About Me
Hey there everyone! I’m Lena. I write spoken word, and YA and adult fiction. I was born to Syrian immigrants in Mississippi, and now I live between Chicago and Qatar. My writing often explores the challenge of reconciling different worldviews, and the struggle to belong to one or the other. My love of reflecting on these questions inspired me to get a master’s in Islamic Studies and comparative religion. Besides writing, I also create cute insta-comics and spend way too much time on jigsaw puzzles.
Loose
At only 18, Alma has everything a Syrian girl could ever want: a feast of suitors, a booming business, and a YouTube channel with over three million subscribers. As the single most popular hijabi influencer on the Internet, she is invited to an isolated luxury hotel to speak at MUSLIM-CON, a convention for distinguished Muslims.
After an accident at the hotel forces Alma to take off her hijab in public, an anonymous account leaks photos of her uncovered hair online. This deals a destructive blow on her reputation within the Muslim community, leaving her shamed and scandalized.
But as the account continues to post libel against her, Alma grows more and more anxious. After all, she is in a secret relationship with a non-Muslim boy, and if that gets out, her online empire, built over the veneer of her piety, would crumble, and her family reputation would be run to the ground.
The suspects include the guest speakers at MUSLIM-CON, an eclectic bunch who don’t agree in matters of faith nor politics: the preacher, the pop star, the Sufi, the writer, the sheikh, and the progressive. Driven by her fears and her desire for retribution, she ventures to uncover which of them leaked that photo, and intercept their posts before it’s too late.
GENRE: YA Contemporary
STATUS: Complete, On submission
Heart of Ice
In a country ravaged by winter and war, Princess Har of Galacia spends most of her time reading contraband romance novels and imagining herself as the heroine of her own love story. But when her father offers her hand to a man with a heart of ice, her dreams of love and romance are shattered.
Stoic Prince Samur of Solen is more villain than hero by Har’s standards, but their marriage forges an alliance that protects her downtrodden country, giving her the chance to be a different kind of heroine. But as she embarks on her journey in the sunny palace of Solen, she finds villains lurking in every corner. Besides the cruel prince who refuses to take their marriage seriously, she has to deal with a bitter maid who hurts and insults her, and a conniving paramour who ventures to undermine the marriage that keeps her country safe.
Determined to protect the tenuous alliance, Har evades all their villainous schemes and comes up with ones of her own. But the narratives that Har has built around her enemies eventually crumble, blurring the lines between good and evil. When protecting Galacia’s interests feels like an act of villainy, Har is forced to choose between her country and her convictions.
GENRE: YA Fantasy
STATUS: Complete
Before her Very Eyes
Four years ago, a vengeful sorceress condemned Ari with a curse; whenever Ari called out the name of someone she loves, that person would die before her very eyes. To evade the curse, Ari isolates herself and only ever interacts with two people: “~,” her female friend, and Johan, her landlord and employer. The curse doesn’t work on ~ because she cannot say ~’s name, and it doesn’t work on Johan because she despises him.
But when a young man named Huraira moves into her building, she can’t help but love him. She tries to avoid him so he wouldn’t die, but many accidental run-ins and slip-ups later, nothing happens to him. Strange, considering that people she’s loved less have died before. Her curse isn’t working on him, and it becomes increasingly clear that he is lying about his name.
Determined to uncover the truth about this stranger who stole her heart, she sets off to find MRS, a syndicate of powerful mages headquartered beneath one of the many mosques in her town. If anyone could tell her the truth about this man; it’s them. But her journey leads her to strange places, and causes her to uncover secrets she never wanted to know about Huraira, about her past, about ~, and about Johan. As all their stories get entangled in a complicated web of magic and love, Ari has to grapple with her shifting feelings and keep her emotions in check. Because her love could kill… literally.
GENRE: Adult Contemporary Fantasy
STATUS: Complete
A Game of Chicken
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GENRE: Adult Romance
STATUS: Currently Writing
Distorted Reality
A poem about that deceptive sense of normalness we are all guilty of when a genocide is unfolding before our eyes.
My COMICS
Check out my Instagram feed to see all the comics!
