Never try and consciously write a ‘bestseller’, or a ‘hit’. He says don’t do it, you can’t. Just write something good. And it’s so true. Bestsellers and hits come by chance. You just have to hit the right note at a time when people are hungry for it, and there’s no predicting that! I was […]

Just when you get some time off…some health problem surfaces! You get a cold, or allergies or the flu or something starts aching. Been dealing with some stuff over the past few days, not fun, and yet it feels really good to get back to some projects! I really can’t believe that half the year […]

Can’t believe the last post I wrote was on that rejection I received. Man, that feels like SO long ago! To say that I’ve gained a bit of perspective would be an understatement. First of all my family was blessed with another grandchild. Alhamdu lillah, a healthy little boy, so that makes ten! Even steven, […]

It’s interesting how things can come together. You can be mulling something over, and then you get an email from some random reader talking about the issues of voice appropriation and then a day later you read an excellent column on the New York Times by Christopher Myers, the son of the impeccable Walter Dean […]

When I was first starting out in this field, I had to go through a sort of discipline process. I actually think that everything I went through was necessary, it was a sort of preparation for where I am now, but it is definitely possible to get stuck in a phase. When all you have […]

My husband said I left out two major steps in my last post and that’s the one where I talk about doing it, and the other one is where I complain about doing it. So let’s just call them: “I should…” and “It’s so hard…” Fill in the blanks. I know it sounds like whinging […]

Got some more accolades for King for a Day! It got a fabulous review at Book Dragon , and this review really mentions what I was trying to do with the story! Shows that Malik, the main character (which means king in Arabic) has all the properties of a really good one! Loved this line: … By […]

It’s happened. I’ve had comments from two different relatives about it, and it’s really thrown me for a loop. Shaken me to my core. The comments weren’t from people I was expecting them from. Yeah, sure, I had one relative, ages ago, respond to my wish to be a world famous children’s author with the […]

When the writing gets better, the blog will suffer. I’m working hard these days, and it’s so exciting that it’s very hard to concentrate on writing something here. What I would suggest for all the new folks who’ve been joining the feed is to check out some of my older posts. I have a pretty […]

I’ve been backing up my computer lately. And that means cleaning up the files. Oh it’s amazing how much junk you can accumulate. I have files that are so old my Word program doesn’t recognize what program created them! But I have stubbornly kept them. Perhaps one day they’ll come in useful. I’d hate to […]