A friend of mine asked me how the cruise on Saturday went. I wasn’t going to blog about this, because it’s quite embarrassing, but then I thought, why not? I’ve written lots of embarrassing stuff on my blog, what’s one more. And maybe someone can get something positive out of it. I know at the […]

The SCBWI convention is coming up! In a little more than a week I’ll be on my way to Los Angeles to what could arguably be one of the biggest opportunities of my career. But then with the exception of Susan Boyle, I don’t actually think you have only one chance to impress. And in […]

On Monday I did a favour. I spent a day storytelling at an Islamic summer camp. I wonder if it would have gone differently if I hadn’t received, a few nights before, an email announcing the visit of a self-published Muslim author who was getting the ‘royal’ treatment. It is so true that familiarity breeds […]

Not sure why I should be suffering this now! But it sure feels like I am. I googled ‘symptoms of burnout’ and came across this website: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burnout_signs_symptoms.htm And wow, of all the symptoms listed, I have most of them! And tired! I’m bone weary! It doesn’t help that my shoulders went into some kind of […]

On Friday I got one of those characteristic thick envelopes that always signals that a teacher has assigned her students to write me a letter after one of my presentations. This was from a school up north I visited a while back. It was odd too, because I’ve often judged how well a presentation has […]

there is ease. I keep telling myself, but I’m not quite believing it right now. I know it intrinsically, but I’m not *feeling* it if you know what I mean. We got the kitchen in on Monday. Beautiful granite counters, cabinets with that special type of closure where it doesn’t slam, I believe the colour […]

Okay, tiling’s done, but the house is still upside down and I was starting to ask myself, “What the heck’s so wrong with a shabby kitchen anyway???” There’s something kind of tempting to living beneath your means. On the one hand you could try to convince yourself that you’re above all that superficial nonsense and […]

I think it was about eight or nine years ago that we first got our brown tweed sofa and loveseat from some big box store or another. We preferred the fabric to leather that was highly fashionable at the time because it was *warmer*. Leather feels so cold to the touch. We used those sofas well […]

I had this week off. No school presentations, got a chance to catch up on my exercising and health routines and I had hoped, in all of that time that I had, I’d get an idea for another picture book. Nope. Zip. Which just goes to show how hard the darn things actually are to […]

It must be odd to hear the phrase alhamdu lillah (all praise is for God) after such a statement, but I really do mean it. Life is not just filled with glory moments! It’s also filled with mundane annoying moments. After 23 years, my dryer broke down. So we decided to upgrade both the washer […]