Many years ago I read one of my daughter’s diary. I was standing right in front of her and started reading her thoughts from grade five up to seven. It was honest, touching and in places, hilarious! The kind of writing one does when they don’t expect anyone else in the world to be reading it. […]

Got two chapters revised today when I thought I’d only, at most, get one. But somehow, after I finished putting this chapter into the eyes of the other character, I still had some stamina left, and I got started in on the next. It wasn’t that hard. Just really changing tenses, first person present into third […]

To serve your turn long after they are gone And so hold on, when there is nothing in you, Except the will which says to them “Hold on!”  This is the second half of third stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If” and somehow it always reminds me of an obstacle course race I ran when […]

Generally I don’t consider myself a superstitious person. I actually consider it a form of ‘shirk’. Shirk is considered the biggest sin in Islam. It’s the ascribing of any sort of partner to God. By imagining that something like a black cat crossing your path, or the number thirteen is something to beware of, imagining […]

I’m going to be interviewed on Shelagh Rogers radio show The Next Chapter tomorrow. It’s on CBC, which stands for Canadian Broadcasting Company and is national. It’s not the first time I’ve been on her show. But the first time was a different show. Years ago, when she was host of Sounds like Canada she was doing […]

I subscribe to an email newsletter from a group called CAIR which stands for Council on American Islamic Relations. They’re a Muslim advocacy group and they field all kinds of issues that arise with regards to problems Muslims face in America. Most of them have to do with women who are fired for wearing the […]

I admit I approached my education in a very strange way. I decided to go to college (community college) before going to university. I went two years to Seneca college and studied, of all things, biology and chemistry. Eventually graduating as a biological chemical technician, not even a technologist, for goodness sakes. I wonder if […]

I was going down to visit my parents today. Every time I go down I practically go past the middle school where I spent my grade seven and eight years. So many times I wondered if I, being a children’s author, shouldn’t pop in and introduce myself. Most of the time it’s not even an option because I’m […]

A few days ago, a lady emailed me with a problem. This is some of what she said: “…I am now in ….’s creative writing class, and sometimes i get an odd sense about him.  Many students in the class have read their work and he always writes good comments about their work down and verbalizes […]

That I described myself as ‘devastated’ yesterday even though I complained a few days ago about doing just that? It was when I was talking about being asked to leave (being dumped) from that writer’s workshop class I had paid to join. I will explain in case anyone wants to call me on it because […]