is as hot and steamy as Delhi was cool and dry! It’s been a whirlwind to say the least! Got in yesterday morning, met with the people picking me up without incident, yay!!! And took a bumpy ride into the city. People had told me that Bangalore airport is about 2 hours outside the city, […]

It’s never a good idea to criticize yourself. Especially if people are raving about your presentation. Don’t criticize yourself publicly, don’t diminish their exuberance or their compliments by putting yourself down, but in the privacy of your own room…yes, think of what you did wrong. Analyze, assess, and fix it for next time so it’s […]

So last night there was a sort of cocktail party/dinner to launch the Bookaroo experience. Members of the press were there, including one of the sponsors of Bookaroo, and it was held on a rooftop veranda/restaurant with the cool night air and occasional fireworks in the area–such a contrast from the night before! All sorts […]

India is quite different from Pakistan! Mind you the Pakistan I’m thinking of is twenty years ago. I’m still getting used to being here. Delhi is beautiful! Didn’t imagine it would be so green with huge trees running down the middle of the street and flowers and hedges everywhere, and gardeners dressed in shabby clothes […]

Today I did one of my favourite sets of kids. Not sure why I’m so drawn to inner city kids, but I am. Did my primary presentation for the primary kids and that often tuckers me out! Oh, they can be so squirmy! Of course Big Red Lollipop settled them down. It was so cute […]

Okay, I’m going out on a limb here and saying, “Yes, I did vote for Rob Ford, and No, I’m not surprised his popularity went up, and …wait for it…I’ll probably vote for him again if there’s no better alternative.” Maybe it’s a sign of how cynical we’ve gotten about our politicians that his popularity […]

Tonight I went to the Stubbs Memorial Lecture at the Lillian H. Smith Library and it was very interesting to say the least! Lois Lowry was fascinating! But it was too bad the organizers decided to set up the room lengthwise! It was a long tunnel of a room and she was at the very […]

I was corresponding with an old friend of mine and she sent me a link to a blogpost about an author visiting a school and not even being recompensed for her time and effort and my friend expressed alarm because I’d put up those youtube videos as free resources for educators on my youtube channel […]

Went up to Newmarket this morning for a presentation sponsored by Weaving Words festival. Weaving Words is storytelling festival taking place just north of Toronto on Sept. 29th. Free to all! And they invited me! Well to promote it, they asked me to do a storytelling session at the Newmarket Public Library! Newmarket is a […]

I received this notice in several different languages from the organizers of the Kanoon festival that I attended last February in Tabriz, Iran. They asked me to spread the word. If you can’t read it, it says the festival is being held on the 14-15th of September, this year in Isfahan. Anyone interested should mail […]