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Hey, everyone.

You're listening to Code Switch.

I'm B.A. Parker.

To be a Palestinian-American writer right now can lead to a lot of expectation to focus on identity and devastation, like in all caps, and not get into the nuance and

humanity of any one person's experience, you know, crushes, hopes for yourself, and your

kids' futures. Betty Shamiya has dealt with that kind of expectation as a Palestinian-American playwright.

I think my joy in life is making people laugh and telling stories.

And I always felt like I started out in theater because I didn't want to be alone writing books.

And I also thought it would be a good way to get a boyfriend.

And then I realized there's not a lot of straight men working in theater.

It's a small percentage.

But after 20 years of writing plays and even finding love,

Betty decided it was time to take the lonely road and sit down to write an intergenerational novel, Too Soon.

And in it, her main character, Arabella, is looking for love in some of the same places as Betty did.

Too Soon is the tale of three unapologetically bold, salacious, and ambitious Palestinian-American women who are determined to ring an acceptable amount of joy out of a world that is not designed for them to do so.

I started with Arabella, who's a hip young theater director, looking for a dude to be her man.

And then the grandma showed up. And she was like, I'm going to have my say too. And I get to have some salacious experience.

I get to be fully human in the way that Arabella is. So I feel like this book is a melding of

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