Giveaway novel Remember When: share pengalaman pribadimu

Lagi pengen bikin giveaway lagi.. kali ini hadiahnya 1 novel Remember When bertandatangan. Caranya gampang, cukup tag Facebook Winna Efendi atau Twitter @WinnaEfendi dengan cerita berupa pengalaman pribadi kamu yang ada hubungannya dengan novel Ai, Refrain, Remember When atau Unbelievable. Temanya bebas, baik itu cerita hidupmu yang mirip cerita di novel, cowok sekelas yang mirip sama salah satu karakter novel.. anything! Mungkin, kamu pernah kenalan sama seseorang di busway pas lagi baca novel Remember When? Atau novel itu justru yang mempertemukan kamu dengan sahabat atau gebetan di perpustakaan? Syaratnya cuma: cerita itu adalah kisah nyata.

1 cerita paling seru akan dipilih dan menjadi pemenang. Kuis ini dibuka sampai tanggal 14 Oktober 2011. Pemenang akan diumumkan tanggal 15 Oktober 2011 dan dihubungi langsung via direct message.

Best of luck :-)

-Winna-

Mengenai novel baru dan hal-hal lain

.. just want to share a bit of news about my new novel.

Bagi yang bertanya mengenai novel-novel karya saya, urutan terbitnya sebagai berikut: Ai, Refrain, Unbelievable (Glam Girls series), Remember When. Yang non-fiksi adalah The Journeys. Untuk sinopsis dan foto kover bisa dilihat di Photos :) kelima buku sudah beredar di Gramedia. Jika kehabisan, bisa dicari juga di www.bukabuku.com, www.inibuku.com atau www.kutukutubuku.com.

.. now about my next novel.

Novel terbaru saya bergenre semi-romance, sedikit lebih dewasa dibanding karya-karya saya sebelumnya. Gaya penulisannya kali ini mellow, dan bercerita tentang dua orang asing yang sering bertemu di sebuah wine lounge. Mereka lantas sering mengobrol tentang keseharian dan hidup mereka. Lalu, apakah yang akan terjadi..? Hehe.. nantikan terbitnya novel terbaruku ini ya.

Jadwal dan judul masih belum resmi, karena itu belum bisa ku-share di sini. Jadwal terbit tentatif adalah awal tahun depan. Mudah-mudahan berita ini bisa menjawab sebagian pertanyaan teman-teman yang penasaran dengan naskah terbaru saya. Yes, it's finished. Sekarang statusnya sedang diproses untuk terbit. Let's wait and see :)

Saya pun masih menulis, dan menyiapkan sebuah kejutan untuk teman-teman dan pembaca di tahun 2012. Terima kasih untuk kalian semua yang terus bersama saya dalam perjalanan menulis ini. I can't do this without all of you.

Best regards and love always,
-Winna Efendi-

(manga) Kimi ni Todoke/From Me to You/Reaching You

Stumbled across this one on Book Depository and went straight for manga scans at mangareader.net. It has complete volumes till vol 59, to be continued.

The story revolves around a high school girl named Kuronuma Sawako, whose gloomy appearance and hair style resembles Sadako from the Ring movie franchise, earning her the nickname and the rumors that she can see ghosts. She's very ordinary and sweet, actually, but always has a difficulty expressing herself. On the first day of high school she encounters a popular cheerful Kazehaya Shouta, and from that moment on he befriends her despite her unpopularity. It is when she starts breaking out of her shell and befriends Yano and Yoshida, and also a couple of others.

The story is more of a self-discovery, coming of age, high school troubles, friendship and relationship kind of story.. it has a rather slow pace and great characterizations and beautiful drawing. If you like Bokura Ga Ita, My First Boyfriend or similar kind of piece-of-life manga, you'll probably love this one as well. It's so simple there's barely any conflicts, but once the conflicts arise - boy, they are good and heart wrenching.

My favorite character is Yano-chin :) each character is beautifully distinct, flawed but so fun to know that we feel each heartbreak, each emotion and grow to love every character there is. It's a good thing that everyone is three dimensional, especially the almost-antagonists that have depth and are given a chance to grow, such as Kurumi, Kento and Pin.

I'm going to watch the anime and live action movie soon!

Sixteen

Like everybody else, I was sixteen when I started to drive. I wasn’t very good of a driver, but the feeling of obtaining a valid driver’s license was supposed to be so overwhelming that I demanded to get mine right away. My dad was a little grumpy when he took me to get it, and was still cranky when he let me drive us home afterwards. I was giddy with excitement, of course. Looking at my best photo plastered on the glossy card felt liberating, somehow. Like I was an adult. Like I mattered.

But then, that feeling didn’t last. I would always remember it, but the memory didn’t linger. It seemed trivial, years later, when a sixteenth birthday felt like aeons ago. Things like a crazy assignment or a math homework, whether school was canceled during a heavy snowfall, who asked who out for prom, and getting a first kiss – those things were so important back then, but now they are nothing but memories.

Sometimes I feel like children live more than adults too. They breathe more, they laugh more, they talk more, they notice more. More.

So why are we behaving this way?

Have you ever been sitting on swings, late at night? When he asked me that, I was so surprised I suddenly smiled.

That’s a great idea.

We got a pack of beer, cigarettes, and a bag of chips for me, and headed to the park by foot. The air was chilly that night, but I wasn’t cold. I sat at one of the swings and swayed slowly, none of us really speaking.

This is where I got my first kiss. He was the first to break the silence, as always. I looked at him, and he spoke again, shyly but not without confidence. Her name’s Anita. I was fourteen. No, that wasn’t right. It was midnight, and the next day it’d be my fourteenth birthday. Her skin was so pale in the moonlight, and I felt like I was floating.. His voice was quiet, and I listened without interrupting. When he was done talking, he looked up at me and gave me a tentative smile. It’s a silly story, isn’t it?

No, I replied. Actually, this is my first time sitting on swings, this late at night. It feels kind of good, surprisingly.

Sometimes I wish we’re children again. Or feel that same exhilirating rush again. We’re adults now and I bet we don’t feel much fun out of swinging high in the air. The feeling of being airborne…

He doesn’t continue. I know how he feels, and he must have sensed that I understand. And when he kisses me, I know that for a milisecond, I’m transported back to the feeling of being sixteen, getting my driver’s license for the very first time.

-a creative writing piece, 9 September 2011, 14.30-

(movie) Transformers: Dark of the Moon

There's a case of successful action movies because of the awesome action sequence, but always in that rare case the movie's backed with good acting, well-written script, and tight plot. This third installment of Transformers movie lacks all three.

All the stars in this movie go straight to the amazing high tech action. It sure is really noisy, and often exhausting, but fun to watch. What annoys me the most is the characters - Sam becomes this crazy and sarcastic man still acting like a teenager, and not the very least heroic until the middle part of the movie kicks in. I know they're trying to make us sympathize with this character going through the growing pains part, and I've seen Shia in better movies, but still.. come on. I especially hate the delirious Jerry Wang character it's almost racist and offensive. The others are also out of character, saying things that are meant to be funny in the midst of a gory action scene, but they don't sound funny at all. In fact, they ruin the entire movie just by talking. I blame it on the script. Very badly written script. The movie could have finished in an hour, yet they give us random stuffs and stretch the plot for an hour more.

I loved the first Transformers movie. Didn't quite like the second. Loathed this one. It bored me to tears, if not to the edge of annoyance.

Grandmother

She looks at me with searching eyes,
but I look away, unable to meet her gaze.
When she's walking away,
I stare at her hunched back, her weak posture, her wrinkled skin.
Knowing I should've said something, but I never did.
Knowing I could be that person, but I never was.

I'm sorry

The words form their weight on my lips, but are never spoken.
Until she's gone.

(book) Mockingjay

Oh no. It's what I've been dreading the most, the last book in the trilogy. In this last adventure, Katniss has lost Peeta as she's brought back from the blown-up arena, and is desperately wishing she can get him back, safe. She's also appointed as the face of the rebellion, as a mockingjay.
I'm a bit disappointed with how things go. At the beginning, we lose the characters we love most, namely Cinna. In the end, we also lo...moreOh no. It's what I've been dreading the most, the last book in the trilogy. In this last adventure, Katniss has lost Peeta as she's brought back from the blown-up arena, and is desperately wishing she can get him back, safe. She's also appointed as the face of the rebellion, as a mockingjay.

Again, I'm going to be spoilery here, so alert, alert!

I'm a bit disappointed with how things go. At the beginning, we lose the characters we love most, namely Cinna. In the end, we also lose more people we grow fond of from the second book, namely Prim and Finnick. In fact, those two are my favorite characters.

Compared to the second book, this one's very slow paced. We're shown the state of hell Katniss is in, and how she's desperately trying to grasp loose ends, find the right way to make things right, and seems to be losing her sanity, if not her courage, to find out the truth. She's as reckless and impulsive as ever. Maybe it's what the Games do to her, and the Quarter Quell, and losing Peeta, but I start to agonize having to read her personal trauma over and over again.

In the middle of the book, I start disliking Peeta and how Katniss handles the fact that he's not the same anymore. Even Gale changes, and even though everything and everyone is in character, I find them very boring, if not very unlikeable. And then, we're faced with Katniss's choice to uncover the truth for herself, and we're brought to.. what?

I think the consequence to what Katniss has done must be unforgivable, not to us readers but to the Capitol, to the rebels, and to the people who support it. I find it unbelievable that in the end she is free, easily so. And how Peeta finds his real inner self back, I have no idea. It seems surreal to have the endings so neatly tied in a bow for us to conclude. I feel betrayed somehow, but maybe it's the feeling of losing something I really like, the ending of the book.

Overall, I love the first two books better. I like the arena better. I like it when Katniss and Peeta are pretending to be in love, when she's conflicted about her feelings, when she's ruthless. I want the girl standing up to volunteer for her sister, even if it means her death. I don't want beaten down, crying Katniss, having nightmares every night and feeling her happy ending is undeserved.

Maybe it's just me. I can't help feeling slightly disappointed because half the fun and conflicts are simply vanished from the third book.

On memories

I haven't been writing much lately. Not my blog, not fiction, just review after review.. and many not done properly. But tonight I feel like writing something, at first about music, but turns out I want to write more about memories.

I remember back in high school, my group of friends loved listening to a radio station.. this program every Monday called Getar Cinta, hosted by Sarah Sechan. We loved sending questions and listening to the horoscopes, the love problems, like they could be solved as easily as math equations. I even got my question read on air, under the sender's name Chloe. I don't know what exactly got me thinking about it.. as the memory hasn't resurfaced for years. It was a decade ago and now I'm off doing my own stuffs, growing up seems like such a long time ago.

And then fresher memories come knocking at my door. I remember the warmth of our small house. I miss that place, the efficiency and the ease of coming home.. the smell of food easily reaching my doorstep, and the chatters easily heard. I miss the comfort of a small home, my tiny square room, the white bed sheets and the window overlooking the sea. I miss everything about it, the privileges I can't have in this place we call a house.

But it's always easier to appreciate, and less to complain. Everything always changes, gradually or not. Therefore here I am, sitting and typing as words pour out, and after taking a moment to miss out on the things I no longer have, I will resume my life as I always do.

These little memories might fade over time. But I like to think that they sometimes hide. They hide, until one day it comes back to us, slivers of the past, and make us remember of the good times, the bad times, and the little things that make us who we are today.

Memories are just memories. They can drag us down, they don't lurch us forward. But I like the fact that I can always look back and see what was there, what had always been there. Memories are bittersweet. Memories are beautiful. Move on, but always remember them.

(book) Catching Fire

My review might be a little spoilery, and for that I apologize in advance.
It still revolves around Katniss, this time throw Gale to the ...moreMy review might be a little spoilery, and for that I apologize in advance.

I love the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy, so much that I can't put it down, literally. It felt the same way as when I read Twilight a couple years ago. It continued to haunt me long after I finished reading it. But unlike with Twilight, whose counterparts I didn't love, this one I still am in love. The second book doesn't disappoint.

It still revolves around Katniss, this time throw Gale to the mix, forming a love triangle you can never really pick sides on. I used to think Katniss and Gale are just meant to be, but like every friendship blooming into something else, it's clear that while he understands Katniss better than anyone, he doesn't necessarily want the same things as she does, nor does he want the best for her. That's why I switch to team Peeta, though I still think Gale's hotter than him :D

In the second book, Katniss and Peeta are thrown into the Game again, this time taking form as the third Quell, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Game. They suspect it's President Snow's doing, because Katniss's so-called survival tactic with berries from the previous book is seen as a motive for uprising from other districts. So they try to survive the Game again, teaming up with other tributes who might have some other motives.

I appreciate that readers aren't just thrown into the whole thing just to experience the same stuffs again. I'm happy about the plot twist, the hidden motive, and the planning that Katniss herself does not suspect. I'm happy that they make allies this time, and it's stronger than before. I'm glad that the writer throws in some new surprises, some mix of friendship and tragic deaths and more to keep us wondering.

What a page turner. My only complaint is that the pace is too fast. One page we're at the beginning of where the story ended from the previous book, the next we're at the Game again, and then it's over.

I can't wait till I read Mockingjay, and I'm glad I've supplied myself with the final book so I don't need to agonize myself waiting like I did when I was done with The Hunger Games. Oh yeah, can't wait to see how the movie turns out too! :)

(movie) Midnight FM

Midnight FM caught my attention because of the premise. I watched it partially for research (job as a radio announcer), mostly because I just love a good thriller.

This movie might've been a mighty good thriller, if only it didn't drag for so long. For nearly two hours we watched as the psychopath killer played cat and mouse with the kid, while the mother grieved and tried to get there faster than the killer. There were some good moments and some scary moments too, but perhaps the plot was too slow paced and diverse that it took the nice moments out of the whole picture.

There were several cliches - the dead cops, the stalker fan who turned out to be the hero, and he didn't die after being beaten up several times. Even the climax was cringe-worthy.

Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It's my first time watching Su Ae in a movie/drama, and I heard so many good things about her. I think the flaw doesn't rest within the acting, it's the writing that needs more focus and plot twist.