by AnnSheybani | Dec 28, 2025 | Life
Envy killed the chickens. Or so my Bedouin mother-in-law believed. There once was a jealous neighbor who came for a visit. Commenting on the large flock of hens pecking away in the courtyard, forgetting to invoke God’s blessing on such wealth, she drew the Evil... by AnnSheybani | Dec 22, 2025 | Reading, recommendations, Writing
Let’s just say I had an awful lot of time on my hands while on vacation several years ago. That’s what happens when you deliberately leave your computer at home; AND you’ve got nowhere to go, save the local airstrip or the hotel compound; AND your helicopter can’t...
by AnnSheybani | Dec 13, 2025 | Life, Reading, Writing
At my 60th birthday party a couple of years back, something interesting happened. A number of my friends started talking about retirement—counting down the days, making plans to “slow down,” fantasizing about endless yoga retreats in Mexico and Netflix...
by AnnSheybani | Dec 8, 2025 | Reading
Every year around the holidays, I love pulling together book recommendations—and this year, I thought: who better to ask than published authors? After all, writers tend to be voracious readers who know their stuff. I asked some of our Summit Press authors to share...
by AnnSheybani | Nov 27, 2025 | promotion, publishing, Writing
Most evenings after work, my father would be outside running the lawn mower, spraying the grass with a garden hose, or spreading Scott’s seed, dandelion killer, or lime by the 50-lb bagful. Come fall, he’d attack the leaves with a rake for hours on end and...