The Firstborn

On By dphauthorIn Through Sweet Like Sugar, You See Me2 Comments

Being the youngest child in the family, I don’t know what it feels like to be a firstborn. Having no live children, I also don’t know what it feels like to have a firstborn.

But I do have 2 baby books, and might be able to share my experience of giving birth to the firstborn and watch her grow.

First, I must admit that I sometimes forget my firstborn. Or maybe forget is the wrong word. ‘Give up’ sounds more like it, and it does sound more cruel, doesn’t it?

Here’s the thing. I went into labor without any help, as far as marketing went. All I had was my own guts and a naive imagination of what life would be after giving birth to my first book. None of which helped, of course, and the latter didn’t even come close to the reality.

I did not have any beta readers for my first book. All I had was my mother/editor/alpha reader. I’m not saying this is a mistake; some people might be good enough not to need any other help but from an editor/one alpha reader. My problem was (one of many others) that I wrote about something I didn’t know.

The setting for my first book is Louisiana, USA, and I’ve never been to USA, let alone Louisiana. So I should have probably hired a local editor from that state. I didn’t, simply because I didn’t have the money. I was sane enough not to think that I would strike it rich with my first book, so I didn’t want to spend any savings for something I haven’t tested. And yet, in doing so, I probably just made things worse.

Having no beta readers mean that there was no one to tell me if there was something wrong with the story. I trust my mom/editor, but she is just one person. Sometimes we miss things. The advantage of having several beta readers is that one of these people might catch some oddities you/your editor don’t. Again, nobody told me about this before, so I went into the water without any beta readers.

Which also meant that there was no one to give me those ‘crucial’ reviews/testimonials/endorsements when my book just came out.

Imagine this: you see a nice looking book, read the preview at the back & got a bit interested, and try to find out if anyone has read it/if they liked it… and you found none. You read the author’s name again, and realized you’ve never heard of that person before. As you try to look for more info about the author, you found nothing either! What would make you invest your time and money to read a book no one has ever heard of, by an author no one has ever heard of?

Nothing.

And I learned all that only after my firstborn book was out. I thought I was prepared for everything and ready to sell. I waited in anticipation and religiously checked my sales report, while trying my best to market it on my social media platform (which also had no followers as yet). I’m sure you know where this is going. Yep. Downhill.

I won’t lie. I felt that slap in the face, hard. And I noticed I wasn’t the only one. Some people made the same decisions (again, not mistakes) and one by one, I saw them disappearing from the same social media platform, pulling back their books from the circulation at the same time. The authors and their books ceased to exist, just like that.

I thought of doing the same, many times. But I thought I’d stick around just a little more, and resorted to plan B, which in my opinion is also a sad fate for self-published authors: have a free promotion for the book.

Trust me, when you’ve written a book, pour out your heart & soul to it, the last thing you’d want to do is let people read it for free. And they shouldn’t, in the perfect world. You should know your worth, and your book is your artwork, and that is priceless.

But we don’t live in the perfect world, do we? And sometimes, you need to–ugh–beg. By begging, I mean do that f-in free promotion, in the hope that someone, somewhere, will read it and give your book a review (I didn’t even care what review, good or bad was all welcomed!). At least this way you’d know that the review is based solely on your book, not a sugar-coated version you’d get when you pay for a review.

To my surprise (I mean really, it did take me by surprise), the reviews did start to come… and none of them were as bad as I thought.

So I did this begging technique a few more times, especially since a year after my firstborn was out, the lockdown had just started everywhere. I thought that was the perfect timing for people to start reading, and if I could help in any way to ease up their days (with a free psychological thriller book, no less), then why not?

This was when I started to get even more surprised.

By this point, I started to notice how some reader, instead of using the free promotion, decided to purchase my book instead. Was it because I already had a few reviews for it? Was it because of the friends I made in the social media? Was it just because of the book cover (which I also really love)? Whatever it was, it was working.

Finally, my firstborn started to stand on her own feet.

When my second book was born, I decided not to have a free promotion. At least for now, I want to keep my self-worth and put a price to my books. I put everything I learned from not having a successful firstborn to launching my second book baby, and was ready to reap the profits.

At first, that was what it looked like. I got better & quicker sales than I did for my firstborn, reviews poured in quicker too, and all of this was without doing any free promotion. Feeling like I knew how to do it properly this time made me concentrate completely on my second book baby. I neglected my firstborn and, like I said, gave up on promoting it in any way.

But my firstborn is smart. I’m still not quite sure how she does it, but just when I gave up on her, she started running around the world barefeet.

Whenever I put both of my books for a countdown sale, my firstborn somehow convinced people that she was worth the read, too–sometimes even more than my second book. When there isn’t any promotion going on, she manages to make people read her on Kindle Unlimited, or even buy her for the full price.

As a mother, I am pleasantly surprised. To see that some new readers notice the book I had given up on, read it, and even put some reviews for it… there’s no greater feeling than that.

I guess in a way it’s my firstborn’s way of saying, “Look, Ma, no hands!”

And I am a proud Mama. Truly.

Thank you for giving my firstborn a chance, even when her own mother had been neglecting her.

Keep Writing

On By dphauthorIn You See MeLeave a comment

Why do you write?

Ah, the million dollar question.

Once you pronounce yourself a writer, you get this question a lot. The answers vary among writers and authors, but I’m here to tell you about mine in the hope that I’d get to convince you (yes, you!) to keep writing, no matter what.

I’ve written short stories from when I was a kid, in my native language. I seem to have lots of ideas back then & if I didn’t write them down, I’d draw them as comics. But my ‘real’ writing experience didn’t start then.

It started when I had my very first bad heartbreak. It was my first year of uni and I was unprepared for the reality that this person was not waiting for me. I became obsessed for a while, couldn’t think of anything else but him and how to get him back. It was unhealthy.

I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t watch any movie, because everything would just remind me of him. (I did read Harry Potter though, the 3rd book just came out. It was rainy and gloomy, perfect for my mood that time.) Music was the same. It was hard.

It went on for a few months, until I finally picked up a notebook and started writing… to myself. I started with something along these lines: ‘One day, my future self will look at this moment and laugh, maybe because we’d be together again, or maybe because I’d realize how ridiculously hopeless I was.’

I was still hopeful when I started writing into that notebook, treating it as unsent letters to him. After a while, the hopefulness changed into frustration, and afterwards, anger. It was ugly, full of downs and more downs. My handwriting was sometimes neat, sometimes jagged and the paper dented with the pressure I made while writing the angry words. Some pages were crumpled and dog-eared because of my tears they caught.

More months went by, and for whatever reason (maybe I was running out of pages), I started reading the notebook from the beginning again… and that was when I realized how silly I was for clinging on to him and our non-existent future together. 

After many times of doing this on repeat (writing, re-reading, writing, re-reading–my real life was pretty much on pause during those times), it was time for me to move on to the next stage.

I let it go. I let him go.

No one else has ever read those notes. I don’t even have them with me anymore, but that was a turning point for me. Why? Because I wrote it from the deepest corner of my heart. And what did I get out of it? Relief, mostly. I felt like I was healed.

That was when I knew that writing, for me, will never be for pleasing or impressing others. I do it to express myself, even when no one is around to read it.

Why should it be any different now when I write books? Why should I care if anyone read my books? It shouldn’t. It’s just a lovely bonus if someone did, that’s all.

The most important thing is that I’ve expressed what I wanted to express, let out what I wanted to shout from my heart. I know this sounds like a cliché, but ever since that ‘turning point’, when I write my stories, I pour my heart out to it. Like Voldemort and his Horcruxes, I put a slice of myself into my books, always.

To me, writing is personal. It’s a journey, much like life is, for each and every one of us. Some people let their journeys be shown to people, and in this case, they become the writers we know. Some journeys touch us, some are inspirational, and some don’t come anywhere near us. But that’s life. And even if these ‘invisible’ journeys don’t touch us, their journeys don’t end there.

Now, with 2 books out and a new Work In Progress (WIP) brewing, I can’t tell you how many times I thought of quitting. I don’t get enough sales, I want to quit putting my books out there. I read someone else’s book that is so good it makes me feel like an impostor, I want to lock myself in a room and mope. I get a less than 5-star rating for any of my books, I want to stop writing altogether.

But then I remember the question at the beginning of this post and ask it to myself. Why do I write? If I said I write to express myself, then what does all of the above (paragraph) matter? That’s right, it doesn’t. Those things: the sales, how my writing is perceived by others, the ratings/reviews–they are but a bonus. When I remember how ‘far’ I’ve come from only writing to myself to self-publishing 2 books and actually selling them to more than just 1 person, and even getting any ratings/reviews at all… this is much, much more than I ever dreamed of achieving from my writing journey.

I was here, and I wrote. I am still here, and I’m still writing.

And so are you. You were here, and maybe, you’ve written something. You are still here, now, and I hope you are still writing. Maybe, one day your writing will touch me, but even if they never will, at least they were written and you’ve expressed yourself through it. I’d like to think you’ve let yourself get healed this way.

So please, keep on writing. Do it for yourself.

The Difference Between Pink and Black

On By dphauthorIn Through Sweet Like Sugar, Through The Invisible Ones, You See MeLeave a comment

As much as I’d love to tell you that I am a pro in this whole writing thing, here is the truth: I am but a beginner. It’s now been a bit over a year since I ‘decided’ to go into this business, if we count the very first word I typed into the file that eventually became my first book.

Now, having independently published two books, I can do a comparison between them. Not the stories, of course, how can a parent ever compare their children? But the methods I used and the result of such methods.

If I’m not a pro, then why bother writing these down? The answer is: I’m doing this for my future self. By writing these things down, hopefully my future self will remember that I did learn something, even if it feels like nothing comes out of it.

If you are also a beginner, or you haven’t even started, and you happen to come across this post & learn something new, then I’d be glad to know that this writing also helps someone else. It’s a win-win situation. 😉

First things first: I started out with nothing but my own manuscript and a handful of trusted people from whom I asked for advice. I had no social media account for the book purposes, and only made one a few weeks before the launching of my first book. One might say this was my first mistake, and maybe one is right.

It would definitely help my book’s marketing if I already had an effective social media account with thousands of followers. But we’re not here to speculate & I’m merely stating the facts. The fact is, I didn’t have it then.

So what happened when I started posting about the launch of my first book in the brand-new social media account?

Nothing.

I had no followers, no likes, and no posts that could pull anyone to become a reader.

For the record, my social media account’s handle used to be the name of my first book. I had (and still have) no pictures of myself, no selfies. Could this also add to the problem? Maybe.

So my socializing attempt was a flop. My book launch was a flop, too. The (low) sales were all made by my family members & friends, which was of course very nice of them, but when it came to getting reviews–I’m sorry to say–it’s pretty much non-existent. And we all know how important reviews are for an independent/self-publishing author.

And they really are important, the reviews. But even with low sales and even lower number of reviews, I decided to keep it ‘organic’ and not ask for anyone to read my book just for the sake of getting the reviews.

Having my book listed in the Kindle Unlimited gave me the opportunity to put my e-book up for Countdown & Free promotions. So I used the Countdown promo 5 months after the launch of my first book, making my e-book cost 99 cents for 72 hours. By this time, I had about 100+ followers on my social media account.

This proved to be a flop, too, and brought in only 1 sale.

Soon after, I changed the handle of my social media account to be my author name. I still don’t post any selfie there, but changing the handle made the account feel more human, and I felt like I had more freedom to post things unrelated to my first book (but related to writing in general). And since at that point I was writing my second book, it seemed natural to change it.

About 2,5 months since the Countdown promo, I decided to try the Free promo.

Needless to say, this time it was a success compared to the Countdown one. This was the first time I realized that my first book was actually interesting enough for people–other than my friends & family–to want to read, if only they didn’t need to pay for it. Which makes perfect sense, because, hello? Who am I again in the writing world?

This lifted my mood and I did it again as soon as I had my next chance, and finally, after several times of the Free promo, the reviews from new readers–people I did not know prior to writing/selling the book–started to pour in.

So yes, this experience made me learn that I shouldn’t be stingy when it comes to letting people read my book. I should forget all about the money, because the truth is, when someone is just starting out (the indie/self-pub way), no one would’ve heard about him/her. I don’t mean I should sell myself short, no, of course not. But spreading my work and finding my readers/market is more important than making money.

The reviews for my first book kept alive my will to write, and as I was finishing my second book’s manuscript, I decided it was time for me to try another method: asking people to beta read my second book.

As mentioned before, I didn’t have anything but my manuscript for my first book. This time around, though, I had about 300+ followers on my social media account, and a few fellow indie/self-pub authors that I felt comfortable sharing my second manuscript with. Some of them have read my first book and gave it good reviews, so I felt 80% sure that they would ‘get’ my second book (and maybe even like it–that’d be a great bonus). I asked them nicely and when they said yes, I prepared a list of things I wanted them to especially pay attention to when reading the manuscript.

Out of 5 beta readers (I still kept it to a minimum number), 3 gave me outstanding feedback, 1 didn’t really like it, and 1 never came back to me with any feedback. It was enough for me to go forward, so as a cherry on top, I asked the ones who did gave me their feedback if they’d be willing to write short endorsements. Some of them agreed and their endorsements are now at the back cover of my second book.

Not long after that, I published my second book, and instantly gained 4 first reviews from my beta readers. I did not ask them to do it, but I was blessed with such kind-hearted beta readers.

During the launch of my second book, I also had a giveaway contest to allure people to enter to win my second book. I would’ve thought the ‘free book’ words would win people over, but I was wrong again, for a good reason: the people who would actually read my book preferred to buy my book rather than enter my giveaway contest! 😅 That was a nice surprise!

I did still get enough entries in the end, and 4 people were given my second book for free. Out of these, 3 gave reviews (again, because they wanted to).

Now, 3 months has passed since my second book was launched and the sales number are somewhat similar to my first book’s first 3 months’ sale… but guess what? I don’t even know most of the buyers. 😁 With my first book, I knew exactly who bought them, because they were my family members & friends. Now, I can’t even tell who has bought my second book until suddenly a new review comes up.

While sales are still slow, I have to admit that using the help of beta readers was a good decision for me, even if it’s ‘only’ to get reviews. As of date, I have gotten more reviews for my second book in half the time it took for my first book to get 6 reviews.

Let’s face it, without having thousands of followers in social media and going through the traditional publishing or paying for a professional advertisement/marketing service, sales will probably always be slow and low. To tell the truth, I didn’t even expect to sell any book for my second one, except for (again) my immediate family members.

But I proved myself wrong, and that made me so happy.

And, let me remind you again: everything I’ve done for my book so far have been for free. I have not paid anyone or any party for anything at all.

I have no plans yet for any Countdown or Free promo for my second book. The second book’s regular price is already cheaper than the first one, which is one of the reasons why I’m still thinking about it. But who knows? Remembering I shouldn’t be stingy about spreading my work, I probably will end up doing it one day.

Thank you for reading this long post. ❤ My journey in the writing world & my books’ journeys shall continue no matter what, and if you’re also an indie/self-pub author, hopefully your journey continues after reading this.

To read the reviews of my books on Goodreads or leave your review (yay!), click here.

To purchase my book(s), click here.

Covering the Covers, Part 2

On By dphauthorIn Through The Invisible Ones, You See MeLeave a comment

And I’m back to talk about the behind-the-scenes of making my book covers!

If you haven’t known it already, my second book that was supposed to be suspense and dark drama turned out to be yet another psychological thriller (I promise I didn’t know the genre until after I sent out the manuscript to my beta readers… more on this on my next posts!). So the same rule I used for my first novel–no person/silhouette of a person running/walking away from the reader on the cover–applies here, too.

At first, I was thinking of using a picture taken by my late brother-in-law. He was a talented photographer with an eye for raw and ‘just as you are’ scenes, who mostly took monochromatic pictures of Jakarta and its people, and he usually developed his own films, too.

Since my second book, The Invisible Ones, is set in Jakarta and Bandung, it would’ve otherwise been so perfect.

But as the writing progressed and the title came up (the book title always comes up at the latest stage for me), it was clear to me that I wanted a different approach.

For a moment, I even thought of just putting the title on the cover & that’s it. No images, no pictures, done. Imagine how eye-catching that would be, ha!

But I couldn’t do it. This ‘immaterialized’ book begged for a cover with something else, I had resolved to do it, so do it I shall!

I started doodling again on my trusted notebook. This time, I knew what color palette I was going for (monochrome plus blood red), but putting together a picture would consume too much time and energy… and I’m not even a good photographer.

That means I had to use my other hobby: drawing. I was thinking I could choose several items/events in the book that are significant, and put images of those in the cover. But when my husband saw it, he thought it reminded him too much of Ozark, so I didn’t go through with it.

And then I started thinking of symbols. Things that go on in the book, but put in a way that’s not too obvious. The first thing that came to mind was an onion, because of the way the female main character of my book tells her story. We’re peeling layer upon layer of her story until we get to the very core of herself as we move on throughout the book.

But as I thought of the layout of the book cover, imagined it with an onion at the center, it made me think of a recipe book instead. And that wasn’t a good idea. How could I make it work? I figured I needed to look around for ideas. How do other book cover designers/illustrators illustrate book covers in a not too-obvious way? How do they decide what to show on the cover?

While I went through other authors’ gorgeous book covers to search for ideas, I suddenly got reminded of my other past-life obsession: tarot cards.

Ever since I was a teenager & got my first tarot card deck, I had always dreamed of making my own deck. I was intrigued by the many hidden symbols in one single card, when I finally got the meaning of one thing it was like decoding a secret world.

It suddenly clicked in my head that that was what I was gonna go for. Make my book cover look like a tarot card, with all kinds of symbols for everything that goes on in the book. When the readers decode it (and I hope they do), I imagine giving them the same satisfaction as I got from decoding tarot cards.

Since the story takes place in Indonesia, I wanted to make all the symbols and style distinctly Indonesian, or even more specifically, Javanese. What would be better than Javanese batik and wood carving style?

The ‘two of everything’ continues all the way to the cover. Each main character deserves their own illustration, so I made 2 separate ones to be combined in the end.

The bulb and flower for Maya, the clouds and rain for Indra, my other main character.

The clouds are drawn in the style of Indonesian batik pattern called ‘Megamendung’. I can’t even begin to tell you how these clouds depict Indra so well (other than the fact that his name means ‘god of lightning & rain’), so you can google the meaning of the pattern if you’d like.

Maya’s is the onion, as per my original idea, drawn also in the same style of Javanese batik.

I used licensed Photoshop for commercial use again to edit the illustrations.

This time, I wanted the font not to only tell readers/viewers what the title of my book is, but to also show it. I chose a font that has multiple thickness to create a sense of invisibility to the ‘invisible’ word.

In general, I like my book covers to have matte finishing. However, having a black book cover was something I never tried in matte finishing, and I was slightly worried about how it would look. This was where the author’s proof copy came in handy.

If you’re self-publishing a paperback, I highly recommend getting the author’s proof copy before you actually publish it. For me, it was great to see if all the tiny white outlines of my illustration were visible enough and to know just how dark black the book cover would look like in real life.

Once everything was done, it was time to publish the book!

Just like with my first book, I love my second book cover. It’s me, it’s perfect for my story, and it’s something I won’t be embarrassed about no matter how long I see into the future.

If you’ve read my book, how many symbols have you found in the illustration that you could make out from the book? Remember, everything means something there in the book and on the cover design. Nothing means nothing.

It’s Time

On By dphauthorIn I See You, The Invisible Ones, Through The Invisible Ones, You See MeLeave a comment

The time has come for Maya and Indra to welcome you to Indonesia. 🧍🏾‍♀️🧍🏻

The Invisible Ones is going to come out on July 15th! 🥳🤩🙈👀

My proof print came yesterday and I couldn’t contain myself. Though this is my second book, seeing my words coming into the shape of a real book is just priceless. There are still some minor things to tweak, which is why a proof print is always good to have. Yet I am confident that I will be able to get the book out by 15th. 😊👌

I’d like to share the lovely endorsements I got from my beta readers, printed on the back cover of the book. These are their honest opinions and I am so incredibly happy to know that they liked my book. When you’ve spent so much time to write a story and lived in it for so long, it’s sometimes hard to believe that other people would actually read and understand your work, let alone like it. Having these words printed on my book will certainly remind me of this achievement, no matter how small it may seem to others. To me, it means the whole world. Thank you ever so much, dear beta readers! 😘💕

There will also be something fun starting tomorrow, just to while away the days until the actual launch of my book. Stay tuned!

Selamat jalan ke Indonesia! 🛫Semoga selamat sampai tujuan. 😉

📸: Victor Lumunon.

PS. Visit my Instagram for more exciting news, updates, and an ongoing giveaway contest (from 12th to 14th of July).

Q&A: General Stuff And Coming Book

On By dphauthorIn Through The Invisible Ones, You See MeLeave a comment

A while ago, there was a Q&A session in my Instagram account, as part of a monthly challenge I did. After fearing that I would not have any questions thrown at me, I was excited to see that there were in fact quite a few questions I got, regarding writing in general & my coming book.

Something I dreaded turned out to be something enjoyable, and it was a nice experience! So much so that I decided to put a few of them to ‘The Author’ page.

I’m also putting them here for a keepsake, and the ones that have to do with my coming book, The Invisible Ones, will only be here instead of in ‘The Author’ page.

Q & A session with D P Haka, as copied from her Instagram post, May 30th, 2020.

Q: Why did you want to be a writer?

A: Hmm, I don’t think I ever ‘wanted’ to be a writer. I’ve seriously wanted to be a manga artist because I love to draw and make up stories, but as I grew older I found less time to draw, so writing became more of a thing. I’ve been writing just for fun ever since I was 9 or 10, and before self-pub was a thing, I didn’t know what to do with my stories. When I finally figured the whole self-pub thing, writing & publishing a book seemed like the next thing to do! So here I am now! I think writing, to me, is mainly an outlet for my creativity, where I can also share my feelings & emotions to anyone who wants to read them. It’s also a good therapy for myself, to let out these emotions in writing rather than bottle them up.

Q: Which author has a writing style you struggle with and which author’s writing style do you love?

A: Ooh, very good one. Hmm, I have only 1 experience of struggling with someone’s writing style and I’m not completely sure if it’s his or the translator’s ’fault’. The book is called Man Tiger in English, and though the author, Eka Kurniawan, wrote it in my mother tongue (Indonesian), I only got to read it in English. It was hard to read because there are very long paragraphs with 10 different topics and there are very few gaps between each ‘action’ that I felt like I was swimming in a murky water. But surprisingly, I really loved the story and the idea behind it, the book ends up to be one of my all time faves. The ones whose style I love has got to be Diane Setterfield and Gillian Flynn.

Q: What’s your favorite book?

A: Ah, my fave book of all time still hasn’t changed: ‘The Phantom of the Opera’! It has everything I love in a story: unrequited love, tragedy, misunderstood character. And of course I love the fact that it’s dark (lots of murder there), sad, dramatic, and that it spans over a long period of time (but the pacing is quick). So it’s kind of like a writing bible for me.

Q: If you could be a fictional character, who would you be?

A: Christine Daae! And I’d forget Raoul to go with Erik. (This is why I didn’t make the book.)

Q: What’s your favorite thing about being a writer?

A: Hmm… how to say this without sounding like a psycho? My fave thing about being a writer is to be able to play God… (in a very small scale!). ‘Cause, you know, we get to create our own worlds, our own people/creatures, decide who gets what and who dies… okay, I’ll stop right here before the internet police come & and take me away.

Q: Do you spend a lot of time doing research for your stories or do you just ‘write from the seat of your pants’?

A: For something as trivial as ‘do people eat this/that in this area?’, I don’t spend too much time researching it. For more important ones like ‘how to drug someone’ (both examples are from my search history) I do spend time to get to the bottom of things, because so far I write stories that happen in real world (non-fantasy). Other than searching online, I also ask people’s personal experiences and discuss things with others to get their POVs and know what works/don’t.

Q: What is your writing practice? Same time or place?

A: Before lockdown: random time, depending on my work schedule. After lockdown I was already nearly done with my coming book so I just wrote as much as I could whenever possible! Place: always the same, my good ol’ workspace in our living room.

Q: Do you write daily?

A: No. What a shocker, right? But since I’m not a planner, that’s just the way I am. Sometimes I just can’t hear the voices, so I don’t push myself to write air. And, right now, for example, when I’m waiting for feedback from my beta readers, I don’t write at all (though I have found some new ideas for new projects).

Q: Will you ever write in a different genre?

A: Yes! Believe it or not, before writing 2 psychological thrillers, I started with romance, paranormal YA, and action stories. After my coming book is out, I’m gonna do children’s book(s), or try my best, at least!

Q: Do you have a set schedule you stick to for writing or do you write whenever you have time/make time?

A: Due to my full time job, I usually write when I have the time. This used to mean late nights after work, but of course the lockdown changed that. Even so, I don’t think I can schedule my writing. I’m bad at planning things! So when I feel the urge, I write. If I’m at work at that moment, then I’d just quickly write down key words to my phone’s notes so I’d remember what to write when I get home.

Q: Do you plan to write more books based in Indonesia?

A: I do, as a matter of fact! Not quite sure yet ‘when’ exactly, but I have always wanted to do something that has to do with reincarnations and the old kingdoms of Indonesia. It will require lots of research, though, so… maybe one day!

Q: Who’s your all-time fave character to write? 

A: Okay, my all time fave character to write so far has got to be Indra (from my coming book)! Anything seems possible with him! Things that I can’t normally do with other characters, I can do with him. And I can’t say anything more, because: spoiler. But the gray characters are always a delight to work with.

Q: What inspired your WIP?

A: The Invisible Ones (the name of my coming book) is basically about the ignored ones, the ones we don’t see/care to know about, because they’re not interesting/good-looking/successful enough. They’re everywhere around us, IRL and in social media. My inspiration came from my own ‘sad life’, but I wanted to make it a lot more… sinister. Vengeful. Twisted and dark. So it’s very far from my real life/experience, I promise.

Q: What’s your favorite line of your wip (work in progress)?

A: Ooh, this was tough. And I’m gonna answer with a long one, taken from Maya’s POV:
‘I hated him then.
I hated him for making my name sound beautiful, for putting a new meaning into it, breaking my lifelong belief that my parents just hated me from the day I was born that they named me after a mirage, as if I wasn’t real.
I hated him for making me feel real, and visible.
And most of all, now that I felt visible, I hated him for making me feel like he liked what he saw.
I hated him, because not only had I already fallen for him, but now I was starting to realize that he might actually stay and turn my world upside down.’

To all of you who were involved in the Q&A session, I was honored to have your questions and answer them. Thank you so very much for the interest. Hope you’ll enjoy reading this as much as I did writing the answers!

Covering the Covers, Part 1

On By dphauthorIn Through Sweet Like Sugar, You See MeLeave a comment

Let’s talk about making book covers.

The good thing about being an independent (indie) and a self-publishing (self-pub) writer is that you get to prepare your own book covers. The bad thing about being an indie and self-pub writer is that you get to prepare your own book covers.

You either love doing it, or you don’t. Luckily, there are many book cover designers that you can hire to do your book cover these days, but as I haven’t used any, I’m here to talk about the other option: making it yourself.

I am merely writing this down to record my own experience and journey, and in no way I am saying that this is what one should or shouldn’t do. If you are a fellow indie/self-pub writer, at the end of the day you’ll realize that you’ll find your own voice and ways to do things.

Though the appeal of using ready-stock images and easy-to-use image editing apps may be calling, for my previous book and the coming one I used the old-fashioned ways. I took the pictures myself or I drew things by hand and used a ‘licensed for commercial use’ program to make them. One might argue that such licensed programs are expensive and since we don’t even know yet if one would make profits from the book itself, why pay that much? Well, I can tell you one thing: some things are worth investing in. If something can put an ease to my mind for not having anyone claim that I stole their photo/illustration some time in the future, then by all means, sign me up!

To be honest, the main reason why I do this the old-fashioned way is because I do judge a book by its cover. In my humble opinion, when one uses ready-stock images or easy-to-use image editing apps, there’s always a risk that the book cover in question would end up looking similar to others’. If I only have one shot to catch a possible reader’s attention, I’d want my book cover to be different than others.

So the first thing I did when designing my very first book cover was to decide what I didn’t want. Psychological thriller/mystery books often have a person on the cover, with his/her back facing the viewer, usually either a person that looks like a detective or the ‘victim’ running away to the dark. Have you ever noticed this? I have. And speaking of dark, dark colors are used immensely as well. Early on in the days of my designing my book cover, I knew that I didn’t want any of these.

By this time, I already knew the title of my book (FYI, it’s not strange for me to not have a title until the very last moment) so for my first book, that was what I looked at next, and took quite a literal translation to it.

early sketch for the cover

Of course it was only natural that I had to have sugar on the cover of my first book, Sweet Like Sugar. Sugar was, after all, the coating of everything in that story. But underneath the sugar lies something dark, so I had it photographed on top of a black plate, with just a tiny bit of black lurking from beneath it.

just white sugar on a black plate

As seen from my sketches, I didn’t plan on having a hand print on the cover. But as I was trying to get the right kind of surface, playing with all the sugar with my bare hands, the idea started to form in my head.

hmm, kind of cool

After taking dozens of the same shots, I decided to develop both ideas and see which one came out better.

I don’t know about you, but I liked the hand print better! And yet, something is still not quite right. It wasn’t until I played with the saturation that it dawned on me: the color had to be something else than white.

You know that feeling of craving for something sweet, and then you finally get to eat a whole lot of that sweetness until you get so sick from it? Sickeningly sweet. That was what I wanted it to be. That was what I wanted the book cover to ‘taste’ like.

voila!

And that was how I got to this end result.

To others, it probably doesn’t seem like it was a lot of work, but I did spend a considerable amount of my time for it. Maybe I was just too slow, but I am still damn proud of my first book cover. It has the right amount of eye-catchiness, the right amount of sweetness, and the right amount of unsettling darkness.

The Next Book

On By dphauthorIn I See You, The Invisible Ones, Through The Invisible Ones, You See MeLeave a comment

Months ago, I wrote about winning a writing competition for a short story with the genre ‘crime’ or ‘possible crime’. This same winning piece is now fully developed into a longer story, bearing an altogether different title. As you can now see from my newly designed website, the title of my next book is The Invisible Ones, whereas the winning short story was called Best Friends.

A few things about my coming book:

It’s all about the rule of 2 for my next book: 2 main characters, 2 cities.

The 2 main characters are Indonesians, and the 2 cities, Jakarta & Bandung, are in Indonesia. I didn’t ‘choose’ this location because I’m from there, but because for this story to be believable, it has to happen there. Things that may not make sense anywhere else in the world, they do there. And I’m hoping that by the time you finish reading the story, you will see why & won’t be left with questions.

The story, much like my first book, spans out a bit over 3 decades. The earliest year recollected here is 1986 & the present time is 2018. It’s a long process. One part of the book takes you back & forth between all those years, the other part goes in a linear way.

Everything that happens in the book happens for a reason. Nothing means nothing.

There’s also 2 trigger warnings: mental illness & domestic violence. I’m sorry to say that this book is not a light one to stomach. Instead, I’ll admit, it is an ugly one that paints an ugly picture.

But it’ll all end well, right? Well, see, I can’t give you any spoiler. All I can say is that this is not a ‘feel-good’ kind of book, more of a ‘wake-up call’ kind, for us to start becoming aware of things that go on around us, even if they happen in a far away place. I’m still trying to figure out myself what the genre of the book is, but it has crime, suspense, and darkness written all over it.

A Tiny Update

On By dphauthorIn You See MeLeave a comment

I haven’t posted here for a while, due to a surprising thing: I’ve been writing.

My second book is finished and currently awaiting feedback from my trusted beta readers before it will go to the final round of editing. The title is The Invisible Ones, and if I can’t find a better genre for it, it will go under ‘Contemporary Asian Fiction’, ‘Psychological Thriller’, and ‘Dark Drama’.

As you can see from my first choice of the book’s genre, I am exploring my own roots in this second novel. The story is set in Indonesia, and the main characters are both Indonesian.

I will try to post more as the publishing time comes closer. My personal goal is to have the book out by late summer this year.

If you’d like to know more about the coming book, or just socialize with me in general, you are more than welcome to visit my Instagram.

Till my next post, stay safe!

Winner

On By dphauthorIn You See MeLeave a comment

I love libraries. I’ve been going to one, even before I could read. My mother, sister, and I would go to the only library available for public near our home, which only had Dutch books. We would borrow children books and my mother would read them at night before we slept. I didn’t (and still don’t) speak or read Dutch, but I loved hearing the stories and seeing the images on the book.

When I moved here to my current hometown, I didn’t have any job/school to attend to and I couldn’t speak this country’s language yet. But there was a big library near my house with all kinds of English books, and I went there almost every day to spend my time with the books. To have access to millions of books for free was like a dream come true to me.

Thirteen years later, I self-published my own book, Sweet Like Sugar. Last summer, when I went to the biggest and coolest library near my current hometown, I took a picture of the ‘Mystery & Thriller books’ shelf, secretly wishing that one day, I would see my own book bearing my author name there.

Little did I know then that my wish was coming true.

Two weeks before the deadline, I came across an ad of a writing competition organized by the city library. The theme was called ‘Tapahtuiko murha?’ (Was There Murder?), a crime/possible crime genre, and it was a short story (8000 words or less) writing competition in Finnish, Swedish, and English. There would be 10 winners, whose winning works would be published in an anthology book.

Having just self-published a book that falls under the same category, after panicking a moment (2 weeks?!?) I finally decided to enter it with a brand new story.

I found out that it wasn’t impossible to create a story and write 8000 words in 2 weeks. I thought that even if I didn’t make it to the winner list, I’d have one good story in my pocket for rainy days.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I got a letter from them, saying that I was one of those 10 winners.

The best thing about this (other than having my work published) is that I also got to hear what the judges think about my writing. Their exact words were ‘Hyvällä tyylitajulla kirjoitettu kunnianhimoinen novelli’. An ambitious short story written with a good sense of style. 🖤

Other than my own family and friends, I had never had a chance to hear a review of my writing from a total stranger, so this made me realize that maybe I am not such a bad writer after all. Maybe what I’m doing, writing stories over stories, is actually worth it. And maybe it’s okay to dream big, because you’ll never know where you might land one day. 😊

The anthology book will be published next year as part of the city library’s collection.

Click here to see the competition’s result and more info about the competition (in Finnish).