^Pic Above is me morphed with Mariam LOL

As promised, here's a little inside scoop on what goes on behind the story, since you've probably wondered, "how did the author come up with this awesomeness?" (jks 😂)

Like I mentioned in the Preview, I first thought of the idea for CTBB at 4am during a blackout on the 2nd of January 2016, to be exact. I woke up to darkness, and ironically, a lightbulb went off in my head for a story idea. 💡

I had only JUST discovered the Spiritual Category on Wattpad, and I thought to myself, why don't I try writing a story with a MUSLIM protagonist? Ooh, and how about I add a BAD BOY in it, because there aren't enough of those around on Wattpad 😆 I wanted to make an uncliché cliché, with the cliché being a bad boy + good girl, and the uncliché being the good girl as a Muslim, and there was a BET involved. I already thought of the consequences i.e. removing the hijab, which of course is any hijabi's nightmare, so I thought PERFECT! What would a girl do if she was in a situation where she had to prove her religion in a limited amount of time or else face the consequences? Thus CTBB was born!

I've never written a bad-boy story before, and I was excited to try it out, since in the past my male characters were never too cocky or obnoxious, like Damian was. I wanted to make him EXTREME, so in turn, I had to make Mariam equally extreme, in the sense that she was witty, strong-minded, and religious.

In the dark hours of 4-6am I brainstormed, and I actually wrote a few of their conversations on my phone. Here's one:

D: "I know exactly how to get under that burqa of yours."

M: "It's not a burqa it's a hijab."

D: "Same difference."

M: "And I wear it to protect me from perverts like you."

D: "Pervert? I like to think of myself as more of a humble admirer."

M: "You call that admiring? I call that eye rape."

D: "Whoa, Miss Muslim girl said a bad word."

M: "You're a hypocrite."

D: "But you so want me."

M: "The only thing I want is for you to get out of my face."

D: "Don't you want to hear what I have to say?"

M: "I really don't but I know a girl's consent never stopped you before."

Recognize a few of these lines? As you can see, my best thinking happens in the middle of the night.😅

One of my favourite lines I came up with was: "Can you move out of the way? Your ego is blocking the hallway."

I don't think I ever used it though...oops.

The nickname, Virgin Mary, was also thought of, which was why I chose her name to be Mariam. Btw, I have a cousin called Mariam! 😉

Damian just came to me, also because it sort of rhymed with Mariam, and I could play it off with 'Demon' which was what he seemed to be to Mariam. As for Damian's mum, I never considered it until Chapter 13. I wasn't even going to bring cancer and death and sadness into the story, but I decided to on a whim. 😄

So did I have a plan for this story? Not really. I just went along with it, so things like Aidan's party and Yasmine wearing hijab sort of just CAME to me, like POOF

I couldn't walk when I started writing this story. Okay, that probably sounds really bad, but LEMME EXPLAIN.

I broke my fibula last year in November due to ice skating - let's be honest, it was during the first five minutes of the lesson where we were learning HOW TO GLIDE and I just fell on my butt like the klutz I am and when I tried to get up - crack - snapped it in two lol.

So when I started this story, I was hobbling around on crutches with a big fat boot on my leg. I didn't start walking on two feet until the end of January, so I was basically on my butt for my entire summer (what a bummer) (pun intended 😉) while writing CTBB. Fun times.

Wait, what? Yeah, that's right, I had you fooled with my mediocre arabic and jokes throughout the story. I am actually, drum roll please......

Half Somali, half Australian! Yeah, who would've thought?

My mum is Somali, born in Hargeisa, but then the family moved to Saudi Arabia and then Cairo, Egypt, where she spent her teenage years before moving to Melbourne, where I live now!

My dad's Australian, which means, that's right, he CONVERTED TO ISLAM for my mum. And I forgot about that fact when I came up with my story. But their story was different, of course. He converted so he could marry her, but they are divorced now, and he does not live with us anymore. I remember praying with him as a kid and he knew some of the Quran by heart and he even knew some Somali. However, don't ask me to talk about him because I usually don't mention him, except when I have to explain to people my ethnicity (people mostly think I'm either Arab or Indonesian 😂)

Honestly, out of all the Islamic cultures in the world, I'm more familiar with the Lebanese, since I have so many friends/familyfriends/experiences with them, and when I was little, I went to an Islamic school for three years and basically EVERYONE was Lebanese, and I always wanted to be lebanese too lol.

A lot of the stuff in the family gatherings Mariam went to are based off of real experiences I had, and I've always had lots of fun at those events. The Arab culture has always had a prime influence on my life, and I basically grew up watching Egyptian movies and listening to Arabic music. Wish I could speak the language though! Insha'allah one day I will learn and become FLUENT cause now all I have are bits and pieces of words, and I know how to read the letters. ا ب ت

You may wonder where Mariam got all her wittiness and smarts. I'm better at writing witty remarks than saying them, but there ARE rare occasions where I bite back a few and people are like, "Woah! She speaks!"

I wish I could be as strong-willed as Mariam is but I'm a wimp in reality. At school I usually stay away from all the "bad boys" and drama and barely speak, unless I'm with friends and that's when we become the loudest people in class (not even kidding, we are LOUD. And crazy.) I don't pray at school like Mariam does, mostly because it's just difficult to, like making wudhu, and also the toilets are SO dirty. I wish I could though because everyday I come home and I miss Zuhr during the winter time 😭😭😭

Also, I rarely talk about my religion to anyone, except if they ask. There's this one guy who's very curious and interested, he's a Christian and we have interesting conversations about religion and he's currently in a Muslim country (Malaysia) witnessing Eid firsthand.

Initially, he was just some fictional character in my head, but when I returned to school in February, I started noticing correlations between Damian and the boys around me. Like, in my physics class, there's this one guy who isn't as cocky, but he reminds me SO MUCH of Damian with how smooth he is - his puns are terrible but funny, and he even serenaded our teacher, who's a woman, with the song, "You're Beautiful." Aaand guess what? I'm stuck in a group with this puntastic dude for the rest of the year! Yay.

And of course there are other aspects of Damian, like his laziness, which I'm sure many popular guys have, but I know a few who are surprisingly smart AND popular. Best of both worlds.

She even flirts a little bit with the guy who reminds me of Damian! It's crazy! She's also what you'd call the typical popular girl, but she's surprisingly smart as well.

Oh yeah, and remember those two girls Mariam met in uni? They are also based off two of my REAL friends, one of whom knows about it. 😂

My sister has pointed out on MULTIPLE occasions that I have "copyrighted her personality" for Zeinab, as they are basically the same person. I think most authors do this, they base characters off people around them, because it's easier to do, right? And it makes the character seem more realistic.

It's actually my LONGEST STORY EVER, with Jungle Princess being my second longest at 197,776 words. But it's all about quality not quantity, amirite?

Ya, that's right. My bed - the place I spend the majority of my time on because I have no life. The other 2% include cool places like the bus (once), the armchair in the living room, the place where I spent the majority of my summer on, aaand the dinner table, oh, not to mention the desk! Ooh, and the garage.

I also type it in Microsoft Word because SPELLCHECK. You wouldn't believe how many words I had to add to the dictionary...😌

I've received messages from people saying this story makes them want to convert to Islam, or they are inspired by it, and it makes them a better Muslim, and honestly, those types of comments just melt my heart. It's crazy to think you are reading this from so many different places AROUND THE GLOBE and my words are making a difference. It seriously blows my MIND. And I can't thank you people enough for that.

You guys also helped me write the story by your comments that gave me ideas for future chapters. Can you believe I never planned for Yasr or Thenise to happen? 😂 I wonder how the story would be if I hadn't built those two ships? 🚢🚢

This story is also dear to me because it made me see Islam in a new light. It made me proud to be Muslim, and gave me new knowledge that I never had before. I'll admit, I'm not a perfect muslim; none of us are. Even Mariam wasn't perfect. We all have our flaws. And I hope we can all work to be better people instead of put ourselves down for our mistakes. Just like Allah is All-Forgiving and the Most-Merciful, we should learn to forgive ourselves and give ourselves a second chance, even if it becomes the fiftieth chance, or the thousandth chance. I'm speaking from personal experience, and I'm sure most of you can relate, so don't give up on being good because someone else is better. If you do what you can, Allah will know what's in your heart, and you will be able to move on knowing that your efforts weren't wasted.

Wow, that was so inspirational. 😌😇

Anyways, I wish I could write a sequel or a spin-off but I've made a promise to myself that after I finished CTBB, I'd concentrate solely on my education, and I'm going to stick by that promise, because as much as I enjoyed writing this all, it was a big distraction for me and for that reason I don't think I did as well as I wanted to in the first semester.

Second semester is here, and I want to put my whole heart into it. I used to finish all my homework in one day JUST so I could write a CTBB chapter on the Sunday, and I never missed a weekly update because I didn't want to disappoint you guys, or myself. Now that it's all over, I want to focus on my own future, and insha'allah do as well as Mariam did on her exams! She is my role-model, after all, and I hope she can be yours too.

I'm sad this story is over, but kind of glad, in a way. I'm editing through it all as well, so there are parts I've changed slightly and fixed up. Just curious, are any of you going to read CTBB again? 😂

As for the characters in the last chapter I didn't elaborate on, I figured it didn't matter if I told you who they married or whatever, since it's not really important, and there are A LOT of characters I could've caught up on in detail, but I chose not to. 😏

Converting The Bad Boy is also on Goodreads (I added it myself) so you can go ahead and rate it if you have an account!

If you want to stay in touch with me, you can follow me on Instagram, twitter, snapchat, Facebook - the works. I'd love to stay in touch with you guys because after this, I won't really be writing again, except maybe some poems on my Poem For My Thoughts collection. I'll definitely be reading wattpad stories in my free time, currently I am reading "11 Days of Halal Dating" which is a great book, btw!

and @ctbb2016 Converting the Bad Boy's official insta page!

(don't really go on it but here it is anyway): https://www.tumblr.com/blog/allebahsia

Aishabella Sheikh (same for G+)

https://au.pinterest.com/aishabella13/ (there's a board dedicated to CTBB)

This is only for my fellow ARMY since I write BTS aus just for fun teehee! Please give a follow and check out Hooded!

And that's it! I wish you all a happy rest of Eid and May Allah reward each and every one of you for reading this story. I love all of you so much, I'll miss your funny comments and fangirling💖

So for the last time on this story, Ma'a salama. ✌✌✌