About this Captain

Haneen, In Fiction.  In a dystopian fantastical world I’m a Captain and the leader of my navy school, an elite sword fighter with magic powers, living by the sea in some faraway continent, while yearning for the quiet, serene life in my homeland in North Africa.

Haneen, In reality. In the real world I’m the girl who laughs in the most inappropriate times & places. The one who is determined to claim her place in HISTORY. I live in Khartoum, and I have a BA in English & linguistics. The third of seven siblings, which explains why I’m a bet obsessive about my privacy/personal space. (It also explains why I want to live in a castle, a true castle and have six kids. Um.. Yea)

More on me.  I love to make lists. No really I'm addicted to listing! I love to draw, and sing to myself, and learn new things about Islam. You will find me out when it rains, and sand storms automatically turns me into a romanticist. I'm also a day dreamer with excellence and enjoy the dark, but I prefer running in the sunlight. I have a gold fish memory (pathetic I know) and I get easily distracted (or should I just say that I'm multifunctional to an extreme degree :| ?) My flipping mood is genetic therefore I have two sides, one that is nice, sweet, classy and shy with a near tear. The other is loud, extremely sarcastic, tomboyish and cold. I’m never one thing and perhaps that’s why I love writing cross-genre stories inhabited by a variety of characters in cosmopolitan cities. 

I respect friendship So much, and lucky to have the best friends ever. Want to be my friend? Just call me Captain.
Ooops I almost forgot: I'm The uncrowned Queen of procrastination.

Favorites. My favorite sports are long distance running which I do (Naoko Takahashi, & Kara Goucher Rock!!) and football which I don’t do (Go FC Barcelona, Messi, Iniesta & Xavi!!) and table-tennis which I hope to learn (Go China Team!!). All in all I love sports, even if I’m not that sporty.

As for books my list of favorites includes The Hunger Games series, The Hobbit, Mr. Darcy’s diary, The Heart of The Hunter, An introduction to Systemic Functional Grammar and Harry Potter. Right now I’m so into the Spanish language. Food includes Pizza, cakes, cheese and all kinds of chocolate & hot drinks (YES for tea and NO for coffee).

Writing. I write for YA, and Adult, and sometimes for MG in both Arabic & English languages. Mostly in fantasy & dystopian with a switch of Sci-Fi , but I can use my hand in historical, horror, steampunck, supernatural and sometimes (rarely though) reality. I also write poetry & non-Fiction. I wish I can be able to write a good mystery but I guess I’m not cut out for that, yet again who knows? Muhahahahaaa!

More on Writing. Writing is my life! And I aspire to write as much books as I can during my time on Earth, and after I die I will haunt the dreams of some plain Jane and force her to write the rest of my stories. Don’t worry she will be the rich & famous. What if she dies too & I’m not finished? Will I’ll hunt some more, Duh!

The long Epic Tale of the Worrier sea Captain:

Once upon a time a man & women from Sudan got married then moved to Jeddah in KSA. Their third child was a girl, a quiet, sweet and rarely crying baby. They called her Haneen *yearning* from the famous line: "Yearning for the homeland" Because they were feeling homesick. Needless to say the girl compensated for her lack of tears as a baby to be a super class crier when she grew up. An oversensitive – mostly - misunderstood child. Oh man!

She had a passion for drawing, and at the age of five her mother taught her to read & write. With those abilities combined Haneen was able to visit the whole wide world. 

The girl devoured all the books she could find, for adults & for children, but stories and history were her favorite. She would tell, and weave her own tales for her younger siblings & relatives with great pleasure. 

In intermediate school for one reason or another Haneen seemed to attract the attention of bullies, but fortunately she was blessed with the BEST of friends. She was full of mischief and loved to do jokes on others. Made tenths of illustrated stories.  And her mother always told her she’s crazy cause she was constantly talking to herself.

But something Big also happened

One day she discovered Playstation, played one game 'Final Fantasy7' and heard one song 'That’s the way it is' by Celine Dion, and her world was never the same. Her imagination gates went slammed open by a massive storm, and all those stories shut inside her came out like a flood. It was enormous but also scary, as if she activated her hidden super powers!

'Final Fantasy 8' and Celine Dion’s 'Immortality' were the core for the story she is dreaming to write, the epic fantasy that will put her in history books (Hey! a girl can dream right?).  But she wasn’t ready, she was ignorant & doors weren’t open for her, she had no self confidence, no resources, no encouragement, did not even know she's suffering from Anxiety.

Then along came change. Earth Wrecking change.

With a broken heart, and a great amount of tears Haneen left her precious friends and old life in Jeddah and went to Sudan to continue her high school and go to collage.

At first it was hard to adapt, she felt like an outcast, things got kicking when she made some friends. She discovered the joy of poetry, wrote some unfinished stories. But the truth must be told her good grades went all the way down, cartoons became all lame, the Playstation was long gone, something was broken, her imagination shut down for years. 

She lost herself, didn’t know where she belonged anymore. Years passed and nothing happened, nothing new, nothing serious.

So…what happened after all this lame-less-ness? 

Yup! As you guessed Haneen was ANGRY, like deadly angry. Like Mulan she was pissed  of looking daily in the mirror and only seeing the reflection of a stranger. She was devastated as her talents were withering away, of not fulfilling her dreams, of her difficult parents, of her weak health, of her frustrating amazingly unproductive life! She was so tired of being depressed all the time and the lonely crying sessions every night!!! 

You know what else she hated? all the books that didn't end the way she wanted them to. All the books she wanted to read but were still not written. What was worse was the hate union marching with torches, sickles & forks against her! all her characters were out for BLOOD!-her blood- demanding to be set free. O Baby the girl has reached Cloud Strife’s final Limit! 

“I’m tired of being a silly marionette in other people’s hands! I must take charge of my life! And I must write or else I’ll die!” 

In 2009 Haneen couldn’t ignore the call any longer, some of her poems were published on the internet, and others were aired on the local radio, but it was time for the real thing, and so she decided to write her first no-kidding finished novel, the sea Epic fantasy one.

But along the way she got distracted by a young vampire and his mentor (from an old teenage story idea). Eventually she gave in and started writing book one of the 'Nights' trilogy at the end of 2009, meanwhile short stories sounded like a good idea, so she started writing those too. 

It was in 2010 when a different reality hit her “If I want to be a writer I better get moving & exercise!”  so after reading a book about running, she got hooked and started running, nothing she tried before  gave her the same joy she felt after a run. 

Haneen knows that her life is just beginning. But  she can finally breathe again.  Crossing the unbeaten paths is a price she's ready to pay for her dreams.  Her long forgotten laughter filled the infinity and beyond as she announced “Be ready world for I’m BACK!”. 

And that is the story of Haneen so far. The story of me.