I have fantastic news to share with you. Based on the first few chapters I have written, my publishers are interested in my new book proposal, and I shall sign a contract with them in the next few weeks. It’s such a strange feeling; the idea for this book has been churning around in my brain for the last couple of years. Yet, now that I have started typing and others have begun to read these early drafts, I am both relieved and excited that there is interest in the stories I want to tell.
In brief, I want to continue writing about women in Asia, but I will switch my focus to Pakistan for this book. My main concern is forced marriage and the girls and their families targeted for this persecution because they are Christian. For those of you who have read my recently published book ‘Come with Me to Kathmandu’, I have been inspired by Maria’s story told in chapter 8. I’ll also highlight girls sent from Western nations to Pakistan for marriage and hopefully discover what happened to a girl I went to school with. The provisional title for the book is ‘Our Sisters’.
Writing a book is a slow process; I anticipate it will take another 18 months to complete the manuscript, and if my previous experience is anything to go by, it will take a further year for the book to be published. So, don’t expect to hold the paperback in your hands until late 2025!
In the meantime, I would really appreciate your help. Please get in touch below or email dislocatedchristians@gmail.com if you can help with any of the following:
- Do you know of any books written by Christian women from Pakistan? So far, I have only come across two, one of which was first published in 1978, and the other was by Asia Bibi. Surely other Pakistani Christian women have been able to tell their stories! Although, if they haven’t, it proves that there is a need for their voices to be heard, and my new book is necessary.
- Do you know of any Christians (or people who are sympathetic to Christians and don’t mind helping with a faith-based book) who can help me with my research? They can remain anonymous if they wish to, and I only require general information rather than specifics. I would like to speak with people who work in the following settings:
- A UK secondary school in a pastoral role
- A UK GCSE exam board
- At an airport with responsibility for border control and emigration.
- If you can’t help with these, please share this blog post far and wide and let your friends know they, too, can be part of my book-writing journey. Christian communities are full of the most amazing people, and God has placed many of us in strategic positions. With your help, I am confident He will provide the contacts I need to write this book. If a friend has sent you this article, and you’d like to keep up to date with my writing, enter your email address and click the ‘subscribe’ button below. I promise not to bombard you with emails and articles, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Above all, please pray! God has clearly been guiding me and has provided me with the most amazing contacts for the chapters I have written so far. I live in Belgium now, and Brussels has proved to be the perfect place to connect with activists campaigning for freedom of religion and belief. I can’t wait for you to read the book and to discover who I have met!
Thank you for reading this far; being a Christian author is an enormous privilege and responsibility, and I’m thankful for your support.
Blessings, Anna
DislocatedChristians exists to create and support a community of like-minded people. I’ve described myself as Dislocated because I sometimes struggle to understand how God wants me to be in the world, but not of the world. I also move house a lot!
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Just as we are each a work in progress, so too is DislocatedChristians. Sometimes I’ll get things wrong, and I hope you’ll forgive me and continue to stick around when that happens.
Dislocated Christians 