“how do you think of ideas for stories?”
“Who’s your favourite character?”
Ask me a question and you could see the answer here!
take a quiz…
Which Planet Omar Character are you most like?
How much like Omar are you? (coming soon)
Are you a great detective, like Maysa, Musa and Norman? (coming soon)
some seriously silly stuff i’ve done (me, Zanib Mian an actual grownup)
OK, well this one I did as a kid. I think I was about 8 years old. I burnt the carpet in my parents’ bedroom with the iron! I was so afraid of getting into the worst trouble ever that I pretended I didn’t know who it was for months. It was an unsolved mystery in the house until I couldn’t bear it anymore and confessed to my mum! I’ve put this in one of my books. Do you know which one?
— the time i burnt the carpet
You know those little tins of Vaseline for your lips? Well, I had the one called Rosie Lips - it’s pink, but it’s still Vaseline. It was kept in my car for those times you have a crusty lips emergency. One hot day, I was driving alone in my car and decided to make my lips rosy as promised on the tin, so I held the steering wheel with one hand and flicked the lid off with the other. But the Vaseline wasn’t solid anymore. It had been baked in the sun into a hot pink, sticky liquid which went flying all over the car and on my clothes. I looked like I had murdered a candy floss cone!
— pink panic
You can’t make this stuff up, it’s absolutely nuts and seriously embarrassing, but I’m going to tell you anyway, because we’re friends. I hope none of the adults are reading this. OK, here it is. I really like wearing boots with heels. They make me taller so my skirt doesn’t drag on the floor. But this one time, they got me into big trouble. I was walking into a busy shop and just before the entrance, right at the door, there was a metal grill on the floor. The heel of my left boot got caught in the grill! It was stuck! And as I tried to free it, my right foot got stuck too! So I’m standing at the entrance of this shop with two heels stuck in this grill, with no intention of coming out. And people were having to go past me to go into the shop. I’ve never felt more silly in my life! I was there for about five minutes before my son came along and somehow helped me get free, but not before he laughed his head off!
— silly boots
all about me (well not all, obviously. That would take weeks!)
Hi! I’m Zanib Mian. Thank you for visiting my website! I finally made one!
This bit is all about me, for kids. There’s a more official version of this on the ‘ABOUT’ page, but that’s aimed at grownups and nowhere near as personal as this one.
When I was a little girl, at primary school, I thought authors were not real humans. Or maybe they were, but they lived hundreds of years ago like all other important people we saw in books. I never imagined I could be an author. But I loved stories.
So instead, I dreamt of becoming a teacher. For all the wrong reasons – I wanted to write on the board and mark people’s work! Well guess what? When I grew up, I did become a teacher - a Science teacher in secondary schools - this time for all the right reasons; I love Science! But I gave up teaching ten years ago, to write books for children like you!
I have two sons. They are giants now! Not actual giants, but they are tall and broad and have huge personalities. They have inspired my writing over the years and my character Omar is based very heavily on the younger one. The older one has a job which is absolutely top secret, and I cannot tell you about it.
In my spare time, I like staring at the clouds and trees, driving (even though I can barely walk a couple of yards without tripping over my own feet), designing stuff on Photoshop, going on long walks (very carefully!) reading and watching funny shows with my kids. If I’m completely honest, one of the things I find myself doing when I have spare time, is making up more stories!
I’m presently craving frozen yoghurt, but I guess I will have to come back and update this bit pretty frequently!
I LOVE writing. I’m very grateful to you for reading my stories. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to write. So, thank you very much.
If you have any questions for me, which haven’t been answered here, you can send me a question at the top of this page. You can also check out my tips for writing.