The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Love from Mecca to Medina by S. K. Ali

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

Love from Mecca to Medina by S. K. Ali On the trip of a lifetime, Adam and Zayneb must find their way back to each other in this surprising and romantic sequel to the “bighearted, wildly charming” (Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author) Love from A to Z. Adam and Zayneb. Perfectly matched. Painfully apart. Adam is in Doha, Qatar, making a map of the Hijra, a historic migration from Mecca to Medina, and worried about where his next paycheck will come from. Zayneb is in Chicago, where school and extracurricular stresses are piling on top of a terrible frenemy situation, making her miserable. Then a marvel occurs: Adam and Zayneb get the chance to spend Thanksgiving week on the Umrah, a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, in Saudi Arabia. Adam is thrilled; it’s the reboot he needs and an opportunity to pray for a hijra in real life: to migrate to Zayneb in Chicago. Zayneb balks at the trip at first, having envisioned another kind of vacation, but then decides a spiritual reset is calling her name too. And they can’t wait to see each other—surely, this is just what they both need. But the trip is nothing like what they expect, from the appearance of Adam’s former love interest in their traveling group to the anxiety gripping Zayneb when she’s supposed to be “spiritual.” As one wedge after another drives them apart while they make their way through rites in the holy city, Adam and Zayneb start to wonder: was their meeting just an oddity after all? Or can their love transcend everything else like the greatest marvels of the world?

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain now here's your host chris voss i want to go on a monster roller coaster thing with my brain whatever that said welcome to the show folks welcome to the show we certainly appreciate you guys being here i think i broke half people's mic there with that welcome but thanks for tuning in be sure to further share your friends, neighbors, relatives.

Get them involved in the show. So you need to subscribe to Chris Voss Show. Go to iTunes right now with your phone and subscribe. Go to goodreads.com for just Chris Voss. Go to youtube.com for just Chris Voss. Those crazy places that we have all the groups for the Chris Voss. To my audience, thanks for being here. So we're excited to announce my new book is coming out.

It's called Beacons of Leadership, Inspiring Lessons of Success in Business and Innovation. It's going to be coming out on October 5th, 2021. And I'm really excited for you to get a chance to read this book. It's filled with a multitude of my insightful stories, lessons, my life, and experiences in leadership and character. I give you some of the secrets from my CEO Entrepreneur Toolbox that I use to scale my business success, innovate, and build a multitude of companies. I've been a CEO for, what is it, like 33, 35 years now. We talk about leadership, the importance of leadership, how to become a great leader, and how anyone can become a great leader as well.

Or order the book where refined books are sold. Today we have another amazing author on the show. She's a-book author she's a lot of books her new books is going to be coming out october 18th 2022 we're having a laugh in the pre-show green room because oh my god we're tired of books coming out almost the end of the year like where did this year go oh my gosh her new book Her new book, Love from Mecca to Medina by S.K. Ali is going to be coming out, and we'll be talking about that. Let me tell you a little bit more about her and what she does. She is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of several books, including Saints and Misfits, a book about me, I think. A finalist for the American Library Association's 2018 William C. Morris Award, a winner of the Apollo Award and Middle East Book Award, and Love from A to Z.

That's probably also a book about me, too, as well. I'm just kidding. And NBC Today shows Read with Jenna Book Club Selection and named one of the best teen novels of all time by Reader's Digest and Good Housekeeping. Welcome to the show. SK, how are you? I'm great. Thank you. I loved your intro. So high energy. It got me ready. That's what the coffee's for. That's what the coffee's for. And I'll just start referring to you as Sajda. Sajda, did I get that pronounced right?

Yep. There you go. Your first name during the show. So welcome to the show. Congratulations on the new book. Give us your plugs, your dot coms, wherever you want people to look you up on the interwebs. Yeah. So on Instagram at S-K-L-E books, S-K-A-L-I books.

I'm on TikTok there as well. Book talk is huge. So I love, you know, just to share things about my books coming out or books I've already written. On Twitter, I'm at Sajidah, S-A-J-I-D-A-H, right? And you can find me on my website at sklebooks.com. There you go. So how many books have you written?

Because I know there's a few. And then what motivated you to want to write this one so in total oh my gosh i think i have yeah now i've i've written seven books but not all of them are out yet and i have three more that are under contract as well so um still in the process of working on but, but I've got three YA novels out in the world. I've got a picture book and a middle grade that I'm an editor of. And so there's just different things because one of the things I love best about being a writer and author is just dabbling in you know different genres different writing for different age groups I'm writing adult as well right now so just you know whatever that's what I've always loved about just sharing stories is like reaching as many different

audiences as possible is like a real big interest of mine. That's coming out in October is Love from Mecca to Medina, which is a sequel to Love from A to Z. And there's actually the original cover looks like this. And it was like, it was, I call it an iconic cover because it was, I think it might've been the first cover that has a hijabi model. She actually wears hijab and real people on the cover of like one,

you know, several BIPOC books with BIPOC characters started to have like photography, you know, real people and covers. And mine was one of the first among the first batch. So I'm really happy with you know this cover so love for mecca and medina is continues the story of adam and zaynab who met yeah adam and zaynab met in you know saw each other in an airport met on the plane and and at their destination they kept running into each other so i used to call it a meet cute that keeps me cutie like they just kept meeting each other and eventually no spoiler but obviously if there's a sequel with both of them they ended up so in the sequel they take another journey and this one is to mecca and medina which is our

cities in saudi arabia where muslims go to do pilgrimage. The story is set during their pilgrimage, and it really gives people outside of the Muslim faith a glimpse into what happens on pilgrimage, some of the historic background behind it. But while that's the setting, it's really a story about what comes after the happily ever after so it's a book too and i know that it's tracking to mecca i think it is right it's quite the track it's quite the event yeah a lot of people go it's huge yeah it's huge so

that's a little bit discussed at the beginning where the word Mecca is now used in, you know, the English language to mean a gathering like the Mecca of basketball, you know, the Mecca of fashion. And it kind of gets into like where that came from. So, yeah, for pilgrimage, the annual pilgrimage, which is the hedge, that is before pandemic, before pre-pandemic, it was like almost 3 million people. And then there's the lesser pilgrimage, which can happen anytime during the year. And it's not just that hedge time as well. Like millions of people go from around the world. So now pandemic numbers, things have changed, know it's just like you know what what

happens during the pilgrimage what's going on i mean it is a trek like if you actually are talking about the hedge there's a lot of rights and there's a lot of retracing the steps of people who struggled in the past so you you put yourself in kind of like their physical situation and, you know, reflect on that. How long does it go on for and how long is the trek usually? So the Hajj, the one that Muslims must do once in of different, it's broken up into different, you know, aspects of the pilgrimage. So there's one where you circulate around the Kaaba, which is, you know, like a cube-shaped building structure in Mecca that Muslims all around the world face when they pray. They do their daily prayers. And during the Hajj, hedge you know pilgrims circle

around it and then there's um another aspect where you you you run or you walk like seven times between two hills retrace the steps of um abraham's um wife who was left alone in a barren desert and she was searching for hope so you retraced that that seven times that she ran and thinking about you know like her you know how she kind of like you know set out seeking that hope and then afterwards there is there's a part where you actually like stand on a mountainside and reflect and pray and then there's also a night spent under the night sky with billions of pilgrims and so there's yeah there's different all of the parts of it involve reflection and really like about your life and how you know seeking guidance and stuff so i decided that the story of love in the midst of um two people like in different parts of their journeys in life how they approach something like

the spiritual event and you know because one of the things that's really kind of key about, like, Love for May to Z is that both the characters are, like, the opposite of each other. Like, in every single way, they're totally the opposite. You know, Zayna's very fiery and, like, very quick to, like, you know, respond to things and injustice. And so, like, she's really into seeking justice by whatever means and Adam has more of like a calm kind of he's into you know reflection and peace and like seeking the calm so they're two opposite characters and so in this story I kind of look at what happens when you're setting on a journey with, like, such different outlooks on life. And how does that, like, kind of play out? Now, they haven't gotten married yet.

They're still in a relationship of just boyfriend and girlfriend? No. They actually, in this story, they were navigating their friendship and, you know, coming to a realization that they might be the ones for each other. And at the end, you kind of realize that they've decided that they're the ones for each other. When this story starts, they've had something that's called anika in like the Muslim faith, which is when they commit to each other. And it's like a contract kind of like where you're in a relationship, a committed single, you know, relationship, but they haven't had their like wedding or anything. Yeah. So they're, they're committed to each other. You know, it is for all intents and purposes.

It is a marriage, but they don't live together. They don't, they haven't had like the celebration, the wedding. That's going to be after they finish school and stuff. But yeah. Wow. Yeah. So now is this targeted towards, I see on the, on Amazon, it's targeted towards teens and young adults. Is that correct?

Yes. It's a young adult novel. So they're in the story. They're in their, they're 22 towards teens and young adults. Is that correct? Yes. It's a young adult novel. So they're in the story. They're in their, they're 22. They're both. Yeah. And, you know, Zaynab's just started law school.

Adam is, he actually dropped out of school in the first book. So he's trying to make his way in the art world. So freelance. Now is, is he Muslim? Yes. his way in the art world so freelance now is is he muslim yes um yeah so the story traces how he he actually became muslim you know after like his mother passed away so there's a little bit of background of how he came into the faith and yeah because one of the things that like a lot of young readers were pointing out was that a lot of the books coming out with Muslim girls and women as protagonists had them kind of in relationships with people who are not of their faith. faith and with the white savior thing happening where like they were being like rescued from their oppression or their oppressive you know background or whatever so a lot of young muslim readers were saying you know and this isn't just in books it was in tv shows and movies and stuff and a lot

of young readers are like well this is not our reality you know our reality is we do meet like you know we do get into relationships with actual muslim men and like why why are we not seeing that so you know i thought to myself well i'm in a relationship with someone who's muslim and and he actually also came into the faith and he was a born Muslim. So like, I was like, you know, these are stories as well, and we don't get to see them. So I wanted to write a story where it wasn't like from, you know, that stereotype of a Muslim girl being quote unquote rescued or something. Well, that works out pretty good. Do you have any stories that you want to tease out or different scenarios that we maybe tease

out to readers? From Love for Mecca de Medina? Yeah, so there is, you know, whenever you go on a trip like you go to Mecca, usually you travel with a group. So one of my favorite parts about writing is writing

characters. So I bring together, you know, an ensemble of characters who are, have their own quirks and bring their own kind of idiosyncrasies into the story. the characters she she has this this persona where she assumes she knows about you all like as soon as you she meets you and there's this little like just little misunderstandings where she's summed up Zainab as like all these things that she's not she thinks she's a vegetarian she thinks she's like studying to become a police officer like all of these things that like are and it makes kind of a comedy of uh errors happen and so that's that's like a reoccurring thing with characters i also just look at like you know like what like what happens when you when you're not fully like focused you're so focused on what's going on in your head that you miss the cues of like what's actually happening and so a lot of it is like a lot of my writing is you know comedy i would say it's like a lot of my writing is, you know, comedy. I would say it's like comedy of errors, like in this style of like a lot of classics where, you know, comedy manners and like just like things happening where one character is not aware of what's going on with another character and then like miscommunication.

Because that's a lot of life and so yeah so you'll find you'll find um you'll get to a lot of people who read it ahead of time said they actually feel like they're in mecca the cold marble under their feet one of the things i found out when like i was researching this book was that in mecca actually the the marble that's there is a special marble that's only sourced in this one area of Greece. It's so cool that it actually doesn't, you know, it doesn't heat up like other marble. So it actually cools. So it's better than like, you know, having a cooling system under the floor or something. So there's only things.

And that I hope that when whoever reads it feels like they're actually on a journey, they're actually, you know, running between the mountains, like they're actually taking part. Maybe you'll be exhausted. I think. I feel like I'm on the walk. Yeah. I've seen all the infrastructure that goes in behind it, like the bathrooms, the tents. And I mean, you have to have a lot of portable stuff for 3 million people to come through. seen all the infrastructure that goes in behind it like the bathrooms the tents and yeah and uh

i mean you have to have a lot of portable stuff for three million people to come through what what is your base readership who are most of the people that end up reading your books do you find so i have i have i'm always like surprised and pleasantly surprised to see that like my readership is quite different i i i seem like i kind of write for the young person i was that i didn't get to see my stories on bookshelves and stuff so i kind of write for that reader and so that reader is reflecting a lot of my muslim young readers but then i get all these messages and emails from like people who see themselves for the first time in my books that are not from the Muslim faith,

which is always very interesting. And I found that, and it's people of faith of different backgrounds as well, from, you know, Christianity to Judaism, to Hindu Hinduism just all different faith groups who hold kind of like to their faith strongly but they don't see that reflected so they found themselves in my books which is very interesting to me and I like interesting in a really like I'm just so happy to see that because it feels like we're so much more connected than we think we are and love that and also just yeah just young people from different backgrounds you know also it's used in schools my books are used in schools across the U.S. so I know that educators like you know seem to really find that you know they they feel like young readers from different backgrounds can kind of access the story.

And that's what I write. The way I write is as though, like, you already know what I'm talking about. I don't try to explain. I don't do glossaries. I don't do... It's just,, like in context. So people feel kind of like, I try to put a welcome mat by like, just treating you as though you would understand, like, you know, what's going on. Cause I, I come from that view of, of like readerships that if you are seeking

a book to read, you know, that might look, that might cover characters that are different from you. You're already open. Like, yeah, you're already, you know that might look that might cover characters that are different from you you're already open like yeah you're already you know ready for this story there you go well this sounds awesome this is really sounds really inspiring you know love transcends everything the feeling of love uh people loving thing it transcends everything culture space time i don't know about space i've never gotten the other side of space but but I imagine it would. Love conquers everything. That's what we should just go on. But it's been wonderful to have you on the show.

Give us your.com so we can look you up on the interwebs and find out more about you. So my.com is sklebooks.com. And thank you, Mr. very much, for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Thank you. And hopefully it opens up a lot more people's eyes to the whole experience of what it's like to be

in Islam and that Mecca Trek because I've always thought it was kind of interesting. I'd like to go sometime and I'm not you know, I just like to go because it seems like some really cool experience. So many people. Read the book. Yeah, read the book and skip it. There you go.

So thanks for tuning in. Be sure to order the book. You can pre-order skip it there you go there you go so thanks for tuning in be sure to order up the book you can pre-order it right now on amazon or wherever fine books are sold you think amazon will give me a dime for that october 18 2022 the book is love from mecca to medina by sk ali order that baby up today and check out all of our other books you can read those while you're waiting for this one to come in october thanks for tuning in go to youtube.com for it says chris voss go to goodreads.com for it says chris voss all the groups on facebook linkedin twitter and all those crazy places those kids play thanks for tuning in be good to each other stay safe see you guys next time