Big Coco

  Let’s meet Coco the squirrel. She lives in Mr. McGoo’s Farm with her parents and her sister, Celly. Every single day, they play with their friend Kiki in the leaves of the coconut trees, waiting for a chance to sneak bite a coconut.

One day, they were hunting when they spotted a larger squirrel than them sneaking in the direction of their nest. They followed him. Turns out, it was Big, their neighbor. They only talked to him once because he is pretty quiet. Big likes to nibble on weird stuff like leaves, leather, and string.

Coco’s nest was in the largest coconut tree. The coconuts were big, round, and plump. And Big was nibbling the coconuts on their tree. Coco felt kind of angry, because Big has his own coconuts to eat. They started throwing mulberries from the clumps of mulberry bushes below at Big, shouting “Give that back!” Big threw twigs back. Twice Big actually tried to throw, but it poked him in the ear instead.

It was a long fight. Juice splattered Big’s body; splintered sticks lay on the ground like dropped swords, and the sky was turning indigo signing night time. Coco, desperate to go home and have dinner, threw a big coconut chunk at Big. Big fell off. Coco and Celly climbed up toward their nest, while Kiki had rushed already toward her burrow (Kiki is a ground squirrel). Big scowled.

You Have to Write

Yesterday evening, I went to a talk show at Gramedia Pandanaran, Semarang. The talk show was about writing. The speaker was Mrs. Aan Wulandari. She is an author and editor. She already published lots of books and wrote articles in magazines and newspapers. She's also my writing teacher, actually. I once joined her writing course a year ago.

The invitation said that it would start at 16.00. Unluckily, I arrived 45 minutes late, so I didn't listen to the whole presentation. Poor me...:'( But I still got the question-answer session. I was not that loss, then. Many questions rose from the audience, and she answered each of them clearly. Here I share some of them.

Because one of her published books is a comic, someone asked her how to make a comic if we can't draw a good picture. She answered that she didn't draw the pictures herself, but an illustrator did. What she did was made the boxes as what the comic will look like, wrote the story and conversation in the boxes, and gave the full detailed situation for the illustrator to imagine and draw the pictures.

Another one asked how to publish a book. She said that some publishing houses only want our writing sent by post, some others allow posting by e-mail. Each publishing house also has its own style that different from any other house, so we have to adjust our writing style to theirs as well, so that they can accept our writing.

She also shared how to start learning to write. She explained the method she used in her writing course. She first asked her students to read a story (just a short one will do), then they should rewrite it with their own language, characters, plot, and other stuffs. Or they can start with creating a unique interesting character, and then develop a story with it.

Here are tips when you write:
-Keep writing, so you will not like, delay it and stop writing
-Read a lot, you might find an inspiration there and you can also learn how the author make her interesting title, opening, plot, problems, solution, and ending
-A walk to the book store may help too ^_^
-Write with enjoyment
-Try as hard as you can, and
-Be confident

I didn't bring a camera, so I can't show pictures about this talk show. Sorry guys, but I hope Tante Aan will share the photos from her camera and permits me to use it in this entry...

So, you want to be a writer? then, You have to write.
Good luck!

My Second Book

After waiting for almost one year (1 YEAR!!!), finally my second anthology book , Guru Tiga Kali, written by me and loads of other people has been published! I'm soooo Happy! I've waited for ages!

My story, Guru Tiga Kali, is the first story in the book and become the book title. I'm so proud; well, it's not something you see everyday, right?

You could buy it at Gramedia  for Rp.37.000. or online at BukuKita.com or bukabuku.com. But hurry before you run out of time, they cut the price to Rp.31.450!

Last year, I joined a KKPK competition with the theme of 'My Teacher and I'. Of course, I made my story in Bahasa Indonesia. I wrote it in quite a long time. I kept edited and edited again, even though I was comfortable already. And Alhamdulillah, I won the first place. The 10 best stories are then published  by Darmizan!

Please give lots of love to my book.

Breakfast is Cooked!

Hooray! I managed to cook telur dadar (omelette) and rice, for the very first time, this morning. I've never made one before. All I've tried to do so far was boiled the water, shaped a bread dough, and cracked the eggs. I felt really happy. The result of the eggs was great, but the rice went a bit mushy. I dreaded cracking and flipping the eggs. But it was quite easy when I sliced spring onions. I also liked watching margarine slide around the pan.

By the way, sorry for the delay writing here. First, the computer was broken. Second, my father is too busy, and I can’t use his laptop. Third, the internet was working…BADLY!!! 

I’m now a cook, just like Mother!

For the scrambled egg

What you need:

Oil/margarine

4 eggs

3 spring onions or scallions

Salt and pepper

Chili, if you want

What you need to do:

• 1.  Cut the roots off the spring onion.
• 2.  Peel the dirty bits from the bulb (the white part of the spring onions).
• 3.   Wash the spring onion under running water.
• 4.   Slice the spring onion as thinly as you can. If you use chilies, slice those thinly too.  To slice the spring onions (NOT the chilies) easier, cut all the springs in half. Put all the halves together, and start slicing. Thus, you don’t need to slice them one by one!
• 5. Scoop the spring onion slices (and the chili slices, if you use it) with both your hands into a bowl.
• 6.  One by one, crack the eggs open in the bowl. This was the bit I was dreading. I cracked it by hitting it lightly onto the edge of the table, and put my thumbs in the crack part of the egg and pull it apart. 
• 7.   Add some salt and pepper.   Mix it with a fork. 
• 8.   Pour the oil into a frying pan. I used margarine, I allowed it to slide around.
• 9.   When the oil bubbles, pour half the egg mixture into the pan. If you want a big and thick telur dadar, pour more than a half or even all of them, but it's hard to flip over!
• 10.  Wait until the bottom side of the egg is cooked. Flip it so the top side is now cooking. I was dreading this bit too.
• 11.  When it’s ready, put it in a plate. I removed the pan from the heat and tilted above the plate so I just allow the egg to slide onto the plate.
• 12.  Repeat step 8 -11 with the rest of the egg mixture.

Phew, I was relieved to get away from the heat! Trust me, it tasted sooo delicious! Because we made it by ourself, it tasted better than ever! Enjoy!

The Busy Season

Chapter I

The Harvest on the Farm

It was April 24^th. Annie’s family was the busiest of all. Father had to hunt, so he can’t work. Mother picked vegetables from the garden. Annie collected honey from their beehive. Annie’s little brother and sister, John and Anna, were picking apples, hazelnuts, blueberries and potatoes.

Annie headed to the warehouse. The warehouse was old and rusty and full of boxes and cobwebs. Annie poured the honey in a huge honey jar. Then, she came out to harvest the wheat.

Anna went in the warehouse next. She put the things she harvested in a bag and went out to shear the sheep. John came after that. He put the things he harvested in the same bag and went out to collect eggs.

Father came back from hunt with 3 fresh deer and 1 juicy lion in a sack. He put the sack in the warehouse and went out to the market. Mother was last. She poured the vegetables in a box and went out to harvest the grapes. They made a list of what was inside the warehouse:

  

• o   5 warm bread loafs
• o   5 soft pillows
• o   5 eggs
• o   5 grapes
• o   5 grape juice pots
• o   5 fresh deer
• o   5 cheese
• o   5 milk pots
• o   5 light bulbs
• o   5 groceries
• o   5 warm scarfs
• o   5 flour bags
• o   5 wheat stalks

Anna noticed there were 5 of everything. She asked John, Annie, mother and Father if they could work some more. Annie, John and Anna worked together to fill up the warehouse. They made it just in time. The list was like this:

• o   10 warm bread loafs
• o   30 soft pillows
• o   15 eggs
• o   18 grapes
• o   6 grape juice pots
• o   5 fresh deer
• o   50 cheese
• o   6 milk pots
• o   100 light bulbs
• o   50 groceries
• o   5 warm scarfs
• o   15 flour bags
• o   30 wheat stalks

The next morning was the 1^st of June. It was cold. Father went to the attic and grabbed 10 heaters. He turned them on and placed them in the 4 bedrooms, bathroom, living room, warehouse and kitchen, attic and the hall. He turned them on at WARM. He got the whole family to meet in the living room wearing scarfs, a big warm quilt and snugly sweaters. They rested their heads on soft pillows. Annie, John and Anna, although they were big, brought their teddy bears in. It was so lovely.

to be continued ...