Quotes from Annabelle of the Forest

Memorable quotes from Annabelle of the Forest, a fairy tale by mellyberry:

"Beauty comes from the inside, beyond your fair skin."


Father : "Save him..."
Annabelle : "I will, Father. I will save you too."
Father : "You just did, sweetheart."


Prince Marius : "Anna, why can't I see your face?"


Annabelle : "Go home. You don't belong in the Forest."
Prince Marius : "But I belong with you."


Prince Marius : "She's not an omen. She's a person and she has a name."


Fairy :"Rule well, my King. Rule with your heart."


For more about the book, check the inside of the book in www.amazon.com or http://mellyberry.blogspot.com

Annabelle of the Forest

NEW RELEASE! December 2011

A sweet enchanting fairy tale “Annabelle of the Forest” , written by Indonesian’s author mellyberry with cover-back design and image illustrations by Indonesian’s artist Ykha Amelz, is now AVAILABLE in online stores WORLDWIDE. (*Printed in USA. Published in UK and USA.)

For more information about the book and how to place an order, please visit http://www.authorhouse.co.uk/Bookstore/bookdetail.aspx?Book=368011 or simply search “Annabelle of the Forest” in http://www.amazon.com website and http://www.goggle.com

Promotional sales for Indonesian’s market will be available after Christmas 2011. Stay tune!

Synopsis:
When Prince Marius, the rightful heir of the Kingdom, embarked on his ultimate journey that would grant him his throne, fate intercepted and brought him to Annabelle, a mysterious girl who lived in the Enchanted Forest.
As Marius unfolded the girl’s mysterious and magical past, he’d soon find himself torn between difficult choices, his duty to his People and to unmask the traitor within his Kingdom, or his feeling for the girl.

“Annabelle of the Forest” is a story about finding your courage and following your heart. It’s a story that will forever remind us on what real beauty truly means.

Genre : Children Junior Novel
Language : English
ISBN : 978 – 1 – 46788 – 568 - 3
Cover/size : Soft cover / 8.5” x 8.5” (21.5 x x21.5 cm)
Pages : 56 / color
Price : USD. 24.99

Lebaran Holiday

This past Idul Fitri holiday marked the first Eid holiday that we spent outside our hometown. Usually, in the past few years, every Eid holiday was spent meditating at home, with me being a faithful nanny/maid 24/7. Enough said, we planned this holiday thoughtfully and decided to visit a-not-too-far place for our destination. Tickets, hotel vouchers and passports checked, we finally landed at our destination, only to realize that we weren’t exactly flying away from our hometown despite the passport and the different currency. We still vacationed in a place we called home, complete with its culture, its language, its food and most importantly, its people. This place, which we thought so carefully in the beginning of our trip, was called Singapore “Welcome (back) to the (2nd) Indonesia”.

Singapore was swarmed with Indonesians everywhere. This holiday particularly, the Indonesians went vacationing with their big families, stretching out to 3 generations mostly, plus uncles, aunties, cousins and many more. Everywhere we went, stress-faced Indonesian mommies taking care of their babies and toddlers were to be seen. Some were lucky enough to have a nanny or maid trailing behind them. The bittersweet of Lebaran holiday only true Indonesians can understand.

As hard as we tried to avoid Orchard and the hotels there, we ended up surrounded by all Indonesian guests in our hotel, the brand new spectacular MBS. The check-in process was also spectacular, in both lines and times. It took average 20 minutes waiting time to reach the check-in counter. This iconic hotel was definitely not just an ordinary hotel, mind you, so they tried very hard to compensate the counter’s waiting time by offering many fringe benefits such as circulating welcome drinks, fruits, roses, having clowns/mimes performing, and organizing a live musical symphony in their lobby. Seriously, who wanted to listen to them playing classical music when we were so tired and upset from queuing in lines? But, aside from the classical symphony, the rest of the benefits were appreciated.
For those of you who had spent time in MBS before, you know what I am describing here. This hotel was not just a hotel. It was a new icon for Singapore and its presence has lifted the bar for this industry. This was our second time in MBS, so, unlike other new comers, we skipped the lobby photo taking sessions and the “wows” and “ahhs”. Also, my feet were too sore from standing up too long in the lobby.

The clown kids surely enjoyed their stay. Too much, I think. We took our chance to watch the famous Lion King performance, and totally awed by their stage and costume design. Nina was enjoying the show too much that she couldn’t sit quietly during the entire show. When one of the guard approached her and told her to sit down, my 4 year old turned to her with a wide smile and asked,"Are you the police?"

The highest floor in MBS was the 57th floor. That was where the pool, the bar, and the viewing deck were located. The elevators we rode in and out of our hotel room also the one that people use to go up to the swimming pool at 57th floor. That means, in most occasions, we would be sharing lift with people dressed in their hotel robes or in their swim robes. Of course, my 4 year old too-friendly-girl greeted these people with,"You look so cool. Are you ninja?" I pretended that I was suddenly interested in the floor while my husband politely smiled at those “ninjas”.
When the night came, the hotel burst into night life by welcoming many people to their “it”club and bar upstairs. The lift was crowded again , this time with people dressing up for all-night-long parties And, as expected, my girl immediately share her comment rather too loudly in the lift," Ma, why are these people dressing up so sexy? They wear lipstick, you know, Ma..." It was my turn now to smile politely at the sexy gorgeous ladies. I made a fierce mental note to take the stairs to the 49th floor next time around.

My 8year old son took his comments mostly inside the cabs and in the streets. Every time a cool expensive sport car came trotting by, he would shout and got excited. He, then, would spell out the details about that sport car, as if he was facing an examination at school. Most of the cab drivers there chatted merrily with my son on the topic of sport cars.
"You haven’t seen a Lambo before, boy?"
"Yes, I have. I drive one too."
"Where? In Indonesia?"
"Yup, in iPad."
That was the cue for us to interfere. My husband would smile softly and explained to the confused cab driver, " He’s talking about a game in iPad."
" Ahhh , I see."

Mike’s dream (and his father's) of riding a sport car was finally came true one breezy morning when they rented a Ferrari for a short drive. The drive itself maybe short, but the excitement before and after the drive lasted a lifetime. So did the rental bill, unfortunately.

When it was our turn to drive, my husband and Mike had to huff and shuffle their way to their waiting car, rented car, outside. It was not that the park was crowded and all, it just that their Ferrari, rented Ferrari, was surrounded by tons of innocent looking tourists, posed for photographs with the red Ferrari as the background. I can imagine how proud my boys must be, when they said "excuse us, excuse us" to those excited tourists and enjoyed their 1 minute admiration from the crowd. I practically heard the crowd gasped when my boys opened their car’s, rented car, doors. Geez, these tourists must have thought that my husband owned this red Ferrari.
"Well, technically.., " said my husband with a grin, "We do own this car, honey... for the next 30 minutes..."

Eating time was proved to be a challenging adventure too in Singapore during this holiday season, even when it was not an official holiday for most Singaporeans. But with a lot of Indonesians flying there, Singapore celebrated too. Welcome to the super duper crowded food courts and hawkers every hours of the day. We literally had to wait next to an occupied table and hovered over the incumbents if we wanted to get seats. This situation sometimes created a few funny moments as well. We always greeted strangers in English, only to find out that we were all from the same ‘kampung’. We laughed, "Tau getu, kita gak usah susah-susah ngomong Inggris ya tadi. Sama-sama dari Indonesia ini."

Nevertheless, it was a memorable trip for us. Checking-out turned out to be as horrendous as the checking-in, especially with that classical music playing live as our goodbye soundtrack. But, I loved my stay there, so minor queues would not die me down.

Bye, my second Indonesia. Hello, Jakarta!

Fanatisme

Pernah merasa fanatik terhadap sesuatu? Fanatisme yang berlebihan biasanya kurang sehat. Pada umumnya, orang fanatik cenderung melihat sesuatu dari sudut pandang dirinya sendiri dan terlalu mengagungkan apa yang di-fanatik-in nya tadi. Dengan begitu, orang fanatik akan praktis beranggapan bahwa yang beda dengan keyakinannya itu salah atau kalah status. Pendek kata, kalau saya diperbolehkan berpendapat, orang fanatik cenderung tertutup dan kurang mau mengerti pendapat orang lain yang berbeda.

Namanya manusia, apa saja bisa dijadikan obyek fanatisme, dari urusan berat sampai urusan ringan. Dari masalah yang sensitif sampai masalah guyonan. Sejarah telah membuktikan betapa banyak kesalahpahaman, perkara kriminalitas, bahkan perang yang terjadi karena fanatisme yang berlebihan, terutama fanatisme akan agama dan ras.

Saya bukan orang yang fanatik terhadap agama, maksudnya agama saya sendiri. Saya juga bukan orang yang fanatik dengan ras tertentu. Ras saya ya sudah dari sononya, tidak bisa diganti lagi. Saya cukup bangga dengan tingkat fanatisme saya untuk dua hal ini, yang notabene tidak fanatik sama sekali. Oleh karena itu, saya suka heran dan kehabisan napas kalau berbicara dengan orang yang sangat fanatik dengan kedua hal di atas. Capek ngomongnya, karena menurut orang fanatik, yang mereka percayai selalu paling benar dan kepercayaan orang lain sudah pasti “kurang’ benar. Memang tak dapat dipungkiri bahwa kedua subyek ini termasuk yang paling sensitif buat kebanyakan orang. Itulah sebabnya saya berani bersyukur bahwa, untuk kedua hal tersebut, saya masih dapat melihat persamaan diantara perbedaan dan menghargai perbedaan diantara sesama.

Sialnya, saya termasuk orang yang fanatik di hal lain. Saya sangat fanatik dengan zodiac saya. Untung saja urusan zodiac ini bukan termasuk urusan kenegaraan yang membutuhkan kementrian khusus. Kalau tidak, sudah pasti saya menjadi sesosok manusia yang sangat menjengkelkan bagi orang lain, terutama yang berbeda zodiac. Jangankan urusan zodiac teman, lha wong zodiac suami saya saja sering saya remehkan, karena menurut saya, zodiac lain di dunia ini jauh kalah kelas dengan zodiac-ku tercinta. Well, I guess I am not a perfect non-fanatic person after all. Untunglah, di balik kegilaan fanatisme saya ini, saya masih bisa berperilaku sehat. Buktinya, saya tidak melulu berteman atau berkumpul dengan teman se-zodiac saja. Teman-teman saya terbentang dari zodiac Carpicorn sampai zodiac Sagitarius. Mungkin selain akal sehat, faktor lain yang membatasi fanatisme saya ini adalah kesulitan utnuk bersosialisasi dengan orang lain jika kalimat pertama yang saya ucapkan adalah “Zodiac kamu apa? Kalau beda zodiac, saya gak mau temenan sama kamu.”

Fanatisme saya kedua adalah soal sepak bola. Saya bukan satu-satunya makhluk hidup yang fanatik berat dengan klub bola pastinya. Cobalah tengok berapa banyak kerusuhan dan tawuran gara-gara supporter fanatik di dunia. Kalau teman seperjuangan bola saya berkata, “Tapi sefanatiknya kamu, kamu masih civil lah. Gak pernah sampe berantem atau gontok2an atau taruhan edan demi bola.” Benar juga sih. Saya gak berantem atau gontok2an dengan supporter fanatik lainnya karena saya takut tawuran. Saya beraninya cuma ‘tawuran’ lewat twitter. Gak berani juga ikut-ikutan taruhan, karena dag dig dug jantung saya tidak kuat. Sudah cukup stres menonton pertandingan tim kesayangan saya, tidak perlu ditambah stres soal duit di bandar taruhan. Tetapi terlepas dari itu semua, level fanatisme saya terhadap klub bola saya boleh dibilang sempurna 100%. Tim sepak bola saya tetap yang terhebat, walaupun statistik terkadang berpendapat lain. The best of the best of the best! Toleransi saya terhadap supporter klub lain masih sebatas meringis kalau mendengarkan mereka berkoar-koar tentang tim mereka dan masih bisa lapang dada untuk menyelamati mereka bila tim mereka menang. Lebih dari itu, nanti dulu…

Kembali ke pokok masalah, bisakah orang yang fanatik ‘sesuatu’ berpikiran terbuka terhadap pendapat orang lain atas ‘sesuatu’ tadi? Sulit rasanya, karena definisi fanatik dengan sendirinya menutup pikiran terhadap hal lain yang berbeda atau tidak sesuai dengan pendapat kita. Hanya kematangan dan kebesaran hati yang mampu membuka topeng fanatisme ini. Pada saat itulah diharapkan fanatisme berakhir, dan menyisakan, menurut saya, perasaan bangga/ proud yang sehat. Perasaan bangga dan fanatik ini sangat berbeda, ya, guys.

Be proud of who you are and everything else that makes you, you. Also, understand that others may have chosen different things, that make them who they are. Your open heart and open mind will guide you through and will tell you how to respect others accordingly. Understanding others doesn’t make you lose your own identity.

Ehmm, selagi kita berbicara mengenai perasaan bangga, saya mau titip pesan sponsor sedikit :) Sampai kapan pun tetap Viva Aquarius! dan Viva Barca!

Kid Bully

We all hate bullies. We watch too many American TVs that show how bullies behaving badly in high school. Beware, my fellow parents. Bullies had hit home, and it comes much much sooner than high school. We are talking elementary soon.

When my 8 year old boy went home and complained to me about some of his classmates, I closed one of my eyes and thought that this was a phase in his school life that he has to go through, even when he told me that one of the boys had physically assaulted him twice. Then, the day came when he asked me the meaning of some words. The bad ones! The harsh ones! Believe me; you don’t want to be caught off guard trying to comprehend where the hell these kids learned the foul language. When I asked my boy why he wanted to know, he answered because some of those boys called him those things.

My motherly primate instinct kicked in right away. WHO DARED TO CALL MY KID THOSE NAMES? WHO DARED TO ATTACK MY INNOCENT SON? WHO ARE THESE KIDS?
With my emotion boiling up to 100C, my first instinct was to tell my son to fight back. To retaliate. To make those kids suffer. Yell back, shove them, will ya? I think I scared my son even more during this not-so-proud counseling moment. He must think that his mom suffered from acute multiple personality disorder.
Things were not better at home when my maid advised my son to punch those kids like a man. No, no, wrong advice!
When my husband heard the story in the evening, his exaggerate fatherly hormone kicked in even harder. He told me to enroll our son in any martial art classes and to show him more fighting/war movies. He was barely breathing air when he jolted down instructions at me, then moved on to preparing our son for battle. You have no idea how confuse our son was. He was such an innocent kid, definitely not ready yet to stand up against his bullies, and here we were – his parents – telling him to fight an eye for an eye kind of thing.

At some point, we all breathed down and laughed at ourselves. What were we doing? Trained our kid to be a super spy? We were so emotional that we were willing to sacrifice our values that we taught our kids so far. This is not in line with be compassionate, be polite, be kind, never assault anybody values that we hold dear.

I’ve read many articles on bullying where the victims suffered so much from depression and humiliation that suicide was often the end result. Out of 2 types of assaults, I hate verbal assaults more than physical ones. Both of them are bad, but the verbal assault’s wounds can take more time – if not forever – to heal. And worst of it, we couldn’t easily detect it. It could stay hidden inside our children’s memory without us knowing, thus, we wouldn’t be able to help.

Advising my son to ignore those assaults is not that simple, where –for kids his age – peer's acceptance is becoming dominant in his life. On the other hand, advising him to fight could have ambiguous meaning as the child may take the word fight too literally. And if the kid is not built for it, he could become more depressed.

So we took our first step casually. We asked him to just ignore those bullies and hang out with the nicer ones instead. Then my son asked me, “Why do these boys – who treat others badly – get away with it? You said that saying those words are bad and wrong, but they said it often to others, laugh at others, and hit others. And at the end, my other friends seem to admire them. They are the cool ones.”
I am sure all of parents and other sane adults will volunteer to answer my son’s question. I, too, know the answer very well. Here was my answer draft in my head, “Yes, I know. The value that you’ve been taught is correct. And by all means must be kept. We will not change our values just by popularity. Just because the other people’s value or behavior got more followers or got admired more and tends to be more fun, doesn’t always mean that they are correct or suit us. If you believe in your value, then you act upon it. You are doing the right thing. The ones who bully you – by shattering and challenging every value that you believe in – are violating you. They are not fair. They don’t respect others. When that happens, and if it bothers you, you must make a stand. Fight back – not to show that you are more powerful or to take vengeance- but fight back to defend the values you are taught. On what right and wrong. Fighting back doesn’t mean you have to sink lower than those bullies. You must not violate or mock other people’s belief or behavior nor change your personality in order to get respected by others.”

Now, how am I supposed to translate all of those philosophy craps to my 8 year old son? This is how it came out.
“Be more like Optimus Prime, boy. He is gentle yet tough. He knows when to be nice and when to make a stand. He knows when to draw a line between right and wrong and everything in between. He knows exactly why he chooses to be with the Autobots and not the Decepticons. In all of his 3 movies, he always tried to talk first before drawing up his sword. You feel that he’s wise and protective, right? But don’t forget how he reacted when he was betrayed and his values were challenged. He showed no doubt in fighting back to the last battle.”

My son asked me again, “How do I know when to ignore or to fight? Are there any rules for this?”
I answered, “I am afraid this is the part where you must decide for yourself. If you can ignore those bullies, then ignore them. But, if you can’t, make your move. Firmly tell them you don’t like what they are doing or you take action or you can go to your teachers. Whichever one you choose, you must remember that you are better than the bullies. And whatever you do, be confident about it. Never show any fear.”

I was quite sure my son was still confused and scared. He asked his last question before went off to bed, “Does bully deserve to be treated nicely?”
Well, this is a tricky question. I had to make sure that my emotion was well checked before answering him. “Just remember this, behind every bully’s mask, there s a scared, lonely, battered soul desperately seeking attention. Don’t hate them. Feel sorry for them.”

I think, as parents, that’s the best that we can do. We can only protect our children to a certain point. They must walk the rest of their journey themselves. To learn, to fall, to stand up, to draw a line between right and wrong, to be himself/herself and to find his/her own way in his/her social life.

Bullies will always be around, not just in schools, but everywhere else. Our job as parents is not aimed at destroying those bullies, but to educate our children not to be bullies and to prepare them to be better confident people. Just like my advice to myself, “If you can’t kill the virus, increase your body immunity and stamina.”

Kaum ibu dan urusan mengemudi

Sama seperti urusan barang elektronik, mesin, dan pertukangan, hal mengemudi juga termasuk di dalam salah satu daftar pekerjaan yang diyakini akan lebih baik hasilnya jika dikerjakan oleh pria. Sudah berabad-abad lamanya, kita selalu disisihkan oleh pria di dalam urusan berkendara. Malahan ada buku yang menjelaskan secara ilmiah, mengapa pria lebih baik dari wanita dalam hal mengemudi. Menurut para ahli tersebut, hal ini berhubungan dengan cara kerja otak yang berbeda antara pria dan wanita. Anyway, tulisan ini tidak memihak kepada salah satu jender dan tidak ditulis dari segi ilmiah pula. Tetap dalam keamburaduannya, kita hanya mau mengamati suka duka mengemudi dari kacamata kita sendiri.

Entah kenapa, kalau kita melihat ibu-ibu seusia kita mengemudi, otomatis hanya ada 2 kemungkinan. Kemungkinan pertama adalah rasa kasihan : “Ckckck pantesan amburadul nyetirnya, lha wong ibu-ibu.” Kemungkinan kedua adalah rasa jengkel : “Ampunnn ampunn! Pantesan amburadul. Dasar ibu-ibu!”

Menurut saya, mengemudi itu sama dengan pekerjaan lainnya yang memerlukan waktu latihan. Kita menjadi bisa karena biasa. Kalau dulu waktu SD kita hanya mengetik dengan 2 jari, lambat laun menjadi 10 jari. Anak batita bisa membaca 3 huruf, sekarang kita bisa membaca ensiklopedia. Bisa karena biasa bukan? Nyetir juga (seharusnya) sama saja.

Hanya segelintir manusia dari kalangan kita yang mahir dalam mengemudi. Namun kebanyakan dari kita pas-pasan saja teknik mengemudinya. Bagaikan tingkatan kungfu, tidak semua orang bisa menjadi master shaolin. Yang menjadi master shaolin biasanya sudah berlatih tenaga dalam , bertapa bertahun-tahun, dan sudah mendalami kitab rahasia.

Saya sangat nervous pada saat pertama kali menyetir sendiri. Padahal jarak tempuh hanya 5-10 menit dari rumah ke sekolah anak saya dan sebaliknya. Groginya nyetir lebih grogi daripada groginya wawancara pekerjaan. Saya ngeri banget kalau nanti gaya menyetir saya mengganggu orang-orang lain yang lebih mahir daripada saya. Serem bener rasanya kalau diklaksonin secara brutal oleh supir lain, terutama supir angkot di kawasan Jabodetabek yang terkenal bengis dan sering lupa bertata krama. Urusan parkir pun sampai detik ini masih menjadi momok buat saya. Saya otomatis merasa bersalah kepada pengemudi lain di belakang mobil saya, karena so pasti saya bakal memakan waktu yang (lebih) lama buat parkir. Tentunya saya tidak ingin diklaksonin dan dipelototin orang se-basement gara-gara satu masalah ini. Alamak!

Sudah beberapa tahun lamanya saya menyetir sendiri menerjang rimba perlalulintasan. Walaupun jelajah terbang masih berkisar antara 5-15 menit (artinya nyetirnya gak pernah jauh-jauh dari rumah), saya sudah merasa lebih percaya diri, lebih mantap, dan lebih canggih di dalam teknik mengemudi. Bisa karena biasa , bukan? Tentunya opini saya ini ditertawakan oleh kalangan pengemudi andal lainnya, sebegitu aja kok sudah pede? Tak apalah. Yang jelas ada kemajuan pesat dibandingkan dengan pertama kali saya mengemudi. Sekarang mau parkirpun lebih berani, biarpun saya selalu mencari tempat parkir yang lenggang jauh dari keramaian. Biarpun jauh, yang penting tidak dempet-dempetan dengan mobil lain. Dan tidak perlu merasa diburu-buru oleh pengemudi lain di belakang mobil saya. Tidak merasa dihakimi oleh tatapan mata penuh kritik dari pengemudi andal lainnya. Teknik menyetir di jalan pun sudah meningkat tajam. Sudah berani lah saya pindah jalur apabila (benar-benar) dibutuhkan tanpa harus merasa perut mules. Saya juga mulai paham beberapa fungsi tombol di dashboard mobil (selain setir, tombol AC, dan tombol lampu).

Tapi celakanya, kecanggihan ini pun dibarengi dengan kesombongan. Saya jadi suka meremehkan ibu-ibu yang gaya menyetirnya masih setingkat dua tingkat di bawah saya. Dan rasa sombong ini terbawa di tempat parkir juga. Jadinya saya suka mengamati gaya politik perpakiran di tempat parkir. Kalau ada mobil yang diparkir dengan gaya salsa atau belly dancing (alias melenggak leggok tidak pada tempatnya) saya suka mencibir sombong, ah yang ini pasti hasil parkiran ibu-ibu. Sifat ini tidak membanggakan, tapi sepertinya bawaan, sepaket dengan meningkatnya daya menyetir seseorang. Orang bijaksana bilang, orang pandai mudah sombong. Tidak hanya urusan nyetir mobil, saya yakin ungkapan ini punya makna lebih luas. Ya inilah sifat manusia.

Celaka yang kedua adalah, dengan berkembangnya teknik dan tingkat keahlian saya di belakang kemudi, saya jadi mulai tidak sabaran apabila berada di belakang mobil yang menurut saya tingkat kungfunya belum memadai. Saya jadi sering lupa, kalau dulu saya juga mulai dari bawah, masih suka deg-deg an kalau nyetir, dan ketakutan setengah mati kalau dipepet orang.
Sudah selayaknya saya dari sekian banyak manusia, harusnya lebih toleransi kepada sesama ibu-ibu yang mengalami nasib yang kurang lebih sama dengan saya di belakang kemudi. Untuk ibu-ibu ini, tidak usahlah berendah hati. Memang kenapa kalau kita tidak begitu canggih di dalam mengemudi dan memarkir mobil?

Dan jika kebetulan kalian bertemu dengan ibu-ibu kebanyakan yang pas-pasan cara menyetirnya, mohon tarik napas panjang dan jangan ikutan mengganggu konsentrasi mereka. Mohon ditunggu dengan lebih sabar. Don’t horn us because we are slow, horn us because we are beautiful!

a big THANK YOU

I am saying a BIG thank you wholeheartedly to my husband, and especially to my dearest friends - here and there, near and far - who have been supporting my alter ego, mellyberry, from the very beginning - before the books, before the blog, before nothing.
No words can ever truly express my feeling of comfort in seeing familiar faces and encouraging smiles among the stranger crowds.

Thanks for putting aside your valuable time in attending the event, in driving through Jakarta's impossible traffic, in buying and reading and promoting my books and my blog. But most of all, thanks for patting my back and believing that dream, any kind of dreams - big or small, crazy or sane, possible or impossible - with God's blessing and hard work, can come true :)

Who would ever thought that Rainbow and Animals Can't Talk, the first two fables that I invented out of nowhere years ago as my bedtime stories with my son, are now in the hands of many more children, got illustrated by top illustrators in their field (not just one, but 5 top children's illustrators) ?

Only one more thing left to do, I am taking my sling bag, putting on my crocs and heading out to the next destination : SKY.







*picture courtesy of Cereal Nation