Tiga Tahun Yang Mengelirukan

"Kalau orang suka buku kau, kenapa buku kau tak bestseller?" tanya seorang member.

Aku terpempan kejap, sebelum jawab, "Mungkin orang unik je yang suka buku aku."

Ahahahahaha. Aku memang tak tau nak jawab soalan ni. Ini soalan tentang rezeki Allah. Mungkin kalau buku aku bestseller, aku jadi bongkak tak bayar zakat. Mungkin kalau buku aku bestseller, nanti aku rasa aku paling bagus. Atau mungkin suatu hari nanti buku aku akan bestseller, cuma masanya belum tiba. How would I know?

I adopt the same ideology about jodoh.
Kalau ada, then kahwin. Kalau takde, then tak kahwin.
Kalau laris, Alhamdulillah. Kalau tak laris, well, continue living. Kalau ada orang nak tabur pasir dalam periuk nasik? Well, just punch them in the face and continue writing.

I have promised to write about my experience writing AKU KELIRU dan aku dah delay benda ni tersangatlah lama. I will do my SELF-OBSESSED TRIVIA some other time, when the book's period on the rack dah lama sikit.

For now... let's talk about how weird it is that I wrote the thickest novel that it had to be edited again so that some of my yappings had to be left out. It was 810 pages long when it was changed to InDesign version despite the fact that it was only 560 pages when I sent it to my editor (okay, so it's actually 560 pages yang ditulis guna font saiz 11 dan langkau 1.5 baris, instead of 12 and 2.... so sebenarnya aku rasa kalau aku hantar manuskrip tu dengan format sepatutnya, it would have been over 700)

Truth be told, I hate sequel. Hate it. Sekuel pada aku... macam some sort of a cheap move for orang yang tak ada idea. Kalau dalam industri filem, unless the movie is a trilogy, sekuel hanyalah bukti that the original movie was a huge success and the film studio is just cashing in on the hype.... which usually menghasilkan produk2 tak berkualiti (*cough*Transformers2&3*cough*)

Tapi aku buat jugak sekuel AKU KAN NOVELIS. Why? Sebab gmail aku dipenuhi requests yang bernada "Kak, tak puasla Roul sikit je. Buatlah sekuel."

Satu lagi, mungkin sebab aku memang hipokrit dan cakap tak serupa bikin. Maybe. Ahahahaha.

And the actual reason ialah sebab walaupun pada mulanya aku tak nak buat, one day, I just opened MS Words, and suddenly the words flow macam air terjun Lata Iskandar. It was so easy revisiting Safiah dan Roul and ideas kept flowing. But it still took me three years before I actually finish it. Kenapa?

Sebab aku malas Sebab I had to try to make it stand alone. I know that BUKU PRIMA was not that keen about sequels (especially since AKN pun tak la laris mana pun). You see, kalau nak cuba rationalise pun, you have to understand that Buku Prima, atau induknya, Karangkraf, adalah sebuah syarikat yang buat bisnes. They're not charity organisation. "Ha apa? Kau nak keluarkan novel sesuka hati kau tanpa pikir ada orang nak baca ke tak? Silakan..."

Takde makne la boleh buat macam tu. Ahaha.

So, untuk hasilkan sekuel AKN, aku kena cuba yakinkan yang it can stand alone without its predecessor. Aku perlu yakinkan editor aku yang even if you don't read AKN, you can understand AKU KELIRU. Aku perlu yakinkan dia orang yang kisah Safi, Roul, Iza, Helmi, Masni, Zaniel, Chaq, dan Jis ni worth the attempt. That took me three years. Well, of course, aku takde la mengharap laris juta-juta ke ape ke. I mean, come on. Let's be real. You don't go around saying "That novelist Nurul Syahida" and people say, "Yeah, I know her..." I am not that memorable.

Tiga tahun masa yang aku amik, bayangkan berapa banyak kali aku tekan delete button. I didn't want to make it too dramatic. I didn't want it to turn into some sinetron (masuk hospital, death, amnesia, penculikan, stolen identity, pencakukan ginjal, stuff like that). AKN in a nutshell adalah kisah seorang novelis bajet bagus yang sebenarnya as clueless as anybody else when it comes to relationship. And I want her to keep being that novelis bajet bagus yang sebenarnya clueless about relationship who is slowly learning that relationship is as tough as a rock if you are not willing to bend a little.

That's the whole point of "Teori dan Praktikal dalam Perhubungan adalah Dua Benda Berbeza", because Safiah, like meself, adalah theoretical being. We both suck at practicality. We have answers to others' problems because we understand the theory, but it doesn't mean we would do what we advice others to do.

Dalam masa tiga tahun tu, banyak benda yang berlaku dalam hidup. Aku dan kawan2 aku menang kes di Mahkamah Tinggi, then Mahkamah Rayuan buat taik dengan aku dan kitorang kalah semula. Aku buat bisnes dengan Mun jual Chocolate Strawberry pies, aku berhenti jual Chocolate Strawberry Pies. Aku buat terjemahan, and then aku stop buat terjemahan bila I realised that it took a lot of my time dengan bayaran yang not worth it at all. I met a nice guy, I did a stupid thing by not being ready for a nice guy, I lost a nice guy. I got thinner, I got fatter, I got thinner again, and then I gained weight, in an endless circle of calorie wars. My cousins got married, my cousins got pregnant, my cousins got kids. My two blogger friends got married, my best friend got married, got pregnant, and got a baby boy. I tried to write AK, I stopped a while and write something else, I return to AK. I got sad about things, I became positive about things, I feel nothing about things, and I live an autopilot life later on. I want to be different, then I want to be normal, then I think trying to be anything is just a cliche, and then think that trying not to be cliche is just a cliche in itself, and then think that I need to stop using the word cliche because I am getting sick and tired of the word being used in every day life nowadays and I feel like the monster who vomited that word and make it linger in the book industry and now just want to say, "Okay, I am sorry. Let's not use the word ever again!!!". These things happen in the course of three years of me writing AKU KELIRU. Yes, it all molds perfectly into my realm of thinking.

To sum it up, tajuk novel aku ni sebenarnya sangat sesuai dengan keadaan diri aku sekarang. I am just a confused person trying to make sense of the world around me.....................................................

What the hell am I writing right now?

When people starts war of the words on FB

The older I get, the more annoyed I am with social networking sites.

Just the other day, someone I know was angry at another someone who is also a Facebook friend. The issue was?

A wrote an ambiguous post about her feelings and B thought A was talking about her. So B PM-ed A to ask if she was talking about her, but A did not reply. However, B said she swear A has read her PM because there is that 'seen at' thingy under the message, which shows at what time A has read the PM.

So, angry with A, B decided to write her own ambiguous FB post about dishonesty in friendship, and somehow, C, D, and E began to discuss it, with each and every one of them asking if B was talking about them.

I can imagine what happens next. It's cyclical.

Before I begin babbling about the human interaction in Facebook, I would like to point out several things:

1. Those 'seen at' thing are not to be trusted. 
- I mean, a while ago, Mun was staying overnight at my house, and when I was talking to Nad in our group chat thingy, the thingy wrote "Seen by Munira" despite the fact that Mun is in the toilet. It either means:
a) Someone back home is using her laptop and reading her messages
b) That thing is just stupid 
- I mean, I had trouble with someone last year who called me 'sombong' because I didn't reply to her message when I actually hasn't been reading any messages. She said that I have read it (because of that 'seen at' thing) when the truth is, I have not been on Facebook at all. I don't even have internet on my phone to be able to surf just anywhere.

2. The world does not revolve around you
- I don't know about others, but if you're talking about me, I am just the type of person who would just write ambiguous things because I feel like it, or because I had a chat with someone who told me their problems and I decided to say something about the problem. It doesn't have to be about me or about me having a conflict with anybody. I just like to express stuff because I am a writer. Wordplays are my thing.

Now, back to babbling about Facebook. I mean, seriously? What are you doing on Facebook? Going around reading statuses and making sure that everybody loves you and has nothing bad to say about you? Fine, if someone is actually using your name and say shit about you, but I find it ridiculous for someone to make a big deal about sentences such as "Persahabatan tak bererti tanpa pengorbanan", and saying things like, "I know she is talking about me. What's her problem?"

Well, what's YOUR problem?

Stop reading Facebook posts if you're the type of person who misunderstands easily. I used to feel that way. Whenever someone wrote something about a writer who is this and that, I kept thinking if they are talking about me, but then my friends kinda give me the allegorical slap in the face by saying, "Stop thinking everything is about you. It's not".

So, it doesn't matter if it IS about me. I can't spend much of my time wondering who likes me and who doesn't and why that person can't say shit to my face. It's not healthy. Writing things on Facebook is therapy for some, and unless you really are interested in learning whatever it is they are saying (and not just for the sake of gossiping), stop basing your conflict on every single thing written on FB.

As much as you should never be a bully on Facebook, don't play a victim on it too.

In regards to the A vs B, A was actually lamenting about another friend's conflict with his best friend. It has nothing to do with her friendship with B.

And don't you start on "ini semua agenda yahudi untuk menjatuhkan orang Islam..." because you being overly-sensitive and emotional is not nurtured by any yahudi. It's you.

The thing with the -ISTS

I am reminded of a conversation that I had with my former editor, who was also a former player (now a married man and a father of one, I heard, bless him). It was about the treatment of women by men, and how I am against women being treated like an object, to which he said:

"You and your feminist views."
"I am not a feminist," said I.
"You sound like one."

To tell you the truth, it's not about me being a feminist or not being a feminist. I just hate labels. I hate the 'ist' (except for 'novelist', but then again, I prefer the word author/writer). The thing is, sometimes when we label ourselves with the 'ist', we tend to become obsessed with the tag/label and started behaving like the 'ist' we chose.

I am not saying being feminist is bad. Not at all. I, of all people, hate it when women resorted to 'asking men for help because we're just so weak and in need of manly strength...' (Oh come on. I can lift a cupboard on my own...) or the double standard in the corporate world, the mistreatment of rape victims, and all the other sexual harassments cases. I hate it when women think that they can't go far with their brain, or spending an awful lot of time being angry with the world because some other pretty girls get things easier (I will talk about this thing in another entry). I hate it when we are associated with things like "shopping", "shoes" and "make up", as if we're just that (and sadly, some women do attribute themselves with only those things)

In a way, yeah, I have feminist... tendency? thoughts? ideas?

Anyway, what I am saying is, I kept hearing people calling themselves "liberalist", "Islamist", "fundamentalist", neo-progressive thinkers, modernist, and whatever label you can use. Sometimes when people ask me what I am, I just said I am a neo-pseudo-feminist counter liberal antagonist.... it doesn't have any meaning, but it's fun to see people going "oooooo" as if it's a thing.

It's not a thing. I'm just being sarcastic.

Not that I am against the isms. I just hate it when people are sooooo in love with their labels, that they shape every single thing, even things that don't matter, into the kind of label they want to be. It's as annoying as talking to people who said stuff like, "I am a Saggitarean, we like doing things that way" or, "I was born in the year of the Ox, so I am a bit stubborn...", "I am of the O blood type. We're a bit hot-tempered". Seriously, stop blaming the year you were born or the zodiac sign for every effed-up behaviour you have.

It's now "Oh, I am a progressive liberal thinker and I think these people are idiots."

You're an idiot.

In saying this, I am not saying that everybody with the 'isms' are all annoying labelists (is that a thing?). I am just saying that while labeling yourself is fine, don't make it a habit in every conversation. Yes, I know you're a Cancerian/Horse baby/AB-type/neo-conservatist.... don't keep on spewing those words to make you seem unique. You are unique without your label. I can tell you how unique you are from the way you talk, the way you give your opinion, your confidence, and your views about the topics in hand. You don't need to express your political stance to show you're intelligent. Because sometimes, those ideologies you kept vomiting from your mouth are only showing how unintelligent you are.

Anyways, while in that discussion about the objectification of women with my former editor back in 2008, he was then interrupted by a female co-worker, who asked him if her female friends can share a ride with him to another one of our co-worker's wedding. He asked her who the friends are and if there're pretty ones, and she showed him pictures of her friends and ask him to pick his favourites to share the ride. He grinned at me, and said, "See? Now your feministic views are all going down the drain."

Yeah, thanks, women. You guys are very 'helpful' in my cause =_=

"So, in a way, you're an individualist?"
"Don't make it a thing. It's not a thing."

Just me and my cheesecake.

It's my birthday yesterday.

Yay me.... or something in that sense.

But unlike my birthdays every year where I spent the day at the KL International Book Fair and then went to celebrate with friends, this year I decided to just stay at home. Doesn't matter that I missed watching M.Nasir launching RAM's book at the Karangkraf Pavilion and whatnot. The peacefulness of home is better than any stars you bring to the table.

Except for Liam Neeson. For Liam Neeson, I would cross a thousand seas filled with sharks and megalodon (look it up on Google if you don't know what a megalodon is).

So, with my phone on SILENT mode, WIFI off, my birthday celebration consists of me working, watching TV (there's Jason Bateman on HBO, so that's eye candy enough), feeding my cat Mugabe, have some conversat with mum, ate the cheese cake dad bought me, fell asleep while eating cheese cake (what 'the life of a party', I am), and played Doraemon's Repair Shop game on the tab while thinking of nothing.

Then at night, our family went to have a bite at Gangnam Station. Which is in section 13, not actual Gangnam.

Pretty much nothing, you might say, but I enjoyed it. I have always been a person who likes my peace the most, so to get that on my birthday is the best thing ever. The past few weeks had been a bit hectic. With AKU KELIRU already published, I have been going to and fro Karangkraf. Then there's the other freelance work, the second trio in planning with Liza Nur and Zara Amani, and there was those bengkels by Karangkraf (though those workshops are good for me, when your life is a bit here and there, it kinda annoys you a bit that you have to sacrifice your only downtime to go to the office you have been going to for the past few weeks. Ahaha).

Then there's the Facebook thing... you know... debates after debates on peppero, on that old man who made a police report about azan and tahrim being too loud, on water crises, on hudud, on Erma Fatima and her kemban girls, about MH370, about race and religion... so many debates, so many opinions, people calling people sesat, people calling other people sundal and jalang, people saying things that made me feel like... did you really say those things just for several LIKES, LIKES that don't even count when you're dead and alone in your grave?... there were too many of them, that one day I just decided,... you know what, I am just going to stop reading the newsfeed. Shit, if not for a fact that I am not alim, have a lot of mistakes and sins of my own, and have not enough amalan baik to warrant me a piece of heaven, I would have stayed inside the cave like the Sahibul Kahfi. The cave would be awesome. The cave would be peaceful. Throw in *Daryl with me, and I am good to go.

(I want Daryl because he has a crossbow and can hunt for food, not for the other thing you disgusting monkeys are thinking about. And when I said Daryl, I mean Daryl, not Norman Reedus who plays him)

I sound like a woman with depression, don't I? Ahahahahaha.

In short, it has been 'loud', and so I decided that I would rather not do anything at all. You know how sometimes you are so overwhelmed with work and other unimportant things that you just don't give a shit but you had to give a shit just to be human, that you wanted to book a hotel room just to sit down and stare at the blank wall while eating chips?

That's what I did. I sat on the sofa, staring at the pouring rain, while eating cheese cake until I fell asleep. That was the most enjoyable thing I had done for the past few weeks.

Just me. And my cheesecake.

Cover novel is out and I have been staring at it

So, as you all might have already known... or not... I am not sure actually... but... the sequel to AKU KAN NOVELIS will be out in April.

Semalam Buku Prima baru keluarkan cover and it looks like this:

Roul ada dreadlock? Nope. Just model hiasan semata-mata.

Ramai yang cakap kat aku "Kak, nape rambut Roul tak merah?"... tapi sebenarnya aku tak kisah pun pasal gambar lelaki dreadlock tu kat situ walaupun dah macam bekas opismet aku dah rupenye. Ahahaha. I think it's cool that the designer really committed to making it as close as I hope it would be.

Aku bagi tiga suggestions. Aku tak ingat one of them, but the other two is gambar perempuan with pen melirik ke belakang, and satu lagi gambar lelaki rambut panjang with jeans dari pandangan belakang tengah menghadap lukisan, you know, as if he was painting or thinking of things to paint. Though it wasn't sama sebijik macam aku cadangkan, it still has all the elements I asked for - a scruffy guy and a painting.

And hey, look. My name is bigger than the title. Yay! (sebenarnya memang mana2 penulis yang dah ada lebih lima buah buku dengan BP akan dapat font besar by the sixth book. Takyah poyo sangat, Shai. Ko takde la glemer mana...)

Kudos to the designer. I think last time aku tanya editor aku, tak silap aku dia kata designernya Nina (the same person who did SEKOLAH BANYAK PENUNGGU punya cover design). Dan kali ni editor aku bukan Che Puan Echah (yang edit Plain Jane dan Aku Kan Novelis sebelum ni), bukan Anis (yang edit Valentina Nervosa), atau Encik Ali (yang edit 3 Hati).

Editor aku kali ni ialah Sue, which is the person who edited my first book - SOALNYA HATI. So senang kata, I am just returning to day one.

And I like covers. I think I've said it berkali-kali. Aku sangat suka cover novel. Setiap kali lepas siap tulis novel, benda pertama yang paling aku tunggu-tunggu ialah cover novel. Adakalanya aku lupa pasal royalti atau pasal sign agreement. Aku sibuk tunggu cover keluar. Saya hantu cover. There. I said it.

Aku nak reminisce tentang pengalaman menulis AKU KELIRU! tapi sebab buku belum keluar lagi, aku akan save bebelan dan ucapan-ucapan syahdu tentang pengalaman menulis some other time. Right now, I am just going to stare at my book cover sampai muntah darah. Teehee.

Again, it will be out in April. Sebab buku aku salu keluar April. Jangan salah faham. Bukan BP lebihkan aku or anything (kalau BP lebihkan aku dari penulis lain, I would have been living in a bungalow right now... ahahaha). It's just that aku usually hantar manuskrip baru pada bulan Jun/Julai/Ogos. And usually by that time, the latter half of the year punya jadual dah penuh, and most of the earlier months have been taken. So in the end, memang April la jawabnya.

So for those who ask why the hell do I always get lucky and get my book out in April, the answer is: It's not luck. It's technicality. 

Same la macam "Kenapa Shai selalu ada kat event Buku Prima?". It's not because they prefer me over others. It's because I live in Shah Alam and the publishing company is in Shah Alam, son. Sometimes they didn't even ask me to come. I just happened to come. 

Adakalanya Aku dan Kau Sama-sama Perlu Ingat

Adakalanya... pehh "adakalanya"...

Okay serius.

Adakalanya, ketika kita berjalan menuju ke satu destinasi, kita terpegun dengan benda-benda yang ada kat tepi-tepi jalan. Mungkin gerai jual rambutan, mungkin kedai kopi, dan kalau jalan tu kat Jogja, mungkin angkringan (Shai is starting to deviate from subject again....)...

Tapi kadang-kadang dalam perjalanan kita tu, kita nampak ada simpang lain. Simpang tu tulis "SHORTCUT", atau simpang tu papan tandanya cantik sangat, atau nama tempat kat papan tanda tu menarik sangat, so kita belok. Instead of ikut jalan yang kita nak, kita melencong ke tempat lain. Mungkin lencongan tu membawa kita ke tempat yang sebenarnya lebih sesuai untuk kita, mungkin shortcut untuk destinasi kita, atau just a place that delay our travel.

Whatever it is yang ada kat lencongan tu, sama ada kita nak belok atau tak, itu semua keputusan yang perlu dibuat di simpang tersebut. Because You won't know if simpang tu kau boleh patah balik atau jalan sehala, dan kau tak tahu sama ada wujudnya simpang lain dan simpang tu akan membawa kau ke tempat yang sama dengan simpang sebelum ni kalau kau teruskan perjalanan ikut destinasi asal. Kat simpang tu la kau kena buat keputusan.

Kenapa aku buat analogi panjang ni?

Sebab adakalanya sebagai penulis, aku rasa aku sesat jalan. Ada banyak sangat simpang untuk penulis ni. Kadang-kadang kau jadi down bila novel kena kritik dan rasa profession ni tak sesuai dengan kau, atau kau jadi overconfident bila dipuji sampai kau rasa kau better than everybody else. Kadang-kadang kau tensen bila royalti tak banyak dan kau lupa apa objektif utama kau turun ke bidang penulisan sebab kau asyik tanya semua pembaca apa diorang nak baca instead of staying true to what you writ. Kadang-kadang kau sibuk mencari penerbit untuk buat adaptasi buku kau.

Tapi sebenarnya, kita irji' semula.

A writer writes.

We write about things that happened, we write experiences, we write lessons, stories, fantasies, imaginations, reality, wonders, sadness, happiness, woes, happily-ever-afters, horrors, thrillers, actions. We write things plainly atau dengan bahasa berbunga-bunga, bahasa pasar atau sastera, bahasa sinis atau ketegasan. Kita guna kata kerja, kata nama, kata sifat, pelbagai jenis bahasa. Kita serius, kita lucu, kita sarkastik...

Tapi yang nyata satu saja. Writers write.

Kita menulis. Itu priority. Kalau tak kita tak dipanggil penulis.

So ingat semula perjalanan kita. Where were we going. Why were we in this. Why did we write in the first place. There are a lot of more interesting things. There are too many things that entice.

But a writer writes.

SIM card aku rosak, so aku bermonolog tentang kehidupan...

Bila aku kata SIM card aku rosak, member aku cam....

"Nampak sangat ko single."

Ahahahahahahaha. Apa kaitannya? Banyak kaitannya. Hanya orang single yang sangat tenang bila SIM card rosak, fon rosak, atau apa2 hal kerosakan yang berkaitan line of communication.

Tapi it juga sangat berkaitan dengan orang yang kerja freelance-slash-novelist dari rumah macam aku (aku boleh je tulis freelancer/novelist instead of guna perkataan 'slash'.. saje menyusahkan diri).

Truth be told, I hate phones.

Aku terganggu bila dihubungi di telefon. Bila orang call aku, aku jadi blur, I say the stupidest thing that makes Snooki nampak bijak laksana (aku tak tengok "Jersey Shore" atau "Snooki & JWoww" pun untuk buat Snookie reference... which is actually a very very very old reference. I just have weird knowledge about reality shows). Apetah lagi bila aku tengah menulis. Cantik je aku punya flow, sekali tu ada bunyik lagu "Knights of Cydonia" berkumandang dengan dahsyatnya.

Hilang sume flow idea aku.

Satu lagi sebab aku tak suka mengikuti perkembangan zaman (kata seorang bekas student Political Science whose studies are more or less about the political progress of the era). Dulu aku suka tau apa nama model kereta terbaru dan main that game dalam keta with my sister where you pick a car of your choice and kira ada berapa banyak kat jalan raya and whoever pick the most, wins..... well, actually wins nothing except the right untuk berlagak.

Tapi sekarang ni terlampau banyak model kereta yang keluar, aku dah stop paying attention. Imagine playing the same game in this insufferable adult life.

"Itu Honda, kan?"
"Nope."
"How can that not be a Honda?"
"Itu Nissan Altima."
"Looks like a Honda to me."
"How can that look anything like a Honda?"

Yeppp.. I am crap at that.

Sama jugaklah macam brand telefon. A few weeks ago, telefon lama aku rosak, so I used my father's phone instead. Nad tanya aku, phone apa. Aku kata Samsung. Then dia tanya aku Samsung apa.

I don't know. Cheap Samsung?

Then Maxis hantar SMS configuration, saying "TQ, you'll receive settings for your Samsung S3850 Corby II soon..." and aku cam, Oh, so nama kau Corby... mmmkay.

Today, aku baca artikel tentang Chow Yun Fat. Chow Yun Fat is one of the highest earning stars in Hong Kong with wealth over HKD 1 billion... which is bersamaan dengan RM...... eh pi Google sendiri lah. And yet, dia pergi events naik public transport, jarang apdet baju2 yang dia ada, dan pakai henpon cikai. Why? Sebab dia kata dia boleh observe orang kalau naik public transport and people would not realise he's there at all sebab diorang sume busy tunduk tengok fon masing2. And why dia pakai fon cikai? Sebab dia suka fon cikai dia.

So I guess Fat Gor is my idol in that sense.

That brings me to the point... kenapa bila aku hidup dengan dhaif, some successful people kata, "Kau kena berubah" and bagi aku contoh-contoh orang-orang kaya yang berjaya macam Dr. Fazley atau Donald Trump sebab diorang dress and act for the job they want. And yet bila aku kata, "Christopher Nolan takde henpon", sume orang kata, "Kau mana boleh samakan diri ko dengan Christopher Nolan...."

How can you compare me to those other rich people who you think I should take as an example, but when I pick my example, ko kata tak bleh plak?

Jap, apa cerita aku tadi? Aku rasa aku dah keluar topik....

Oh well.

In reality, Fat Gor tak bakar rokok dengan duit though...

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Selamat Tahun Baru semua!
(Cis... punye la terlambat sampai 13 hari).

Or, more correctly, (sila baca lepas Maghrib) Salam Maulidur Rasul! Sallallahu 'Ala Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Semoga kita tak berselawat hanya pada Maulud Nabi.

Anyways.
The new year has not been much different from what other years. I mean, aku masih buat freelance, aku masih seorang novelis, aku masih di Malaysia (walaupun dulu poyo buat plan nak migrate Aussie bila umur 30 tahun. Shai and her plans.....). Ya, not much difference. Aku memang dah berhenti making new year a big deal since I was 23. I found that pretending like I care and making too many resolutions only end up with me not doing any of those resolutions and doing the exact opposite.

Like, that time when I said I am done trying to slim down. Then suddenly aku lost 10kg. Then aku kata "Oh, this year I will work hard so that I can tone my body like those damn KPop girls"..... takde makne. Makin aku makan lagi ade la...

But there are changes among friends. Nad dah start pindah ke rumahnya sendiri. Tim is a mummy to a healthy baby boy. Masni dah married, fly ke Japan pregnant, all in a course of a few months (I assume). Jis pulak akan kahwin Februari ni. Shikin is married and pregnant. Liza beli rumah baru. Mun's catering business dah semakin maju.

Speaking of catering (ada kaitan ke?), Sabtu lepas, aku, Liza (Liza Nur) dan Shikin (Zara Amani) lepak sarapan kat Shah Alam Mall, saja update what's new. And somehow kitorang end up brainstorming dan came up with a new trio project. I am not sure whether GBK would want to publish us, since I don't think they're so keen about 3Hati... ahahaha... but still, we just love the idea so much, we're just going to do it in spite of.

Biasanya aku akan cerita apa the whole project is about, but since nowadays dah banyak sangat kes (yang aku dengar la) this writer curik this other writer's idea, and the whole shabang, aku rasa lebih baik kitorang keep it quiet for a while.

Adakah projek ini sebuah sekuel? NNNNNNope.

Meanwhile, novel sekuel Aku Kan Novelis dikatakan bakal keluar April ini (novel aku asik keluar bulan April. Senang kata, kalau nak novel keluar April, sila hantar around June or July the year before). Novel baru Liza Nur pulak, "Pabila Dia Tersenyum" (tentative title? Not sure) will come out the month before. As for Zara Amani? Entah. Tak siap-siap manuskripnya. Ahahahaha.

Clue for the next project?

*masukkan lagu Zaiton Sameon di sini*

Lama sungguh aku tak update blog.

Maafkan aku.

Bukannya aku malas, tapi aku tak sempat.

Banyak benda yang aku tak sempat nak buat.

Aku tak sempat nak update tumblr.

Aku tak ada masa enough nak update Page FB Liza Nur.Nurul Syahida.Zara Amani (which is our official page... yang aku sangka senang sikit kalau bertiga sebab that way boleh pastikan page tu sentiasa aktif... but somehow tak jugak... trust three novelists to actually find something to update!.. yeah, we shud've just hired someone to manage it...)

Malah season terbaru BOARDWALK EMPIRE dah stack up dalam koleksi things that I should watch but have yet to do so.

Lepas hantar AKN2 tempoh hari, aku start pulak menulis SBP2. Lepas SBP2, aku nak sambung manuskrip ILHAM AZIZA (temporary title) yang aku tinggalkan buat sementara. Malah aku berhutang tiga cerita kanak-kanak dengan editor Unit Kanak2 Buku Prima.

Jadi aku mintak maaf banyak-banyak. Aku akan cuba jadi manusia yang lebih pandai menguruskan masa selepas semuanya selesai.

PS: Mak kata inilah puncanya aku tak kahwin2. Ahahahaha. Aku kata, "Mak, jodoh tu kalau dah sampai, duduk lubang cacing pun jumpa bakal suami. Kalau jodoh tu tak sampai, muka cantik macam Miss Universe dengan skil rumah tangga level Martha Stewart pun still single..."

I don't always hate everything

People kept telling me: "Shai, banyak sangatlah isu kau ni. Itu tak suka, ini tak suka. Apa yang kau suka kalau semua benda tak elok je kat mata ko?"

You want me to list things? Fine.

BENDA-BENDA YANG AKU SUKA PART I

1. Nutella
2. Food made by people who want to impress you, not food made by people who want you to praise them. Yes, they are two different things.
3. Bunga kekwa
4. The kind of morning where your neighbour doesn't think drilling the wall would be a good idea
5. David Mitchell
6. Saying random things
7. Singing random things
8. Gone with the Wind
9. Writing and not being interrupted
10. Encyclopaedia
11. People who like me
12. People who do not hate me
13. Translating Spanish telenovelas
14. KFC
15. Breaking Bad
16. Quoting Liz Lemon
17. Seluar pallazo
18. Listening to Alanis Morisette while working
19. Surah Al-Adiyat
20. Stephen King
21. Books that are not about kahwin paksa atau kahwin vampire
22. Jane Austen
23. Cats
24. People who do not annoy me
25. Men being nice because they're nice, not because they want something
26. Cheap clothes
27. Cheap anything
28. Jason Bateman
29. Prague
30. People who look at me when I'm talking and not focusing on their gadget.
31. Talk politics with people who studies politics
32. Not talking about politics with idiots
33. Shah Alam at 2am
34. Gangster movies
35. Masak lemak labu