Hello dear friend—
I’m very emotional, sitting down to write this difficult email. Many of you have been checking in with us, asking if we’ve heard any news from my family. My (Nikoo’s) mother, brother, sister, and their families are in Iran. And since the attacks began, we haven’t been able to reach them or get any word about how they are.
Those of you who have been reading and following us for years know that Jim and I do not believe in war. Human life is far too precious to be torn apart for profit, politics, or power. Children should never be blown to pieces or left traumatized for generations.
There are no real winners in war. At least, not among ordinary people. Wars do not liberate people, and lasting change cannot be imposed from the outside. It has to come from within. We were once told we were going to Iraq to bring democracy. In the end, a million people lost their lives.
Jim and I wrote Silent Waters and The Janus Effect during and just after the Iraq War. Tehran’s Daughters was written later, during Iran’s Green Movement in 2009. It was a time when many Iranians protested for reform and were met with a violent crackdown.
Some of the events in that novel are drawn from my own family’s experiences. Many of you who have read these books understand the emotions behind them and the difficult questions Jim and I wrestled with while writing them.
As we wait and hope for news from my family, we wanted to share a few books that speak to the human side of conflict. We’re recommending three of the novels I just mentioned, along with The Lion Women of Tehran, another remarkable book that portrays with great honesty Iran and the reality of life during times of upheaval.
If these stories resonate with you, we hope you might share them with friends and family.
Recently, I saw a meme that said: “Apparently there has to be a war before Western media looks at a map and learns something about the Middle East.” It made me pause. Stories, whether in books or in real life, help us see the people behind the headlines.
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TEHRAN'S DAUGHTERS
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THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN
SILENT WATERS
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THE JANUS EFFECT
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WHIGGING OUT!
I’m wigging out for Little Pink Houses of Hope and for me, this is deeply personal.
I’m living with stage four metastatic breast cancer. In 2024, Jim and I attended our first Little Pink retreat together. We arrived carrying the weight that comes with this disease. The appointments, the scans, the uncertainty that never really leaves. What we experienced that week was something extraordinary.
For the first time in a long time, we were just Nikoo and Jim.
No hospital bracelets. No treatment schedules. No explaining ourselves. Just laughter, ocean air, shared meals, and families who understood without a single word needing to be said. Little Pink gives families like ours something that medicine alone cannot: rest, dignity, connection, and joy in the middle of the storm.
After that retreat, I knew I didn’t just want to benefit from this organization. I wanted to serve it. Jim and I became a volunteers because We’d seen firsthand what these retreats do. They change how a family carries cancer. They create memories that outshine fear.
So yes. I’m putting on a pink wig. But what I’m really doing is asking you to help send another family like mine on a retreat where they can breathe again.
If you donate (or join my team), you’re not giving to an abstract cause. You’re giving a mother, a father, a partner, children a week of hope.
And I promise you, that hope matters more than you know. 💗
