We chat with debut author Sara Sharaf Beg about Salaam, With Love, which is a heartfelt and humorous YA contemporary following Dua, who spends the month of Ramadan making unexpected discoveries about family, faith, and first love.
Hi, Sara! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m a second-generation Pakistani-American Muslim, born to immigrants from Karachi, Pakistan. Although I was born in Orlando, I’ve lived in multiple states – including New York, New Jersey, Florida, Washington, Michigan, and now Texas. I have a B.A in Radio/Television from the University of Central Florida and worked as a freelance writer for a few years after graduating. In 2020, I graduated with my M.A in Counseling from Northwestern University, and I currently work as an outpatient mental health counselor primarily treating individuals presenting with anxiety, depression, and trauma. I have always been interested in people’s inner experiences and why we do the things we do, a curiosity that serves me well both as a writer and as a mental health counselor.
Welcome to 2022! What are you hoping for the year and do you set any goals or resolutions?
I hope that this year brings better health and overall wellness and prosperity to everyone. My resolution for this year is to prioritize self-care and focus on meeting my own emotional and mental needs. I’ve had it recently pointed out to me that I work a lot, and while I enjoy the work I do during the day as a mental health counselor, it can be emotionally draining if I don’t recognize my limits and abide by them.
Another goal I have is to find a better balance between spending time with family and writing. Because I spend most of my day in counseling sessions, evenings are for writing – and family time, and I struggle with guilt over not spending time with my family while also not devoting enough time to my writing.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I actually can’t remember a time when I didn’t know I loved writing. Some of my earliest memories are of my mother taking me to the library. She would read to me at night, and it was a nightly ritual I enjoyed. As soon as I learned to write, I started making my own picture books. I couldn’t write many actual words at that point, so I would make up words just to create the book. I remember the first one I made followed a female, brown doctor throughout her day – modeled on my experiences with my dad, who would occasionally take me to work with him so I could see what he did.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember reading on my own is Corduroy by Don Freeman. I was obsessed with it!
It may have been more of the experience of going to the library than any specific book for me, but books I remember loving and being inspired by to this day include Corduroy by Don Freeman and The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
A book I always return to and think of often is The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan, a historical fiction based on the life and love of the Empress Noor Jahan. My paternal family is distantly related to Noor Jahan’s, and I have always been fascinated by South Asian history, especially around the Mughal era.
Your debut novel, Salaam, with Love, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
A girl’s journey to self-actualization.
What can readers expect?
Salaam, with Love is about self-love, loving other people, and loving God. My main character, Dua, has a lot of insecurities around feeling like she’s not a “good enough” Muslim. No one really behaves in a way that gives her that impression, but she views life and others through that lens. Throughout the course of the novel, she learns more about Islam and its place in her life, and through her faith she also connects with her family and gains the courage to pursue her own dreams. She’s a talented musician, but an average girl – and she’s supposed to be. Dua could be your neighbor, classmate, or friend.
Where did the inspiration for Salaam, with Love come from?
Nowadays, there are so many brilliant authors like S.K Ali, Uzma Jalaluddin, and so many others, but when I was growing up, it wasn’t easy to find books with Muslim main characters in them that were in the mainstream media, characters who actually were proud, unapologetic Muslims. So with Salaam, with Love I wrote the book that I, as a Pakistani-American Muslim, wanted to read and see on bookshelves when I was a young adult. I wrote my characters as people I would’ve wanted my peers to know and think of when they thought of the word “Muslim,” because positive, practicing Muslim representation is something that is not seen nearly enough in mainstream media. While I don’t have particularly close relationships with most of my cousins because of significant age differences, that sense of belonging and family was always something I longed for. So I gave Dua the family relationships I craved at her age.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
My biggest challenge while writing is always to just keep writing. I don’t see plotting as a strength of mine and I also have perfectionist tendencies, so I get frustrated when I hit a slow point or tough part of the story. Ultimately, I force myself to just get some words on the page because I can always go back and fix them later, and I sincerely believe the stories I have are worth telling. I have a few very close friends I’ve enlisted to keep me accountable, and I would send them each new chapter of Salaam, with Love as I was drafting. If I went too long without writing something, they would bring it up and demand to know when the next chapter was coming, so that helped keep going.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Yes, absolutely! I enjoyed writing all of Dua’s scenes with Hassan and exploring her feelings around having a crush on another Muslim for the first time. Her relationship with her older cousin Mahnoor is a bit prickly at first, and so her first bonding scene with Mahnoor is very close to my heart. Finally, I really put a lot of myself into Dua’s internal dialogue while exploring her faith and connection to God, and those scenes are also very precious to me.
I also adore Haya’s character. She’s a great foil for Dua in many ways, very sure of herself and her faith, outspoken, yet incredibly humble and supportive as a friend. Haya is actually one of the first characters I came up with!
This is your debut novel! Can you tell us what the the publishing journey was like for you?
Like many other things in my life, my publishing journey was initially long-winded and bumpy but then accelerated toward the end. I finished drafting Salaam, with Love in 2012. Back then, its working title was The Ramadan Checklist, in reference to a tool Dua uses to frame her experiences during Ramadan. I started querying shortly after, and signed with an agent in 2015. Things didn’t work out with that particular agent, but through her I got connected with my current agent, Jamie Vankirk at Rainbow Nerds Literary.
The manuscript then went through a few rounds of revisions and then submission. Using the feedback we received, we then did more revisions and submissions. It wasn’t always easy; occasionally we would get some pushback because my characters don’t touch (in accordance with Islamic guidelines) even though Salaam, with Love is a romance, but I’m incredibly grateful for Jamie because she never gave up on Dua’s story.
In March 2021, I finished a round of revisions that I felt really great about, sent them to Jamie, and prepared to go on vacation. I was completely at peace and content with the work I’d put in on those revisions, in a way I probably hadn’t felt before. The same day, I got a text from Jamie asking if I could call her before I got on the road. That’s when I learned that Wendy Loggia, my editor at Penguin Random House, read the whole manuscript in one day and wanted to make an offer. That kind of go-getter energy is perfectly aligned with my personality, so of course Jamie and I happily agreed.
Everything from that point on was pretty fast-paced, and I had a fantastic team to work with throughout the process, especially Wendy Loggia and Alison Romig, associate editor.
While it certainly had its challenges, I wouldn’t change a thing about my publishing journey. I learned a lot from it, which informs my current approach to writing and pitching. Throughout the process, I also learned to never give up on my dreams or my principles.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The best advice I have received is just to keep writing and to tell the story you want to tell, and trust it will find its audience.
I can’t think of any advice I’ve received that I would say is the “worst,” but I would say any advice that requires you to go against your values and your own vision should be considered with a grain of salt.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently working on a Mughal-inspired fantasy. If all goes well, maybe we’ll see it on shelves one day! I also have an idea for an adult romance that I’d like to work on in the future, possibly featuring one of Salaam, with Love’s side characters as a main lead.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
Absolutely! There are so many great books I’ve been enjoying: Love from A to Z by S.K Ali, Huda F Are You? By Huda Fahmy, A Taste for Love by Jennifer Yen, The Candle and the Flame by Nafiza Azad, Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean, and Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian – I was fortunate enough to read an e-ARC and highly recommend it! I’m also looking forward to reading The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman, which is next on my list.
