It’s never a good idea to critique a story at 12:30 am when you’ve got a frozen shoulder from being on the computer too long and you’re exhausted and downright cranky. Increasingly I have been getting pleas for help from aspiring authors and darn it, I can still remember what it felt like to be […]

Last Friday night my daughters came over and there was one of those moments–those double take moments–when you feel like your world has changed and it all started with a spilled glass of Cola (not even name-brand Coke)! One of my daughters had left it on the table where one of the grandkids could reach it, […]

Waiting…waiting…waiting! To hear from my agent about the hajj novel. I don’t know, that last revision really took it out of me. I feel like I’ve been wrung out like a dish rag and someone’s using me to sop up a spill. In the meantime I’ve been starting a new novel–began the first chapter today. […]

Now that jury deliberations are over, I think it’s safe to say that I was on my first award jury. It was for an international award called the NSK Neustadt award given by the University of Oklahoma! The prize is $25000.00 for a living writer who’s contributed to the quality of children’s literature. What a […]

So I actually took the plunge and went to Yuk Yuk’s tonight to scope out the joint, so to speak. From 7:30 till about 11:30 pm, my ears were assaulted with a barrage of, ahem, very colourful language. There were some genuinely funny jokes in there. Three to be exact. Three jokes in the whole […]

I just finished the third revision of the Hajj novel. I think it’s pretty much done–or I should say I HOPE it’s pretty much done. Won’t know till I polish it up and send it off to my agent and I hear back. But one good sign, the book made me cry when I got […]

The end is in sight. These last weeks have been insanely busy. But of all the days I was dreading, today topped the list. I had to shoot my storytelling DVD’s today. My anxiety levels have gone through the roof! It was SO outside my comfort zone–it aint funny! But alhamdu lillah, it’s done. Two storytelling […]

Last night we had the final keynote address from Leonard Marcus, a noted expert in children’s literature, and its history and a biographer of some of the greatest names in child lit! Started writing this post at the Hong Kong airport, and now that I’m back home, safe and sound, I can finish it. Ooh, […]

I guess by now everyone’s heard the news of the death of Maurice Sendak. From everything I’d heard of him, I suspected he was a curmudgeonly sort, but it was only absolutely confirmed when I saw the interview between him and Stephen Colbert. It’s actually very funny. He swears like a sailor and says stuff […]

There are two Muslim women in the media/arts field that I really admire! Whenever I think of them, and it’s often, I do so with a smile on my face. The first has the same last name as myself, but as far as I know she’s no relation. Her name is Sheema Khan. She is […]