself and fame for both of them, the betrayal is just too much. However, revenge is bitter-sweet, especially when it’s taken too far.
Caryn decides to take a much-needed break in the most remote state she can find. With nowhere to go and no one to take her. Caryn makes the most of a bad situation, finding friends and a lover she never thought she deserved. Continue reading “LWL Interview: Sara Allen on Writing and the Power of Language”
I was a recent guest on Katara’s Cafe on Blog Talk radio. Katara and I discussed my latest book, Open to Love, unique aspects of Muslim romance, polygamy, marriage and a second chance at love.
Original Post – About Islam, by Layla Abdullah-Poulos
Conversations about sex and sensuality can be particularly uncomfortable in Muslim cultures.
Although there are immediate connections between the Islamic faith and the sexual gratification of its adherents, many Muslims across the globe find themselves challenged by the idea that their sensual pleasure may be considered Islamic. Consequently, there are few and limited social discussions, written works and modern scholarship on the topic of sex for Muslims.
Islamic historian and erotologist Habeeb Akande writes books to encourage Muslims to reacquaint themselves with the rich tradition of Islamic links between faith and sex. Akande has authored several books on faith and sensuality, including Kunyaza: The Secret to Female Pleasure, A Taste of Honey: Sexuality and Erotology in Islam, Illuminating the Performance: African and Arab Erotology and Illuminating the Difference: Black, White, and Brown Women.
There is a rich tradition of Islamic erotology (the study of sexual behavior) lost to most Muslims in modern society. During his studies at al-Azhar University, Akande attained access to Islamic scholarship studying sex in the context of faith.
“The origins of Islamic scholarship about eroticism date back to ninth-century Abbasid Baghdad,” explained Akande. “A number of Muslim scholars spent a considerable amount of time studying the nature of sexual desire, eroticism, and the art of lovemaking, both for men and women, within an Islamic context.”
Join me and authors as we connect with readers and discuss the importance of building narratives.
![Kept (Kate Mercer Book 1) by [Tracey Lampley]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41l+ihKqfSL.jpg)
KEPT
By Tracy Lampley
$1.99, 83 pp, Kindle
Ah, frenemies. You can’t live with them. You can’t shove them over the side of your luxury apartment balcony. In Kept, Kate is quite busy juggling some love/hate relationships with her best friends CC and Wendy. The trio club and man hop, having each others’ backs, the best places for them to stab their beloved besties.
I mean, they do love one another, when they’re not downing drinks and passing shade. Kate has to sift through all that and some convoluted secrets her pals are keeping from her.
On top of all of that, our girl Kate is conflicted as to what she should do about her sugar daddy, Carrington aka Cary. With a gambling mother and heaps of bills, his dough comes in quite handy, but life as his sidepiece has worn out its novelty.
She was beginning to loath him [Carrington] and his demanding ways. How had she allowed herself to be kept? — Kept
#openbook
Your characters have been placed in Witness Protection. What three truths about themselves do they want to keep?
We can never hide all of who we are. Things will eventually come to the surface, even when the feds inject someone into a new life to safeguard them from immediate danger. The famous mobster Henry Hill is a prime example.
Hill entered the U.S. Marshals’ Witness Protection Program after he became an informant and testified against his fellow mobsters.
Think Tekashi 6ix9ine, who ratted out fellow Blood gang members. A book was written about Hill’s life as well as the movie Goodfellas.
Anyway, Hill spent years in the Witness Protection Program, committing so many crimes that he and his wife were eventually kicked out. He just couldn’t shake the lawbreaker deep inside. Although they are products of my creative author’s mind, there are things about my Brothers in Law series characters that they will not let go of, even if they are placed in hypothetical witness protection.
#WIPWednesday
#openbook What is your favorite childhood book?
Ugh. It is so hard to name a favorite anything, especially for something like childhood, which involves an expanse of time and stages of development. My favorite thing to read when I was in fourth grade was not the same as in kindergarten. Just like shoe sizes, my favorite reads grew along with me.
It is difficult for me to scour my memory and pinpoint one favorite book. I was surrounded by them as a child. We had so many books that I would set them up in a circle in the middle of our living room and read them one by one. I carried them with me whenever possible and always had a healthy stack next to my bed. So, I won’t be naming one favorite book.
Instead, I will list a few books from my childhood that I read to my children. Continue reading “From Me to Them – My Childhood Reads”
Original Post: Reedsy Discovery
![Heart of a Warrior Angel: From Darkness to Light by [Love, Lali A.]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LpZVvcKtL.jpg)
Review by Layla Abdullah-Poulos
HEART OF A WARRIOR ANGEL
By Lali A. Love
$14.99, 238 pp, paper
$2.99, 183 pp, Kindle
We all have aspects of our family about which we may think, yeah that’s one reason why I’m messed up. In Heart of a Warrior Angel, the main character, Lilac Noble has that in spades. Not only is her father off his rocker, but he also dumps heaps of dysfunction and abuse on his wife Mira and daughters—hold on, let me look up their names because there are a lot of them—Lilac, Jasmine, Violet and Rose. He is quite the busy violent sociopath, and the Noble women spend the entire book either subjected to, trying to escape or healing from his mistreatment.
#openbook
How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
Control is something I have a difficult time relinquishing to anyone. I can delegate easily enough but must maintain the power to make the final decisions, especially when it comes to my writing.
Like many authors, I put a lot of myself in my books. I have been exhilarated while writing some scenes and depleted by others. More than time and talent, storytelling requires energy. After completing a fleshed-out plot, I am usually vested in it and the characters, making it hard to detach myself and place it into someone else’s hands. I figured out pretty early into the novel-writing process that I did not want to let go.
Continue reading “The Dual Life of the Self-Published Author”
Review by Lyndell Williams
MARRIAGE OF TIME
By Mariah Stone
$12.99, 194 pp, paper
$3.99, 196 pp, Kindle
What is a pregnant woman to do when cornered by her mafioso ex? Why she gets some help from a magic-packed old lady with the ability to catapult her through time. In Marriage of Time by Mariah Stone, the main character Mia is smart, beautiful and very fertile. She had finally escaped her abusive Goodfella boyfriend Dan only to find herself knocked up. She tries to keep him from learning about the little bundle of joy, but we all know that never works out. Continue reading “#BOOK REVIEW: Marriage of Time”
I am thrilled to have my new romance, Open to Love released by After Hours Publications. Readers have been waiting for me to get Hafsah and Faheem’s story out for a while. This steamy, Muslim couple reflect the diverse and complex American Muslim experience.
From award-winning, bestselling author Lyndell Williams, the story of Hafsah and Faheem, a Muslim couple struggling to keep their raging desire for each other from getting out of control.
Hafsah grows closer to Faheem, falling hard for the sexy younger man. He is smooth and stokes feelings she meant to suppress.
Faheem uses all his charms to make sure Hafsah becomes his, but flirting can be a dangerous thing when committing to no sex outside of marriage. The two play with some serious fire that might burn them both.
The book made it on three bestseller lists on Amazon and became a #1 New Release.
As people wrap their holiday presents, I am posting the final Layla Writes Love author interview for 2019. I am thrilled to introduce readers to Tiffani Velez. I met Tiffani through a mutual author acquaintance via social media. I became an immediate fan after reading her book, A Berlin Story, which was called “hauntingly beautiful” by Geekwire. Her ability to write a solid stream-of-consciousness piece garnered my respect. So much so, that I passed my first novel to her before publishing. Continue reading “LWL Interview: Tiffani Velez Writes History, War and All That Good Stuff”
Available at Amazon
Lyndell Williams 