My first reaction was a smile. Then I held one up, looked at it from back to front, and then put it again, walking away in a daze. It was a great feeling, watching it finally available on bookstores, about 3 years after it was written, and after problems with the previous publisher showing interest in it. So actually I didn’t know how to react, really.

Thank you to my publisher for their hard work and for helping me realizing my dream.

The Death to Come cover

The Death to Come in Goodreads.

I hope you enjoy the book.

Wish me luck - and make sure you’ll get hold of a copy of it (more, if possible? Haha). Feedback is always welcome.

Now I have to finish a translation, an editing, and I hope I will be able to finish writing the second and the third books soon.

I was astonished by how quick and easy their online ticketing is. First, you go to their official site. Click Tickets >> Ticket Order. Fill in your data, state how many tickets you want (the price keeps on rising as the D-Day gets near, so hurry and get your ticket now!).

Choose whether to pay by transferring money to the bank account of Java Festival Production (the name behind Java Jazz) or by credit card. I chose to transfer money (because I’ve spent too much with my credit card this month, haha). Then I faxed the receipt to them, and voila! Only a couple of minutes later, in my inbox I already got the validation code to download my tickets (which I should print on my own). Amazing!

So, I’ll see you there then guys. Somehow the names of Peter Gontha and Java Festival Pro (and Gudang Garam) make me sure that the festival won’t end up horrible like last year’s Jakarta Rock Parade.

Currently there are four webcomics hosted there:
The Daimon Mythology
Breathing the Driven Snow.
Funeral Pyre: a part of the Noble Book of Arthur
Uroki

And Cocona has been so kind to put two Sasuraiger fanarts that I made in the J9 fansite. It’s a great site for fellow J9 fans, so go visit it! :)

Read the novel here. Your comment and critics will be very much appreciated.

A neighbouring family once lived, like us, in Tangkahan Lagan/Pangkalan Brandan in North Sumatra.  When we were there, the area was a thriving one, supported by the oil industry.  But my neighbours, who just visited TL/PB again, said that there was nothing there now anymore.  Pertamina has packed up their things and left.  The housing complexes are now guarded by marines, and my neighbours had to ask for permission to enter the area.  ”My children were born here!”

So they let them in, only to find a saddening, devastated, lonely place. Where there used to be thousand of people living now are ruins of buildings that 15 years ago were still in a very good condition — many of them were new when we were there.  It’s practically a dead town.

My neighbours reported that only the hospital is still intact, because it is being occupied by the marines.  Even my junior high school — that I still consider one of the best school I’ve ever been too — is not there anymore.  Funny, all these years, I’ve been dreaming several times of going to a white building that I think is my former school in Tangkahan Lagan.  In my dreams I feel lost, and I try to find other people there.  I see glimpses of people passing me by, or going into doors or corridors, but I’ve never really met them.

It’s only a dream, but even in reality,

I still remember the white walls,

the large windows,

the sports fields,

the great football fields where we could run and play and laugh,

the plantations that we walked every Fridays,

the great hall,

the comfortable library where we could always go and sit cross-legged with a good book (and where I read Tirani and Benteng, that forever set me on my path),

the librarian,

the courtyard,

the gardens,

the trees,

the small pools and the fountain,

the small canteen,

the art classes…

They’re all past.  Gone.  Vanished.

I can’t find any more words to say at the moment.  Let’s just put it that this whole thing makes me want to recite Ozymandias, or wish that I had penned Live Forever.

Try to click on the new gallery, and see whether it works (if not, just comment here!). I will upload more soon.

The good news is this:  Threads 01, my comic compilation, is now available.

42 + 2 pages
Rating: 13+ (nothing explicit)
Price: IDR 17.5K (no tax, but shipping cost excluded)
Language used: Indonesian and English (different chapters may use different languages)

 Content:

Data 06 of my previous publication, BL x BL x BL, now rechristened BLx3

Germain of the Heart: Bleed, a bud off my series Regus of the Eyes.

Uroki
Eye 1: Surya Rajaprana
The first chapter of my post-apocalyptic series, in which people called Skans and Cyclops roam the Earth. This series is heavily influenced by Klaxons. Well… Regus of the Eyes too were influenced by Klaxons…

Samples here

Once again… congratulations, Bayou!