Before you come at me with your pitchforks, let me tell you that Salman's story doesn't end here. The sequel will pick up Salman's as well as D&K's story. He is my baby boy, I'll never let his ending be this miserable.

Those of who you have been threatening Salman/giving him baad duas/signing petitions against him - hold onto your billis (mmeow_124 hi). I didn't give him a chance to redeem himself yet. His character arc is yet to come.

Prequel & Sequel

I've already published the Preview chapters of More Than Gold. I plan to start updating from next week in shaa Allah. I'll post future announcements regarding MTG on that book, so please add it to your libraries if you wish to get notified.

Inspiration and Background

The idea for FoG sparked in my head while writing The Golden Girl, specifically this paragraph from Malika's perspective: Her mind went back to simpler summers; when they used to run after the ice cream man with the tinkling bell, spend all evening playing hide and seek, and plot to get back to Salman for driving Farrah up the wall with his silly antics.

It was also during that time I was itching to write stories about my own culture. Despite the number of books I've read, on and off Wattpad, I could never find characters who actually thought and acted like me, or the people around me. Even with Desi/Muslim books, I could never fully relate.

I did definitely take creative liberties with some aspect of the books, but incorporated more of my life here than you guys could imagine. Most of characters and relationships are inspired by real people and stories I myself have experienced or heard.

The retelling aspect of the book came later. About halfway though writing it I was like - I guess I can't just write desi parties and drama? I need to have an actual plot lol. I was also watching a show that was a P&P retelling (the one I mentioned in the previous author's note). Little Women has always been my favorite classic. So I combined these two and came up with the mashup that is this book.

Farrah & Salman

I call this book Farrah & Salman's book, that's why they're in the Prologue and the Epilogue.

I was always on the fence about whether or not this couple would end up together, especially because I designed them after Jo & Laurie (they were the Little Women aspect of the retelling); I don't plan my books, and that includes my characters. They take shape naturally as the story progresses; and with how both Farrah and Salman ended up, I knew this couple was doomed from the start.

Farrah is someone who has been struggling to express her feelings in a healthy manner and maintain every relationship in her life (even with her parents and friends). Every single character has issues with their parents in this book (Kaveh's parents literally forced/blackmailed him to leave the life he wanted for what they wanted)... yet, you don't see any of them complain about/and want to abandon their family ties as much as she does.

Everyone processes emotions differently and that's okay, so Farrah's feelings are justified in her own way. But the point remains (she struggles with relationships).

Salman is immature, self-absorbed, irresponsible and naive to some extent. This couple has been problematic and unstable from the very Prologue. The book begins with Salman taking part in bullying her, for God's sake. Farrah always hated Salman's guts. You see some of Salman's worst descriptions from her point of view. Her first reaction when he proposed was "I don't believe you". Salman always knew Farrah loved him and he reciprocated her feelings to some extent, but was too immature to handle it. None of this is healthy.

This couple failed to communicate and respect each other. And every decision they made had been rash and based on selfish feelings.

Even if Salman manages to clean up his act and to leave all these behind, Farrah will never be able to because she is more sensitive than any of the other characters and she has been hurt too deeply by his actions, and to be fair - why should she take him back?

Some couples aren't meant to work, and this is one of them. They bring out the worst in each other. They elicit the worst feelings in each other. Yes, Salman has been awful to Farrah, but he is also someone who is trying to improve himself. He deserves someone who will stand by his side and uplift him. They both deserve better; Farrah got it, and hopefully Salman will too (we'll see).

I wanted to point out that except for the ending, I didn't quite follow the original storyline of Little Women (not as closely as I followed P&P), and Farrah is probably the least like her Classics counterpart. Also wanted to explain that the reason why I chose to say at the beginning that Salman has changed is because, to some extent, he has changed. He was much more intolerable when he was younger (as is portrayed in The Golden Girl).

However, change is often a painful and grueling process. It bothers me to no end when I see fictional characters change overnight with no particularly significant incident taking place in their lives, and I decided to take three books to show Salman's development because you can't force this process sometimes nor can you speed it up.

I told you guys at the beginning of the book that I write what I see, and I have seen way too many unhealthy/unstable relationships in my lifetime to not at least write about a few!

Dahlia & Kaveh

Both of these characters were only meant to play side roles in the book. They really weren't supposed to be as prominently featured as they were, or even have a solid story line.

I thought it would be funny to see a man as composed and self-assured as Kaveh run after - and get rejected - by a girl like Dahlia, whose middle name is A Lazy Mess.

However, the moment I started writing Kaveh - starting from his name to the potential of a bomb character development, I fell in love with him (I'm going to come clean and admit it's mostly because he is written after Mr. Darcy).

I started seeing more potential in this couple than the one I originally set to write about, and despite the bitter beginning of their relationship, I liked the chemistry of these two better.

The more I wrote this couple, the more I liked them. And soon, from just two side characters with fleeting roles, they become two of the main leads in the series.

They didn't get a proper ending in this book, because they were never meant to. This was not their book. However, I will pick up their relation in the next installment right from where we left off and try to do them the justice they deserve.

Ending Author's note

This book is a whole mess, but it's okay because I learned how to write with it. I struggled with the first 20 or so chapters. I had to write and rewrite, sometimes wait for months to be able to churn out the next scene exactly how I wanted it to be - but at times, still failed.

Part of it is because when I started I didn't have the caliber as a writer to write something like this, but a lot of it had to do with the fact I had no idea in which direction I was heading (when I say I don't plan my books, you guys don't know how literally I mean it).

If I could rewrite it now, I would completely redo the first half of the book, introduce Rashid Osmani a bit earlier, leave out a lot of weak dialogues and unnecessary scenes.

With all that being said, I don't remember the last time I enjoyed writing something as much as I enjoyed writing FoG. I love the characters and the world I created. I never passed a boring moment while stirring up drama into their lives.

Any of you still with me?? Lol. If you are, I can't believe you guys stuck with me for this long. This is one of my fastest growing books and I'm genuinely blown away by the love and dedication some of you have shown me and my characters. I appreciate every comment, read and vote. I can't thank you enough for everything.

See you all in the next book.