Arabian Noir

Alex Shaw is the author of the #1 International Kindle Bestselling 'Aidan Snow SAS thrillers' COLD BLOOD, COLD BLACK, COLD EAST, the standalone DELTA FORCE VAMPIRE, the bestselling JACK TATE thriller series TOTAL BLACKOUT, TOTAL FALLOUT, TOTAL CONTROL and TRAITORS the first in the SOPHIE RACINE thriller series. His writing has also been published in the thriller anthologies DEATH TOLL, DEATH TOLL 2, DEATH TOLL 3, CAPITAL CRIMES and ACTION PULSE POUNDING TALES 2 alongside International Bestselling authors including Stephen Leather and Matt Hilton.
He is commercially published by HARPERCOLLINS UK (HQ DIGITAL) in English and LUZIFER VERLAG in German. TOTAL BLACKOUT, the first Jack Tate thriller was been SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING AWARD Sara Hamdan is an Arab-American journalist and editor. Raised in Greece and currently living in Dubai, Sara developed a keen interest in storytelling and travel from a young age.
After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, she pursued a career in finance and worked as a banker at Merrill Lynch. However, Sara's passion for writing never faded. She eventually transitioned to a career in media after getting a master's degree in journalism at Columbia University. She worked as a business and culture reporter for The New York Times based in Dubai before becoming an editor-in-chief at Google.
In her free time, Sara also pursued her love of creative writing - and her efforts paid off when she won a Netflix short story award. Encouraged by the win, Sara completed a debut novel featuring the same central character: a female Arab-American stand-up comedian. It was inspired by a transformative moment when her husband signed her up for a stand-up comedy course to work through a fear of public speaking.
The manuscript, What Will People Think?, won a coveted spot in the Emirates Literature Foundation Seddiqi First Chapter Writers Fellowship. Sara now regularly moderates high level conferences and hosts podcasts, (but leaves the stand-up comedy to the pros). In her creative works, Sara explores themes of cultural identity, our relationship with technology, love and the pursuit of creative expression.
When she is not at her laptop, Sara enjoys soaking up the sun on the beach with her husband and two kids. Always with a book in hand. Find Sara at @bysarahamdan on Instagram and @sarahamdan on Twitter. I'm an author, journalist, editor, mother and expat. I'm also through-and-through a sun-worshipper, happiest when floating in the sea with my face in the sun and absolutely nothing in my head. Though that last bit's never true, is it?In terms of career ('Annabel, your ideal job would be tax accountant, ' said the school careers officer), I've worked as a non-fiction book editor, produced and presented radio shows, edited a glossy woman's magazine, run a magazine publishing company, worked as the Telegraph's Expat blogger and as a magazine columnist, given news anaylsis on the television, and written four published novels (to date - number five is currently in production).
Other jobs I've had over the years include perfume saleslady, sales assistant in various shops, child-minder, supermarket cashier, stable hand, German translator (I used to be able to speak at length in German about concrete injection systems, though, hand on heart, those days are gone) and of course I started out with the obligatory paper round, which earned me £3.33 a week for delivering 238 papers.
Other snippets:I travelled behind the iron curtain when I was 16. This was definitely the biggest adventure of my life at that point. I saved up my wages from my Saturday job, flew to West Berlin, walked through the checkpoint to East Berlin and took the train down to Leipzig to see a penfriend, then I did it all in reverse. It was an absolutely incredible experience. I played alto clarinet in a music competition on the television when I was at junior school.
The day spent filming at the ITV studios was amazing: my ensemble didn't win the competition, but I got in a lift with a man who, to this day, I believe was Tom Selleck!The first book that ever had my name on as author was a baby record book, published in 1999. It was my first commission in Dubai and I knew nothing at all about babies so I had to crib all the key stages from text books. It's called First Steps in Arabia and, amazingly, you can still buy it.
I hold a BSc Hons degree in psychology from the University of Warwick. It was a really interesting degree and I absolutely loved it, especially the clinical stuff. I still believe I'll go back to uni one day to get my Masters degree. Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is a South Asian American novelist, scholar, and screenwriter, with a PhD in English, who tells women-centric stories in unusual settings. In her routines and writing, audiences experience what it means to be brown and female in a supposedly post racial era.
Mohana creates humorous feminist and cultural content like in her solo show Being Brown is My Superpower, in which she channels a lifetime of cultural misunderstandings. An award-winning novelist, she writes compelling characters in diverse settings. Named a SheWrites New Novelist, with several Best Indie book titles, in the Crimes in Arabia series, she explores the seams of life in the Arabian Gulf though the eyes of a female Arab detective and her grumpy cop sidekick turned husband.
Her screenwriting has also been recognized by the Austin Film Festival, Humanitas Awards, WrapWomen Pitch Fest and BRIC Open TV Pitch competition. Most recently, she wrote and produced Me Against the World, a collegiate romantic comedy, with diverse leads and a sports element which has been named a Best American Short, Best Romantic comedy, and an official selection at 8 international film festivals and winner at 5.
In her second short film, American Baby, an Indian expat couple tries to order tacos for the first time and inadvertently holds up the lunch line. She is also founder and creative director of the Short Film Lab, an incubator for first time female filmmakers in their teens and twenties based in the Middle East. Late to publishing her work, Daisy cast her first novel at the tender age of 50, The Mercies of Gwenda Wade.
Lifelong obsessive of Golden Age Crime stories, radio plays and theatre, Daisy writes short stories for crime magazines worldwide in between assisting with Middle Eastern literary events and working with charities. She delivers short writing courses, edits, and promotes charitable literary works. Inspired by her work with West Norfolk Deaf Association and using skills gained in a previous life working in Equalities and Human Rights she is developing her inclusive www.daisycrime.com website that will showcase hidden gems from the vast back catalogue of early 20th century, making them accessible for the widest audience possible.
In addition, she will be introducing various characters in new crime shorts and run, chapter by chapter, her first book in anticipation of the second in the trilogy of Miss Gwenda Wade with signing, subtitles and audio. Southern by the grace of grits, Moxie T. Anderson is an avid horror and crime fan and writer who lives with a very patient rescue mutt, a very assertive (former) street cat who beats up the very patient mutt, and one very patient partner who encourages her in all her goals.
She has lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee and loves the South, despite its flaws. Anderson is also the recipient of the 2021 Al Sadeqqi Writing Fellowship and was fortunate to complete The Seven under the mentorship of brilliant UK crime writer Mark Billingham. She is currently represented by Luigi Bonomi of LBA. Padmini Sankar, short-story writer and author, has lived in Dubai for many years.
Her debut novel, The Mother of all Parties, a fun romp through the life of a Dubai socialite's preoccupations and peccadilloes, has been very well received. She has recently signed screen rights for the same. Her stories have been published in online magazines and shortlisted in competitions. She's also self-published a family history. Padmini presently has her writing fingers in many pies - she is working on a sequel to The Mother of all Parties, planning an anthology of Dubai-based stories, and also gathering material for a historical novel that's been playing on her mind for many years.
When not writing, Padmini spends most of her time reading, cooking (she claims to make the best gunpowder masala in town), travelling around the world, or else enjoying a chin-wag with her friends. She has two adult children and lives with her husband in Dubai. Rohini Sunderam is a Canadian of Indian origin. After many years as an ex-pat living and working in the Kingdom of Bahrain, she now calls Port Coquitlam near Vancouver, Canada her home.
While in Bahrain, for several years Rohini managed The Bahrain Writers' Circle, and Second Circle poetry group, and hosted a large number of poetry events. A semi-retired advertising copywriter, she has published four books: Corpoetry, Desert Flower: Five Lives One Day in Bahrain, (all previously published by Ex-L-Ence Publishing) and Twelve Roses for Love, a collection of short stories. Her poems have appeared in Dilliwali (Publisher Busra Alvi Razzak), Quesadilla & Other Adventures (2019), The Society of Classical Poets' Journals VII & VIII.
A short story was shortlisted in The Atlantis Short Story Contest (2013) published by Expanded Horizons, (2018). A CNF entry and Flash Fiction story were long-listed in separate WOW Women on Writing contests, Winner: Oapschat, U. K 2014. Her latest success is a short story published by The Missouri Review Fall 2022 issue (digital, print and audio). E: rohinisunderam@gmail.com Twitter/ X: @Corpoetry Facebook: RohiniSunderamAuthor Instagram: rohinisunderam Paul A.
Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught at 'O' level in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German. In addition to having two novels, a children's book, and an 18, 000-word narrative poem (Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers!) commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories, poems and articles. He is a member of the Society of Authors and has appeared several times in the CWA's annual anthology.
Paul A. Freeman works as a teacher of English in Abu Dhabi, in the Middle East. He resides there with his wife Ashai and his son Tony.