Category: I See You

Teasers, Preview, and Promos

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).

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.

Playing God

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

The best thing about being a writer, in my opinion, is that you get to play god.

You decide what happens to your character, who dies, who lives, who’s happy, and who’s sad. You decide what your character says, does, wears, eats, drinks, and so on.

Things you may not be able to do in your own life, you can do in your book, through your character.

For example, in real life, I can’t have a dog. I do take care of some of our relatives’/friends’ dogs now and then, but due to my work, I can’t have my own dog. Not yet. And it’s sad, because I’d love to have one.

So I dreamed up a dog and put it into my novel.

I love it. I love the imaginary dog. Through my character(s), I play with it, feed it, and walk it around. It was hard when I had to end my story, because every book has to have an ending. But who knows? I might one day be able to have an actual dog, just like the imaginary one I made.

If you’ve always dreamed of having something nice that you can’t quite have yet, it helps to write it down sometimes. You can be creative about it, visualize it to be as realistic or far-fetched as possible. It’s a fun and harmless way of playing god. At least for me, it also somewhat relieves the itch and craving.

Then, one day, when you finally get to have that nice thing, whatever it is, imagine how fun it would be to read what you’ve written those many years ago.

Is It A Nightmare?

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

About a year ago, I was visited by my dream-giver in the form of a nightmare.

The terrible feeling I had in this particular nightmare stayed with me for a long time afterwards, and one big question arose to the top of my mind: what if it wasn’t a nightmare? What if it was someone’s story, whispered to me through this nightmare?

So I decided to write it down, to make it into a story, to breathe life into it. And soon, I hope to share it with you all.

It’s All About The Setting

On By dphauthorIn I See You, Sweet Like SugarLeave a comment

Setting the stage before performing is just as important as the performance itself, in my opinion. So this time, I’ll try to do just that.

The story in the book revolves around Lafayette, Louisiana – USA and a small town right next to it, called Souk. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of Souk town, it’s a product of the author’s imagination, along with all the characters and everything else in this book.

While the main events took place in 2011, a lot of things began in the 1990s. The main characters were about 30 years old in 2011, so that means in the 1990s they were teenagers.

Does that sound familiar to you? It should. Because, maybe, you will find bits and pieces of yourself in this book.