SO Many Goofy Faces

Dear friends,

Instead of complaining about my stupid knee, I wanted to share the things that have made my heart full the last few weeks.

My sweet friends Ninive, Kim & Michelle hosted a book launch at Ninive’s beautiful home in San Francisco. It was an especially emotional night because the main character’s best friend in my book, The Blue Dress, is loosely based on Ninive, who I’ve been lucky to have in my life since I was 14. She and my other friends, some who came from far away, wrapped me in kindness & celebrated this book that means so much to me.

Wait a minute, you might say. I thought your knee was messed up. How did you get to San Francisco? Here’s how!!! Got wheeled around in the airport by the kindest airline workers, and in SF by my sweet friends. :)

While there, I had an opportunity to talk to this amazing 11-year-old about my book. She’d read it and listened to the audio version asked me about every detail of it. What you don’t see in this is her playing parts of the audio for me & me in tears as she talked about what she loved about it. It made me want to make her proud and keep telling stories that connect the others & help them feel seen.

Talking about young people…look at what these sweet girls did? My body may be broken but my heart is full!!!! 🥹

As I roamed around the Bay Area, I stalked a bunch of bookstores, asking if they had my book and when they had it, freaking out with such ridiculous goofy expressions! :)

On another note…if you’re in the DC area this weekend, come see me at my first ever book fair!!!! Thank you to The Montgomery Brief for including me on this great list of immigrant voices and stories at the Gaithersburg Book Fair!

Oh and this amazing thing happened, Samara Naeymi, the super talented voice actor, won the Kirkus Earphones Award for The Blue Dress. I was nervous about who would read my story, but she did such a beautiful job. If you have a chance, listen to the book. Samara is fantastic.

Now for the things I’ve loved reading the last few weeks…

This beautiful novel by Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures. It was so well done for the screen on Netflix. I cried so hard, like big fat tears. It was a quiet, stunning, and moving story.

Two interesting and important pieces by Lisa McCarty, both beautifully written and reported. The first one is What Kellie Gerardi’s Health Scare Reveals About Postpartum Hemorrhage—And Why Self Advocacy Matters, for Women's Health Magazine, and the second one for LA Times, Noah Kahan shows how common, and harmful, a delayed OCD diagnosis is.

This awesome piece, by the brilliant Sari Botton, about the pronunciation of her name. It made me laugh out loud, especially because my maiden name is Khamneipur and the plethora of mispronunciations and misspelling of it could fill a whole book!!!!

This vulnerable and interesting piece by Asha Dore, about the incredible pain she endured because of her childbirths, and her decision to get help, After Having 3 Babies, Plastic Surgery Was The Gift I Shouldn’t Have Had To Give Myself.

Lastly, this great piece by Alexis Barad-Cutler, I Beat My Eating Disorder Years Ago. Then I Started Taking a GLP-1. I was nervous about reading this. I write about my complicated, sometimes rage-filled, feelings about GLP-1s and eating disorders, and my novel covers my eating disorder. Her essay is so beautiful, honest and raw.

Thank you for being part of my community, it means the world to me! :)