Rukhsana Khan's Blog, page 25

Oops…the Bigger they are…

…the harder they fall!

I guess.

Anyway, in light of this new video that’s surfaced of Rob Ford threatening someone while he’s stinking drunk…um… forget what I said about voting for him again.

The guy’s a loose cannon, and taking the metaphor to it’s limit–he’s rolling all over the poop deck with a lit fuse ready to discharge his load for goodness sakes!

I just hope he points it that away, away from little kids and vulnerable people.

Can’t even laugh over it any more.

It’s just sad.

But I still want someone to shake up city hall and get all those people who think they’re entitled to squander our hard earned tax dollars to shape up or ship out!

 

 

Of Rob Ford and first world problems…

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 went up after the admission, but honestly the whole situation reminds me a titch, just a titch, of Citizen Kane.

Rob Ford is just as bloviating as Orson Welles in that movie, just as pompous and bombastic, and he sure doesn’t know how to pick his battles, having alienated just about everyone at Toronto City Hall…but…what does that have to do with him being able to run the city? To cut taxes?

Boy was I pissed off to hear all the perks and free lunches that people at City Hall just felt they were entitled to at tax payer’s expense before he got into office! I really liked the idea of him drying up the gravy train–as he called it!

And finding morality in your politician is just naive these days.

Being a strict teetotaler, frankly the moment he picks up a beer he violates my personal sense of debauchery (not that I’m judging anyone) so why should I care if he’s gone a step further into illegal substances as long as he keeps it in his personal life and not on the job?

Do you really think the other people in power haven’t at least tried blow?

Ford’s problem is he got caught.

If it sounds like I’m defending him, nope, I’m not.

Don’t care one whit about him or against him.

Just let him do his job.

I honestly don’t have a dog in the race and I’ve laughed at the lampooning he’s gotten on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Sure wouldn’t want to be him right now!

Yesterday I finally got the Indian visa situation straightened out! All is hunky dorey in that regard and even though I was freaking out, part of me was telling myself to relax, if worst came to worst I’d just have to pay the $125 visa fee again, it’s a first world problem!!!

Luckily that fear never materialized. Didn’t have to pay the fee again, and I got the dates changed, but the fact that I’m suffering from first world problems really hit home this afternoon.

The CBC came to film me during a presentation at Rose Ave. P.S.. This school is right on the edge of the poshest neighborhood in the city, Rosedale.

But the kids that go to this school tend to come from immigrant and inner city families.

It is SO hard to keep the attention of a bunch of grade 4 and 5 students when there’s a cameraman filming behind me, to the side of me, among them etc. but somehow I did it.

I thought just because this is a huge opportunity for me (the piece is supposed to air on the National) doesn’t mean I shouldn’t give a proper presentation!

Afterwards two of the girls were talking to me. They were so cute. Skinny little Asian types, asking me questions, but there was a girl in the background just hanging around, casting glances at me. I thought if I stayed focused on the two girls in front of me she’d probably work up the courage to come up to me, and sure enough she did.

She had the sweetest smile, and the cutest braids. She told me how she could really relate to The Roses in My Carpets story because it was about a refugee and a foster child because right now she’s homeless, and living with her mother and brother in a shelter.

The way she said it, so matter of factly, and then she paused, and moments later, a few tears slipped from her eyes. I asked her what it was like.

She said it was hard. Her father had heart problems and has been in the hospital for a long time, and she doesn’t think he’ll make it.

And I thought subhan Allah! Me worrying and fretting over a $125 visa fee! First world problems indeed!

I told her I would pray for her and I already have.

And I thought back to the moment in the presentation where I talk about prisons and how knowledge is free in Canada, and I told her that I hoped she’d focus really hard and make her dreams come true. Learn as much as she can! Read as much as she can!

I really do believe it makes all the difference.

It did to me!

I was never homeless, nor did I ever live in a shelter, but I have been poor!

And I know you can make your way out of it!

So really…why does what Rob Ford smokes even matter???

 

 

It’s the little things that distinguish…

…or as they say, “The devil’s in the details.”

I keep thinking of a moment I had with an artist while having tea in Piccadilly circus!

Thing is, I get approached by a LOT of Muslims who want to break into the business. Most of them are people who want to be writers, only some of them are people who want to be illustrators.

There was one illustrator who did implore me to speak to my publishers, but the problem was we’d already been paired together and she really botched up an illustration.

You have to realize that people in the biz do talk to each other. The editor involved complained about her. Said she’d never work with her again for some very basic, and pretty reasonable reasons.

So that when this artist came up to me during a party and asked that I intervene with my publishers and recommend her, nope, wasn’t going to do that.

I told her, what I firmly believed at the time, that my say so carried very little weight with the publisher. She assured me that wasn’t the case, and I’m beginning to think she may have been right.

Why wouldn’t a publisher take an author’s views into consideration on the illustration of their book?

In fact recently a publisher even called me up and we had a long conversation about that very matter, him asking me who I thought would be best to illustrate a manuscript.

So anyway, after you’ve seen enough really shabby attempts at writing, you can’t help but start to get leery of that email saying, “I’ve got a story…”

I know of some authors who’ve posted big warning signs on their website to not even bother approaching them like that. I’ve always resisted doing that.

Guess I can’t help but remember when I was desperate to catch the attention of a published author so that maybe they could help me, maybe I could get a leg up, stuff like that, so I just can’t seem to close the door.

And yet…you never know!

I had one experience where a lady contacted me, asking me to read a story of hers and give her feedback.

By the way I DON’T NORMALLY DO THAT!

I don’t have the time.

And for what it’s worth, it’s incredibly presumptuous to ask an author to do that.

But something about the way she asked me made me agree.

I gave it to her bluntly. Told her what was wrong, and sat back and waited to see what she would do. Either she would curse me and berate me or she’d thank me for telling it to her straight.

She thanked me and we began a conversation that actually taught me a lot!

(That’s another reason why I don’t close my door to such inquiries. I do sometimes learn from them!)

That reaction of hers to my blunt assessment says more than her actual story did. It tells me that she has potential.

And potential shows up in details.

With that illustrator in Piccadilly, it was just a brief moment, when I made a suggestion that she use a short cut for the background design and she said something very interesting. She said, “I suppose I could, but I like to use my own designs and textures.”

And I looked at her differently from that moment on.

She obviously enjoyed the process! She found the choice of patterns and textures that weren’t even part of the main interest in the picture–intriguing!

That attention to detail…that’s precious!

It’s like when an author gets an exact turn of phrase just right to convey exactly the right emotion at exactly the right moment!

It can make or break the whole piece!

Like that one scene in No Country For Old Men with Anton Chigurh at the gas station and tossing the quarter.

Just a quiet scene that turns out to be one of the most powerful moments in the whole film!

Ah the details!

 

So now that I have so much time…

why aren’t I writing like mad?

Daughter and Son in law came back safe and sound on Saturday, grandkiddies are gone, I have my life back.

No need to get up so darn early in the mornings to make breakfast for kiddies, no need to worry if they’re surpassing their Thomas the Tank engine quota (yes, they had a quota!) I’ve got all the time in the world and plenty of story ideas to work with, so why, oh why, am I not writing?

Well, actually, I am writing. Blogging is writing, right? But in this case it’s actually procrastinating.

I’ve got a theory.

I think when you’ve been through some intense stuff, and the last month or so was extremely intense! What with Eid ul Adha and worrying about my daughter and her husband on Hajj and then in Egypt, where she saw loads of tanks and scariness, then you need some ‘down’ time.

The soil must go fallow before  you can start sewing a crop (a story) again.

I wish some of the people around me understood that.

You can’t just ‘create’ on a schedule. Not completely.

When I first started hubby told me I should write a picture book every month. LOL! And when I tried to explain that you can’t do it that way, he just had this confused look on his face that said loud and clear, “Why not?”

I’ve been thinking in rhythm these days.

Every once in a while I go back to it.

I can’t remember who said that picture books are really actually poems. Prose poems.

Whoever said it is probably right.

Because the narratives are so short, you really have so few words to work with, that poetry just lends itself to the form.

After I came home from dropping the grandkiddies off on Saturday, hubby and son and I did a flurry of housecleaning.

Oh, the place sparkles! Top to bottom we cleaned every feather my daughter’s budgie dropped, and every bird seed and I washed every grimy mirror of grandkid fingerprints. (Should last till Friday when they all come over for a visit!)

And even though it was exhausting, it was also cathartic. Felt so good!

Made me feel like I was ready to get back to writing.

And in a way I did.

I was doing the shopping list, and it’s on this clipboard in the kitchen and underneath it is some scrap paper, manuscript pages I’d printed out and discarded, and as I finished the shopping list I came across a stanza of a poem I’d jotted down.

And it triggered something.

And I started writing, and it felt so good!

I should be working on the bully book.

I have the time, but I find myself thinking of this quirky little idea instead.

Ah me!

And last night, this documentary came on, about the first mosque in Canada, the mosque in Edmonton, the Al-Rashid. Scholastic asked me to write a novel about its forming, and I should, shouldn’t I?

Hubby even bought the documentary for me so I could have it as reference.

It came on last night and I watched it for a moment and he said, “You go ahead and watch. I’ll go downstairs.”

But I said, “I’ve already seen it.”

He said, “Watch it again.”

And I knew I should but I couldn’t. I turned instead to the World Series. Baseball. Which, if you think about it, isn’t that much more exciting. But honestly I’d rather watch that.

Hubby said, “You should watch the documentary.”

And then I blurted out, “But it’s boring.”

And he laughed.

Because it was true.

It just doesn’t pass the ‘so what’ factor.

And I think it’s not the fault of the documentary makers. It was the fault of the people being interviewed.

They weren’t excited about the history of it, so why on earth would the viewer be???

Being boring is fatal to a story!

Right now I’m not bored. I’m resting.

Taking a few days to just breathe and catch my breath.

And yet I keep thinking of that saying, if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person.

When people are busy they do so much more.

And I keep thinking of that hadith of the Prophet’s  (peace be upon him). Make use of 5 things before five things overtake  you (I’m paraphrasing):

Your time before you get busy, your wealth before you become destitute, your youth before you become old, your health before you become sick, and your life before you die.

Yeah, so I should really get cracking…

um…

tomorrow!

 

Interesting evening…

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 end of it. I couldn’t even see her from my seat without constantly trying to peek through the gaps in the people in front of me, to the point that I finally just gave up and listened to her voice. (They should have put her in the middle and made the length, the width!)

But what was really interesting is what I took away from the whole event.

Of course I bought two of the sequels to The Giver.

I loved The Giver, up until the ending, where I wanted to throw the book across the room and yell, “What the heck was that?!”

Ugh!

And yet I was in such a rush to leave the house I forgot to bring my copy of The Giver with me, so I asked her to sign a piece of paper I plan to glue into the front copy.

I did buy Messenger and Gathering Blue. I plan to reread the Giver, give it another chance (so much of it really is hauntingly beautiful), and then read the sequels in order, but that wasn’t the most interesting thing about the evening.

The most interesting thing I took away was a fascinating conversation I had with a teacher/librarian who was the kind of bright-eyed young enthusiast it’s always an author’s pleasure to meet! (I know that’s a convoluted sentence, and I should probably go back and simplify it but it’s late and I can’t be bothered.)

Anyway, he was at one of my favourite Toronto schools, very familiar with my work, and very passionate about the work he’s doing, and we were walking out (he was probably going to the subway and I was going to where I’d parked the car) and he started telling me about some of the authors he’d met during his stint on the Red Maple committee.

The Red Maple is one of those readers’ choice awards, like every state has, and is for the older readers, intermediate grades (7, 8, and 9 I think) here in Ontario. (I’ve only ever been on their list once and that was for Dahling if You Luv Me Would You Please Please Smile).

Anyway we were talking about how tired Ms. Lowry must have been, I was the second last person in line (he was right behind me) and she’s 76 years old and it was past 10 pm, and he was talking about how some of the authors who’d attended the Red Maple had carried themselves.

Nothing gossipy of course, he mentioned how some had had planes to catch and that’s why they’d cut their autograph sessions short. But Eric Walters, who’s a prolific author up here in Canada, had sat there, forgone his lunch, and signed autographs till the very last kid had been taken care of!

Wow!

Good for him!

It had obviously not gone unnoticed!

And I thought that’s the kind of author I want to be! A real trooper!

And then he said something interesting, how Eric Walter’s books were more accessible, less literary than my own, and it was a bit jarring to think that literary books might be less accessible. A very different way of looking at things.

And I also came away with the idea that you should always always be open because here I thought the most important interaction I would have that night would be with Ms. Lowry, but it wasn’t. Not at all. It was with this teacher librarian!

Ms. Lowry’s lecture was nice, even amusing, but the only thing I actually learned from it was when she addressed the idea of why when she wrote Number the Stars she hadn’t given the main role to the Jewish girl. And she said it’s because the main character has to be the one who makes the decisions. She said you read a story, you follow a main character because you want to know what decisions, what pathways they’ll take and the Jews in Denmark at the time were powerless to make their own decisions.

It was a very interesting take. Not sure if it’s entirely accurate, but definitely something worth considering.

Anyways it was definitely an intellectually stimulating event!

By the way, it tickles me pink that I’m on the same New York Public Library’s List of 100 Great Children’s Books in 100 Years as she is!

 

Of Style and Self-plagiarism with Five more days and six more nights to go…

but who’s counting?

I’m starting to think menopause is a blessing!

Women my age weren’t meant to be mothering.

My daughter’s on Hajj and we’ve been taking care of the oldest two grandkids for about two weeks now, with one more to go.

Grandkids are fantastic! But taking care of them while trying to adhere to other people’s restrictions is exhausting!

Not so much physically, but mentally.

And that’s way worse than physically, because at least when you’re exhausted physically you don’t turn to eating comfort foods you shouldn’t just because you’re too tired to say no to yourself.

Haven’t written hardly at all, except for grant proposals! Omigosh! And they’re like running marathons!

I’ve come to realize I have a really cushy life! Very very nice! Going and doing three presentations on suicide and bullying was a piece of cake compared to the daily grind of mothering!

And it makes me wonder how I ever wrote my first five books back when I was babysitting up to eight kids a day!

Sure I was younger and had a strict schedule, where the kids who weren’t in school all went down for naps at 1 pm to 3 pm, where I wrote, but still!

I haven’t gotten much writing in at all!

It’s like all building up inside me, so I’m feeling itchy to get back to the novel, but I know there’s no point yet.

The only creative energy I seem to possess comes at night after I’ve put them to sleep. I should get to bed early, but it seems that’s when I wake up.

Their mother is very strict on T.V. so I end up restricting even my own T.V. watching so that I hardly even watch the news. I only catch the headlines online a few times a day.

But I find I’ve been craving documentaries at night! Watched a fascinating piece on Edwardian farming in England, on the border of Cornwall.

Now why would that interest you might ask? It’s because back when I’d first read Daphne Du Maurier’s REBECCA, I was so enchanted I went and read all her books–except for MY COUSIN RACHEL. Somehow I didn’t read that one. The title put me off. Don’t ask me why, it just did.

I did read THE PARASITES and FRENCHMAN’S CREEK, but not MY COUSIN RACHEL. Anyway, there was one of her novels, I think it was HUNGRY HILL, that sounds about right, all I remember about it was the Cornish miners and how it was weird to live in a place small enough that you could smell food cooking in the kitchen.

So I watched this documentary on Edwardian farming and it went into the mining of copper and that was what DuMaurier’s novel was all about. Fascinating!

And the other night, and the other night, and one other night before that, I sat down and watched another docudrama, not quite a documentary but almost, about Alfred Hitchcock and the making of PSYCHO, but really it’s a movie that focuses on the relationship he had with his wife Alma Reville.

I didn’t know what to expect, so the first time I only watched it for interest. And then I realized it really was a movie about the unsung hero behind Hitchcock, his wife Alma! Loved the rapport between the two of them! And then I thought that it was going to be it, I wouldn’t need to watch it again, but then I recalled a quote that I thought, “Woa! That really applies to me!” And I had to watch it again to find it and write it down so I could blog about it.

So the movie, which stars Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock and Helen Mirren as Alma, starts with a tribute to Ed Gein, the kook that inspired PSYCHO, but the real beginning starts with Hitchcock and Alma, the two of them coming out of a packed theater during a premier of North by Northwest and some reporter asking Hitchcock if he shouldn’t just retire now that he was 60 and the best was behind him.

And then Hitchcock just turns and stares at the guy with this nonplussed look on his face. And then next he’s in a tub reading reviews in the paper and he asks his wife, Alma, if he’s really too old? And she answers, in a charming but ironic manner, Of course, you’re positively a relic.

And you can just see him deflate a bit, and the tension between them rises.

It really is a story of a husband and wife team and how sometimes when we’re vulnerable your partner can say absolutely the wrong thing!

And other times, when you least expect it, they can just display the most profound faith in you!

Loved it to bits!

But the quote…

Ah the quote…

Like I said it was really near the beginning. There’s a scene where Hitch is trying to decide on his next project and his secretary, played by Toni Collette (the mother in About a Boy and a number of other movies) tells him that Ian Fleming wants him to do Casino Royale and Hitch says I already did that movie, it’s called North by Northwest, and then she says something about it being just his ‘style’.

And Hitch says (and I”m pretty sure he must have said this, it’s too original a quote to be made up, I believe) that style is just a form of self-plagiarism!

Now how brilliant is that???

And  you get a clear picture of a brilliant man who can’t stand to repeat himself! I mean so many directors just make the same movie, over and over and over again, and they call that their ‘style’!

Hitchcock was wise enough to resist doing any such thing.

And kudos to him for that!

He took risks, and he talks about taking risks, and boy was the making of PSYCHO a huge risk! They almost lost everything!

Anyway, it’s a fantastic movie to watch.

I think it’s a must see for every person in the arts!

And now when someone asks me why I don’t just write another book like…Big Red Lollipop or whatever! I’ve decided that I’ll just look at them nonplussed, with that exact same expression that Anthony Hopkins used to convey a real sense of, “What on earth are you talking about?” and stick to my guns and not repeat- that is not plagiarize- myself!

Forget style!

Be original!

Say things once and only once!

Huzzah!

 

 

Freebies and Marketing…

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 and she was worried that I wasn’t getting recompensed for my work and giving it away for free. So in answering her, I thought it would make a good blog post, but before I get into that! I just had to share that Big Red Lollipop earned a mention in the New York Daily News!!!

Ooh, they were talking about that list, the one I’m still riding high on, and lamenting the fact that so many favourites like The Wizard of Oz weren’t included and then I came upon this sentence:

“…And modern writers also get their due, thanks to such new classics as “Big Red  Lollipop” (published in 2010) and “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” (2003).”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-york-public-library-releases-100-popular-children-books-list-article-1.1471423#ixzz2i07QksPH

They called Big Red Lollipop a CLASSIC!!!!  Oooh! I’d always been too scared to say the ‘c’ word! But here they went and said it for me!

But anyway, let’s get back to the idea of authors giving away freebies.

I remember watching the Cake Boss once and he said about freebies, if you’re good enough, you only have to give them away once! (I’m paraphrasing)

This is what I told her:

The youtube video is definitely free content but sometimes you do need to give away stuff for free. Think of it like a baker giving away a taste of cookies.

The stuff I gave away is nothing compared to the content of the actual presentations, plus the nice thing with youtube is that it has the advertising/monetization feature which I did enable (after debating over it) so that if and when enough teachers/educators click on the videos I’ll eventually get some remuneration, and hopefully that will provide another stream of income.

Yes, it’s getting harder and harder these days to make an income as an author so I think these days you have to think of income generating streams when it comes to writing.

Also, if you look at a lot of entertainers like Russel Peters and comics and musicians, they give away tons of stuff for free on the internet, and it only increases their popularity and bookings.

I  analyzed those models before I went that route.

And one thing I’m painfully aware of is that these days there’s a complete fear and mistrust of Muslims and I’m absolutely certain that the hijab I wear has closed certain doors for me (even while it’s opened others).

I want to be a world famous children’s author. I want to be an author whose books are so good that teachers themselves feel the need to use them to enhance their students’ education.

So how do I open the doors of people who are turned off by my hijab? Who get repulsed and even appalled by it?

It’s simple. It’s a matter of desensitization. I have to hope they will get ‘used’ to it. I hope they get used to me, so they understand that I’m not threatening in the least and it’s just a piece of cloth that I’m required to wear because of my faith.

And at the same time, when a teacher looks at my book tutorial, it’s a resource they can tell other teachers about, and in the process they can see me speak (in action) and hopefully they’ll enjoy it, learn a little and laugh a bit and in the process they get desensitized to the hijab I wear and my ‘foreignness’, so it’s all good. Believe me, it was a really calculated choice on my part to give away that stuff for free.

Basically when it comes to stuff that won’t add any sweat from my brow, it’s a good idea to give it for free. Free downloads are like that. You do the work once, and the dividends trickle in…and the blessings, because there really are a lot of schools who can’t afford an author visit.

The Indian tour comes down to marketing too. First of all I’ll be helping the Indian publisher, Duckbill, to promote the book! Doing my part to create excitement there, and that’s all good. Yeah, a lot of the presentations are free, but they’re footing my ground expenses, and a travel grant is footing the bulk of the getting there expenses, and along the way I’ll take a day or two to see some sights, so it’s all good. A trade off.

But also, think of how good that will look on my resume! Basically what I’ve been doing over the last fifteen years is establishing my credibility as not only a Canadian author (that’s actually too limiting!) but as an international presence. That takes time and effort, but there too the dividends are slowly trickling in.

India is actually a HUGE market. And the books will be sold for relatively cheap, but you can make up for it in volume, and think of the diaspora!!!

There are no guarantees, but it’s all marketing. You just never know where the leads will take you.

You know what happened when the head of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content came to town and I sent him to Canscaip to speak to the Canadian authors who could market their work and themselves over there?

The Canadian authors thought it was a scam. And they thought their publishers should submit their work and apply for the travel grants they’d need to go there! They basically didn’t want to do any of the legwork, thinking their publishers would do it for them.

Ridiculous!

What I see as my role is this: that I bring a unique expertise to the classroom, I can enrich their learning and the excitement children feel towards literacy both through my books as well as my presentations.

After I’ve written the book, I take off the creative ‘cap’ and put on the educator’s ‘cap’ and think of, okay, how would a teacher use my book in the classroom? I always have morals and messages in my books, subtly interwoven themes, and they have to be subtle for the stories to work, but thinking like an educator means stripping away the subtleties and exposing the themes for what they are so that educators can apply them to curricular learning. It’s hard! But the idea is to make your books indispensible!

That’s marketing!

And as more and more teachers learn of how to use your books, then basically you get the ball rolling and the word of mouth will continue the momentum and you don’t have to work so hard on your own marketing.

It’s getting that ball rolling that’s so hard!

Basically when it comes to children’s books, writing the book is just the beginning. You might get lucky and it takes off, but the odds of that happening really is like winning the lottery and you can’t count on it.

Talent isn’t enough.

It takes perseverance and strategy.

But I’m lucky, because I have people behind me in all this who’ve helped me reach out and make myself a LOT more marketable!

When I went to the Singapore American School the teachers there were some of the best in the world, many with Phd’s! As a result some of them were snooty, and they have so many authors come in, it’s not even a big deal for them. It’s one of the richest international schools in the world. But the two librarians who booked me told me that I was a natural ‘educator’. And when I did a workshop with the kids on writing (believe I worked hard for that money and I didn’t mind!) the educators told me afterwards that I’d made them look at syntax in a completely different way and the weirdest thing was that the autistic kids had found the lesson fascinating! Usually they’d be unfocused, walking around and disruptive, but I talked about the focus of a sentence, and they were intrigued and even fascinated. This is what the librarian told me.

She had been concerned that the autistic kids wouldn’t be able to handle the session.

And when I told my Big Red Lollipop story, the kids bought copies of the books in droves! They told me I sold more books there than anyone else.

I find the journey has been extremely hard and challenging, but well worth it. I LOVE what I do!

Yesterday I went to a school of grade sevens and eights and I got to talk to them about bullying and suicide.

It’s amazing!

So the marketing aspect can be a drawback, but it can also be rewarding in and of itself. It all depends on what attitude you approach it with, and when it comes to freebies, I seldom do free presentations (publisher tours excepted). But youtube stuff…sure why not!

 

Keeping it real…

Caught my mind wandering during prayer.

I think it’s very important to send out press releases, as an author, even if you think not much will come of it.

At least local media might run the story.

It’s always good to have an ‘angle’.

And it seems I’ve got two. For the Canadian media, I can play up the fact that I’m the only Canadian woman on the list and for Muslim media like Al Jazeera and such, I played up the fact that I’m the only Muslim on the list.

Well, I’d say the Toronto Star was more than local media and yup, they ran with the fact that I’m the only Canadian on the list.

The journalist who interviewed me was lovely! I spoke to her on the phone on Thursday evening. I thought she was coming over though for the interview, so I tidied up (quite the task because my grandkids are here and boy do they make a mess!), and I decided NOT to cook the chicken curry I’d been planning because the smell is quite strong for those not used to it. Instead I made a korma, whose strongest spices are cinnamon, bay leaf and black cardamon!

Then she didn’t come. It didn’t work out and we did the interview on the phone. But she did early Friday morning (8 am) to get a photo of me.

I had bags under my eyes because of getting up so early with the grandkiddies! But she took the photo with me looking up and smiling so the bags aren’t that noticeable (I think).

Learned that the piece would come out some time over the weekend, so we bought the paper yesterday and no sign of it.

While hubby went out this morning he was going to pick up another copy but before he could return, my very first fan (a lovely friend of ours who loved my story before she met me) called me up and gushed about the article!

She saw it before I got to!

She said it made her cry, the article was so beautiful! She said it was half a page! And in the entertainment section, not even in the books section!

Awww!

So later, when I finally saw it, sure enough, I love the angle! Jane Gerster focused on how the story was about myself and my older sister. The only mistake she made was misspelling her name. Her name was Bushra, but she had Bursha. But still…beautiful story!

My son said it was great placement, right above a piece about the Walking Dead, with pictures of zombies.

So when I was praying Zuhr, and supposed to be concentrating, instead I was building lofty palaces in the air! Daydreaming of what effects the article might have, and savoring the phone calls and emails I’d already received from friends and family and acquaintances, congratulating me on the beautiful piece and my success, and in the middle of all that, I stopped up short thinking, “Woa! There!”

I’m praying! I’m talking to God! My mind shouldn’t be wandering.

And all this…it’s good, but ultimately it isn’t about me. It’s about the story!

And the best thing it can do is make more people curious about picking up the book, and more kids absorbing the subtle ‘message’ from the story.

That’s what it’s all about.

Not me and my darn falutin’ ego!

And the rest of the prayer went better. I was able to concentrate a little bit more, but oh, what if I hadn’t caught myself?

*shudder*

And it seems that will be a constant threat!

 

So I’ve had a few days for the news to sink in and you know what?

I’ve been wondering how it would change the way I saw the books I looked up to, many of which are on that same list.

Like I wondered how I’d feel about The Snowy Day or The True Story of the Three Little Pigs or Curious George or Where the Wild Things Are.

I mention these because they’re all picture books I’ve loved and cherished and read over and over again to my kids and now my grandkids.  And you know how I feel?

Not a bit different.

I still look up to them. I still stand in awe of them as accomplishments of storywriting!

Nothing has changed and yet, within me, everything has changed.

I finally do feel like I’ve ‘made’ it.

There’s a quietness, a calmness to me that wasn’t here before the announcement.

If only I had a moment’s peace to enjoy it.

Three years ago I was on the journey of a lifetime, the Hajj, planning to pray for the success of my books and the ball began rolling even before I got to Arafat.

I had the news of the New York Times choosing Big Red Lollipop as one of their top ten picture books of the year.

That was big! No doubt about it!

But this is just in a completely different category!

And now one of my daughters is on the Hajj and between one of my other daughters and I we’re taking care of her three children, so insha Allah, we’ll get rewarded right alongside her!

The two grandkids I’m taking care of are the oldest.

You’d think they’d be the easiest, and in some ways they definitely are.

They’re almost seven and four years old, sister and brother, respectively. And I have my hands very very full!

It’s exhausting!

I’ve forgotten how much energy it takes to take care of them! It’s been so long since my own were that age!

But they’re lovely, and yeah, I’m trying to get my writing done and business taken care of, but this has reminded me how much sacrifice it takes to do the thankless job of caring for children.

It sure aint glamorous!

Writing and being an author is SO much easier!

But oh well, it’s only for another few weeks insha Allah. May Allah subhanahu wata ala bring their parents back safe, with their hajjs accepted, and their prayers answered ameen.

And now I really should hit the sack!

The little critters wake up bright and early and tomorrow I’ll have to get up early with them as hubby (who’s the morning person) will be at work.

So God bless and good night.

The Company we Keep…

Got an email from the lovely Sophie Blackall this morning, asking me if I’d heard the news?

The New York Public Library brought out its list of 100 Great Children’s Books in 100 Years and guess who’s hob nobbing with greatness???

Uh, huh. Moi and Sophie Blackall!

Big Red Lollipop is right up there with the best of them!

Okay, think of it! I’m on a list with J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit! And Mo Willems’ Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and Kevin Henkes’ Lily and the Purple Plastic Purse and Ezra Jack Keats’ The Snowy Day!!!!!

Omigosh! Subhan Allah!

And for any teachers reading this, I’ll include the video tutorial I made on using Big Red Lollipop in your classroom: