Paradiso Perduto

So, Sebuah Novel Yang Belum Selesai is now live on Wattpad. Yeah, saya tahu. " KOK GITU SIH VER? FICTIONPRESS APA KABAR? JADI GAK AKAN DIPAKE LAGI AKUN FICTIONPRESSNYA? " Belum ada yang nanya kayak gitu sih, tapi kebayang aja kalau para pembaca di fictionpress pada tahu soal ini, akan muncul pertanyaan yang senada. Karena saya orangnya penuh persiapan (?), saya udah bikin jawaban sebelum ada yang bertanya. Jawabannya adalah : Nggak juga. Saya bakal terus nulis di fictionpress. Fictionpress adalah tempat "publikasi" pertama saya, dan saya sudah kadung sayang. Iya, saya orangnya emang baperan. Fictionpress masih jadi tempat yang paling oke untuk dapat feedback. Memang pembaca Indonesia rada sepi, tapi alhamdulillah saya sering banget dapat review. Dan reviewnya juga mendalam.  I love short reviews, but I love longer, thoughtful ones even more. Walaupun saya masih rada kurang tanggap membalas review, pembaca-pembaca baik terus aja ada. Dan lumayan banyak pe...

See my full list of 101 things to do in 1001 Days in Day Zero Project I always ranted that I do not have enough time to blog. Due to the past 4 days-long holidays, I (kind of) don't have that excuse anymore. So here it is, a long overdue post I should have posted MONTHS ago. Singing karaoke with friends is one of the easiest thing on my Day Zero list -I am bound to do it anyway at a certain point of the year. My closest group of friends and I are not that creative in thinking up what to do during our meet up; karaoke is a regular part of our activity-repertoire . However, I figured this would be a less intimidating way to start my 101-things-challenge, and wouldn't it be fun to go to karaoke with different group of friends? Less Afgan, Raisa, and Bruno Mars for a change. I mean, I still love them, but a little variety would be nice. Since this is one of the easiest things to do on my list, it is not fair to just perform this once. Thus, I have done this three...

Aishiteru~ Kizuna (I Love You~ Bonds) DVD Cover It's been a while since the last time I posted my Monday with Masaki reviews. I kind of miss fangirling in public writing about it, and I still have some unwatched Okada Masaki's movies lying around, so here it is! This is actually a TV special, continuation from the drama Aishiteru~ Kaiyo (2009) . I haven’t watched the drama, so I was a bit worried that I could not follow the storyline easily. Turned out that it can be enjoyed on its own. All the needed background information from the original drama was summarized briefly at the beginning by Sano Shiro , who played the father of a murdered child in the original drama. Er…a murdered child, you say? Yes, you read that right. Aishiteru~ Kaiyo was about a 5th grader who killed a 2nd grader, and how their families were shattered after the event. It seems like a very emotional drama, and according to Sano Shiro, it made the casts contemplated a lot about th...

picture source Happy New Year dear readers! Well, it is already 2 days after New Year, but whatever. I used to be really excited over New Year. When I was younger, it felt great to stay up late with my cousins, just chatting about childish stuff. The midnight countdown moment was something to wait for, and the fireworks were quite a sight. And afterwards, we would be busy sending happy new year texts to our friends, the content had been prepared since a few days-sometimes weeks- before. Now that I think about it, my effort to send happy new year texts to SO MANY friends back then was quite amazing. I had to repeatedly clear my inbox/outbox, since the capacity of my phone was very limited. Plus, it was rather expensive, if you compare with the SMS rate nowadays. Think how many Famous Five books I could buy with that money; I would probably be able to collect them all! I would not have to check secondhand book shops' site every 2 weeks hoping they restocked the previous edi...

There are times when I felt so worthless. I could not get anything right. Life was one wrong decision after another. There are times when I wished I could just shrink shrink shrink and then vanish, as if I was never here before. People might hate me. I didn't blame them; I hated myself too. People didn't want to be approached by me, and that's fine, I couldn't stand being me, too.  Then my supervisor drove me home because apparently I look like someone who would break down with an ugly, inconsolable cry in the middle of traffic jam. Then I realized that I haven't eaten anything but my grandma prepared my favorite food for dinner. Then I texted random message to my best friend way past after her sleeping time, and she unexpectedly replied. Then I was told that people miss me -me!- and they might sent me messages but I was unable to read it because my silly phone was broken. Then I read nice things people posted on internet and I thought it would be nice if...

Bagi saya yang sudah cukup lama inaktif di fictionpress ini, mendapatkan notifikasi review baru untuk salah satu cerita saya merupakan momen-momen tersanjung level dewa. Bagaimana tidak, update terakhir saya adalah sekitar enam bulan yang lalu, tapi masih ada aja pembaca yang tersesat  mengunjungi cerita saya. Lebih dari sekadar membaca, mereka juga menyempatkan waktu untuk meninggalkan review . Dear FP readers and reviewers, thanks for keeping a dream alive! Keep the reviews coming (for me and for your other favorite fictionpress author)! Dari semua fitur interaksi penulis-pembaca di Fictionpress, buat saya story review adalah level tertinggi. Dengan story favorite atau story follow  kita sudah bisa menunjukkan pada penulis bahwa kita suka dan/atau tertarik dengan cerita mereka, tapi story review memungkinkan interaksi yang lebih bebas. Pembaca bisa mendeskripsikan rasa suka/nggak sukanya terhadap suatu cerita. Pembaca juga bisa menunjukkan dengan spesifik mana ya...

Kau membuatku berpuisi lagi! Karena hanya lewat ini kita bicara patahan kata sepenggalan cerita teka teki setengah terisi tapi aku sudah lupa bagaimana merangkai rima aku tidak tahu lagi cara membuat makna sembunyi Mungkin, aku puas jadi makhluk bumi Mungkin aku tak ingin ke langit! Tapi Kau mengetuk Dan aku... Ah! Apakah ini! Bandung, 26 November 2015 Vera F. Maharani