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 watching his session on Oprah’s master class program. It’s an interesting program. I think my favourite was Maya Angelou’s show.

It was also interesting when he talked about the crash so many of his contemporaries underwent. (Michael Jackson among them.)

He got a polyp on his vocal chords at the time, and the surgery he had to undergo meant he left the business for a while, and he credits that with saving him.

He was talking about the accoutrements of success and he said ‘can you survive them?’

Interesting.

I remember seeing an interview with that American Idol winner Fantasia, and how she said that after she won and with all the success she achieved at one point she was ready to kill herself.

And that makes me remember the ayat of the Quran that said that God doles out success in measure to some people or else it would become overwhelming.

I know for sure that the fact that I didn’t get where I am today, over night, was really really good!

I’ve had just enough success to keep going and enough defeat to keep my hungry!

With summer here I’ve got time to write, and I’m working on projects that are a lot of fun!

And yet I found myself trying to write a ‘bestseller’.

And the old man critic, in his rocking chair, in the back of my mind has been super vocal as a result! “Who do you think you are??? You’re getting mighty full of yourself aren’t you???”

I told him, nope, not trying to write a bestseller any more! Just seeing where the story takes me, that’s all.

He’s grunted some comment I couldn’t quite hear and went back to rocking back and forth, back and forth.

Yup, that’s the way I like him.

Grudgingly silent.

I think I’ll give him a name.

Nah, maybe not. That gives him way too much power.

He’s simply old man critic in the rocking chair. And the thing about rocking chairs is that they might keep you busy but you don’t go anywhere.

Ramadan is almost here.

Can’t believe another year has gone by so quickly!

The days are almost as long as they can get and for the next three years, yup, the fasting will be hard with the solstice falling just before during or after the month of Ramadan.

And yet I’m looking forward to it.

A chance to recharge.

A chance to read the Quran in Arabic and English and reacquaint myself with the beauty that grounds me.

Oh subhanallah!