Best Religious Minority Story/Author Stay With Me by Apik_phail

What inspired you to write Stay With Me and how did you choose the career paths of the characters featured in it?

I wanted to write something realistic and relatable. Something you would expect from a normal boring book. So I thought why not and bam! Dana, Deen and Abeer was made.

Sophie Kinsella's Book 'The Undomestic Goddess' got me thinking about lawyers and I had this sudden urge to include such a character with a career as one. Contrary to Deen, I thought how much he and his sister Dana's career choices would clash and decided that would be a wonderful addition to a book. 

Many stories have lessons they want to teach. What is yours? And what inspired Abeer's character?

I wanted to zero in on how much Dana tries to keep the small family glued together. This story showcases the ignorance of the other characters to the hard work Dana does to keep the family a unit. In the later incoming chapters, I'm hoping to speak more about leaving the past as it is. The inevitable has come and passed and there's no reason to dwell on the it but rather build something of value and move on to that part of your life.

Lot of my ideas focus on lively young characters making up the day. Abeer was just one of those characters until I gave her a story of her own. Her young age, lively personality and sickness filled life seemed to capture the readers.

What would you like to tell Religious Minority communities?

There are tons lots of minority groups around the world. I face my own minority problem in school and in my native country, India. Especially of current years where being a Muslim in such a country is not easy. One mistake is all it takes for you to end up in court or better yet, getting publicly humiliated or trolled in social media. Nonetheless opportunities are opening up everywhere where we can rise above and not be named 'minority'.

As writers, writing is a great opening to such public awareness. Let's not have fingers pointed at groups for the sole reason that one person having such background have committed a horrible act. An individual is an individual. There is no reason to blame his brother or sister for a crime of his own.