compulsively
READABLE
THE NAME IS REAL. EVERYTHING ELSE IS MADE UP.
SCREENPLAYS
World Class
A 12-year old runs away from home and into the United Nations, seeking refuge on its international territory, where she stumbles on a huge scandal and then becomes an international incident.
Gold Prize, PAGE Awards - PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition 2022
Semifinalist, Austin Film Festival 2022
Finalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Fall, 2022
Semifinalist, ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Competition 2023
Quarterfinalist, Outstanding Screenplays Feature Competition 2021
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2022
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Winter 2021
Quarterfinalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Spring, 2022
Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Family Screenplay Competition, 2023
Feature Screenplay
Fakes
A Bronx couture genius teams up with a counterfeiter to sell fakes -- but their success depends on the one person who refuses to help.
Quarterfinalist, PAGE Awards - PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition 2022
Semifinalist, ScreenCraft Short Film Screenplay Competition, 2023Second Rounder, Launch Pad Pilot Competition 9th Annual
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Fall, 2022
Official Selection, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Spring, 2022
Quarterfinalist, Outstanding Screenplays Shorts Competition, 2023Quarterfinalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Spring, 2022
Half-hour Television Pilot
Sh*tcoin
A genius group of poor immigrants exploited by their greedy boss plots to scam her back using cryptocurrency.
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2022
Official Selection, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition 2022
Media Darling
A thirsty bit-part TV actress is publicly dumped by her Hollywood heartthrob husband and gains a starring movie role on condition that she maintain a pathetic public image.
Feature Screenplay
Semifinalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Fall, 2022
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2022
Like Nobody's Business
Desperate to afford trendy fashions, a shallow teen sells the wine her family makes from their unique Manhattan rooftop vineyard with brilliant success—as long as her principled Arab father never finds out.
Quarterfinalist, Slamdance Screenplay Competition 2023
Quarterfinalist, The Writers Lab US 2023
Quarterfinalist, PAGE Awards - PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition 2023
Quarterfinalist, Stage 32 Family-Friendly Screenwriting Contest 2022
Supermodel U.N.
When a publicity stunt gone wrong thrusts an unfiltered tween into the job of heading the United Nations, she must prove that diplomatic expertise is no match for street smarts.
Finalist, PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Competition 2023
Now Playing
When a dying indie movie theater suddenly becomes a hot new hook-up spot, its cynical owner realizes how to turn a profit—if only she can hide the fact that she hates love.
Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival, 2023
The Nearlywed Game
At a couple's engagement celebration, the groom's ex shows up as the waitress, reigniting sparks between them that threaten to burn the party down.
Quarterfinalist, Screenwriters Network Feature Screenplay Competition, 2022
Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival Stage Play Competition, 2023
Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival Shorts Competition, 2023
6 Words for Love
When Zeus, King of all Greek gods, stakes his entire domain on a bet that he can seduce a mortal woman, he discovers that love is more dangerous than power.
Feature Screenplay
Semifinalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Fall, 2022
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2022
Official Selection, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition 2022
The Songstress of Baghdad
A Jewish girl in 1946 Iraq escapes a dangerous fiancé by running away to Baghdad to become a nightclub singer -- until she's forced to choose between losing her voice or her life.
Feature Screenplay
Semifinalist, Roadmap Writers Top Tier Competition, 2023
Second Rounder, ScreenCraft Film Fund Spring 2023
Second Rounder, Austin Film Festival
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Fall, 2022
"Transjordan" (Short version)
Finalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Spring, 2022
Semifinalist, BlueCat Screenplay Competition 2023
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Fall, 2022
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Fall, 2022
Quarterfinalist, Outstanding Screenplays Shorts Competition, 2023Delicacies
When her commercial rent spikes, a hopelessly single pastry chef is forced to fuse her business with a dating service whose owner she can't stand.
Half-hour Television Pilot
Second Rounder, Launch Pad Pilot Competition 9th Annual
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2022
Quarterfinalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition 2022
Sextortion
An attention-starved college coed lands in the crosshairs of a murderous Incel who weaponizes technology to sextort her until she can no longer tell what’s real and what’s fake, who helps and who kills -- or how to break free. Feature Screenplay
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, Fall, 2022
Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards Summer 2022 Official Selection, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition Spring, 2022
Wild Mountain Lily
At tango class in New York City, a Peruvian wife learns more than dance with her Japanese partner – until their performance is crashed by fate.
Feature Screenplay
Honorable Mention
Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition, Fall 2022The Circle at Liberation Square
An Iraqi Christian patriot is forced to fight for his life and the safety of his community during the rise of Saddam Hussein.
Historical Novel Manuscript
Top 100 Finalist, 6th Annual Launch Pad Prose Competition
Coverfly Red List
Miss Fortune Teller
A New York-born Iraqi woman tries to avoid her mother's fanatic embrace of Arab fortune-tellers only to fall for an all-American guy who decides to become one.
Modern RomCom Manuscript
Coverfly Red List
When her commercial rent spikes, a hopelessly single pastry chef is forced to fuse her business with a dating service whose owner she can't stand.
Comedy Short
Director: Tak Inagaki
Writers: Tak Inagaki & Jessica Jiji
Stars: Akiko Fujiwara, Mendel Abehsera, Mark Yowakim
How to Judge a Book by its Lover
A LAUGH-OUT-LOUD ROMANTIC COMEDY
Laurel Linden wants nothing more than a publishing contract for her 600-page historical novel about Napoleon Bonaparte’s hairdresser. Despite mounting evidence that it’s hilariously bad, she clings to faith that it’s a future bestseller. While expecting to become fabulously famous, Laurel’s earning cash as a New York City dog walker and living in a rundown apartment. Her friends and family want her to move back to the suburbs, get a real job and settle down – until Laurel shocks them all by nabbing a huge book deal and a hot Belgian boyfriend.
Only problem is… the perfect life she always dreamed of feels all wrong. Changing course would mean giving up everything she worked so hard for and – way more difficult – accepting who she really is. For all the thousands of words of fiction she’s ever typed, it’s finally time for Laurel to write a real happily ever after.
Let's Tell Stories
My mother always told me we could travel far with books. Long before there were virtual tours and Google Earth, she introduced me to books that transported me across seas and centuries.
Like parents everywhere, my father used to tell me bedtime stories. Being Iraqi, he made up tales about a brave girl named Cassima. Instead of starting with “Once Upon a Time…” he would open with the line, “I was a cook for the Queen of Iraq…” The cook was never much good at fighting off bandits or protecting the palace but Cassima would swoop in and save the day. I was mesmerized.
Somewhere between being raised on the power of reading and those imaginative tales, I started writing. Sometimes, I cross continents and decades to write about the Arabic culture I was raised to revere. Other times, I stick with here and now. Either way, it’s a journey we’re on together.
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Books
Sweet Dates in
Basra
About the Book
Sweet Dates in Basra
Beautiful Kathmiya is sent from Iraq's idyllic countryside to work as a maid in Basra, where she meets Shafiq, a Jewish boy whose brotherhood with his Muslim neighbor Omar proves friendship transcends religion. Set during the Second World War, Sweet Dates in Basra portrays the unyielding power of human solidarity.
Diamonds Take
Forever
About the Book
Diamonds Take Forever
If her family had never left Morocco, Michelle would be in big trouble, being almost
thirty and still single. When her hot boyfriend breaks up, she gives up on getting a sparkly ring. But then Michelle discovers a diamond is just coal until it's forged by fire and time.
How to judge a Book by its Lover
About the Book
How to judge a Book by its Lover
Laurel Linden wants to publish her novel and nab a sophisticated boyfriend, but when she gets the life she always dreamed of, it feels all wrong. For all the thousands of words of fiction she’s ever typed, it’s finally time for Laurel to write a real happily ever after.