Books
My work explores the emotional landscapes that shape who we become. Below is my debut novel, the first in this journey.
Seven Days of Forever
A literary novel about a divorced father who, through seven unexpected days with a stranger, confronts grief, faith, and the risk of opening his heart again.
Upmarket Literary Fiction • Launching First Half 2026
Be Among the First Readers
Limited early access • Chapter previews • Behind-the-scenes updates
Join the Early Reader Circle to receive chapter previews as the manuscript nears completion.
Early readers receive:
- Exclusive chapter previews
- Behind-the-scenes writing notes
- Cover reveal access
- Launch updates and special announcements
The Story
When Yusuf, a divorced father still navigating grief and faith, exchanges a simple note with a stranger in a Phoenix café, neither expects what follows. A note becomes late-night texts. Texts become dawn walks through the Desert Botanical Garden. And across seven days, their conversations force Yusuf to ask: does healing mean staying safe—or risking his heart one more time?
For readers of:
The Alchemist • A Man Called Ove • The Forty Rules of Love
Note: Contains themes of grief, trauma, and loss. Reader discretion advised.
Why I Wrote This Book
Currently: Draft in revision • Beta readers providing feedback • Launching First Half 2026
This story began after a series of losses that reshaped my life — the end of my marriage, my mother's long illness, and eventually her passing. Each chapter of that journey forced me to confront myself in ways I never had before.
In that difficult season, my garden became my teacher. I learned resilience from a stubborn vine, patience from a slow-growing rose, and hope from the smallest green shoot breaking through dry Arizona soil. Those quiet lessons stayed with me.
My children saw me navigate grief, faith, and responsibility at the same time. I wanted to write something honest — something that reflected what healing truly looks like when you have no choice but to keep going.
Seven Days of Forever is not a story about perfect people. It's a story about wounded hearts finding moments of light, and about how even brief connections can change the course of a life.
This book is my way of honoring those truths.
A Glimpse Inside
The story begins at the end—with Yusuf alone, scrolling through their messages, trying to make sense of what he found and lost across seven days together.
Prologue
It ends, as so many things do, not with words but with silence.
No messages lighting the screen.
No laughter carried across the evening air.
No fragments of ordinary life dropped like breadcrumbs for me to follow.
Just quiet—dense, immovable, absolute.
Sometimes, in that quiet, I hear my name the way she used to say it—softly, as if it belonged to her for a while.
"Yusuf."
Even now, it feels strange on my own tongue.
I scroll through our thread the way a mourner lingers at a gravesite, fingers brushing cold stone.
Seven days, yet infinite moments between them—each one still alive, though the air now holds only their ghosts.
This wasn't illusion.
We didn't mistake intensity for meaning.
What we found in those seven days was real—fragile, luminous, and far too brief for a world that moves faster than the heart can keep pace.
I tell myself she isn't cruel.
That she's only protecting herself the way the wounded do:
by retreating, by dimming, by vanishing before anyone can reach the softest part of them.
The room holds its breath with me.
And still, my body feels the cruelty anyway—the stomach tightening, the chest hollowing, the breath cutting short.
The ache is not metaphor.
It is physical, twisting through me with the precision of memory.
This is what remains when forever collapses into seven days:
a hollow echo where a voice once was,
a bed too large for a body still warm from memory,
a silence heavier than any words she ever spoke.
And still, I can't regret it.
Because somewhere in the space between day one and day seven,
I touched something most people never touch at all—
something rare,
something terrifying,
something undeniably real.
This is that story.
From the forthcoming manuscript of Seven Days of Forever
Behind the Scenes
Written After Bedtime
Most chapters drafted between 9pm and midnight at Phoenix cafés, after feeding my teens, helping with homework, and finishing fatherly duties—when the world quiets and the hardest truths become easier to face.
Real Phoenix, Real Places
Every café, park, and street corner in the book is real. Yusuf's Phoenix is the Phoenix metro you can visit—actual venues, authentic locations, not imaginary backdrops.
Echoes of a Road Taken
This story mirrors glimpses of a journey I've walked. Real conversations have found their way to these pages. Yusuf's path reflects truths learned through loss, resilience discovered in the breaking, and healing that never looked like I expected.
Desert Blooms
The garden is real—salvias, roses, jasmine, basil, Saturday mornings in 110-degree heat. Additional inspiration came from the Desert Botanical Garden and Japanese Friendship Garden, where I learned that some things grow despite the harshness.
Thank You for Reading
Thank you for staying to read the full story behind Seven Days of Forever.
The Early Reader Circle is more than previews—it's conversations about craft, vulnerability, and what it means to write through grief.
Early Reader Praise
"
It wasn't long before I could relate to the characters, and I was anxious to follow their story until the end. It's not a romance story, it's a real world story.
— Marty
Beta reader
"
You want to find out what happens next.
— Cheryl
Beta reader
"
Absolutely beautiful!
— C
Beta reader (had tears in her eyes)
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