I wonder if anyone else is finding that the tumult of our current political times is messing with their creativity. With the political shenanigans going on south of the border, it’s almost like, ‘How can I ever write a story that can compete with that!?’ Honestly, who’d have thought! Truth really is stranger than fiction. […]

I’m so honored to be presenting at the International Research into Children’s Literature conference this year! The venue for this international academically oriented conference changes every two years. This year it’s in Toronto and they invited me to be on a panel with some other authors. The thing is, even though it’s tempting to just […]

I know I’ve been scarce in terms of blogosphere and that is always good news in some ways because it means the writing of fiction is going well! Alhamdu lillah, it is. I’m working on two projects and strangely enough one makes me laugh and the other makes me cry. They kind of balance each […]

I recently got back from my first Highlights Foundation workshop. Highlights Foundation is located on a family homestead in eastern Pennsylvania, a small town called Honesdale. For years they’ve been running writing workshops, retreats, that are lauded as some of the best writing intensives around. They’re affiliated with Boyds Mills Press, a publisher that has […]

It’s so funny that my last blog post was wondering about direction! Yesterday I returned from the Highlights Foundation workshop on Graphic Novels. It was their first workshop on the genre and it was absolutely amazing! The Highlights Foundation is the same that has been putting out Highlights Magazine for more than forty years! The […]

I’m giving a keynote address this Saturday at the SCBWI Canada east conference in Montreal, and my topic is creativity and the creative process, so I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Whenever I am to do something like this, I always think of the audience. What do they need to hear? What would I […]

It feels like it’s been a while since I posted, and it’s because I’ve been busy with writing. When the writing is going well… the blogging gets sidelined. I guess it’s understandable. It’s been such an interesting past few weeks. That it’s been very busy, goes without saying. And yet I find myself doing a […]

I was talking to my mom recently and she said something that surprised me. She said that you can tell when God is testing you versus punishing you based on your own behavior. She said during a trial, you are behaving correctly, within God’s parameters, you’re not doing anything wrong but you’re still not getting […]

It’s been a day and a half since I returned from Malaysia, the other side of the world, yup twelve hour time zone difference and I’m powering through the jet lag. Alhamdu lillah, it was a fabulous trip. My hosts were were so hospitable!!! Almost too hospitable, need to shed some of the pounds I […]