I started writing this on Sunday night. Tonight on Oprah’s visionaries Will.i.am was talking. If you’re not sure who he is, you’re not alone. I’d heard his name, but didn’t realize he’s one of the co-founders of the group Black-eyed Peas. The first half of the show was just him spouting off about how tickled […]

I had a very interesting evening. Took a moment away from organizing this British trip (my Mom’s decided to come along as well as my sister!) and watched Oprah’s show on visionaries. Here it’s on every Sunday night at 8 pm on OWN. Tonight was James Cameron, the guy who did Terminator, Titanic and Avatar. […]

I keep forgetting. Honestly, I’ll go most of the day completely unaware that I wear hijab, have brown skin, and otherwise look any different from anyone else and then suddenly something will bring me up short. I’ll see myself reflected in a shop window or someone will say something  like acknowledging how ‘tolerant’ they are […]

I seem to have really ticked off a couple of people when I called David Cook a one-hit wonder. Guess it goes back to what your definition of a ‘hit’ is. I’d argue that a hit is a song or performance that is so POPULAR that you can make reference to it in casual conversation […]

Ever since I gave up my addiction to spider solitaire (shortly after I got back from L.A.) I’ve had to fill the void with something else, and what I’ve been filling it with is knowledge. I’ve been super curious about all kinds of stuff, reading LOTS of books mostly fiction and reading even more non-fiction […]

It’s ironic that I would feel like I’ve kind of ‘made it’ when I received my first hate email a little while back. My first thought was, “I must have done something right!” And my second thought was, “What if this person is right about me?” I have seen too many people delude themselves. These are […]

That’s what I think Ramadan is. It’s a time to reboot, turn the switch off, and start again. All the bad habits, the excesses that we might have gotten into the habit of eating, drinking or doing, are shut off, from dawn till sunset for a lunar month of 29 or 30 days. And isn’t […]

A few years ago when Jon Stewart was hosting the Academy awards, the African American group that won for best song/score started jumping around at the announcement. Up till that point, Jon was uncharacteristically subdued and not his usual irreverent self. But at this show of raw emotion, he perked up and said something about how […]

There’s only been one other time that I’ve been as nervous as I was before the Golden Kite speech, and that was just before giving the plenary speech at the Danish IBBY Congress. Actually, that moment was more intense–at least this time I wasn’t going to say anything controversial. (I’d already done that on Friday.) […]

I wrote this in a spiral notebook on August 4th, when I just arrived at the Hyatt. Aug. 4th: One of the coolest things I learned about my coming to the SCBWI conference was the fact that my signing session, tomorrow (Friday evening) was the same where Henry Winkler aka ‘The Fonz’ would also be […]