The Petarangan

The Petarangan belongs to Wiwien Wintarto, my friend who is a very productive novel writer, and now starting up his career as movie scriptwriter. I knew him since 2002, when he was the senior editor in a teenage tabloid, and my (ex) company was developing that tabloid's website. He is so witty - I always feel that he always have all expressions to tell any stories.

Some characters in his books were inspired by his friends, including me. He gave me 2 of his novels, "Kok Jadi Gini" and "Say No To Love". The last novel touched me, as at the dedication page he wrote only one name: "for Asri". :)

Wiwien always encouraged me to kick my writing skills out. I sent some of my short stories to his tabloid, and they were published. He gave me some inputs to brush up my writing skills, and later, when I became confident enough, I encouraged myself to send my short story to a national teenage mag... and they published it as the featured story for their Christmas 2005 edition. Wow. Thanks to him. A lot!

The Petarangan adalah blog sahabatku, Wiwien Wintarto, penulis novel yang cukup produktif, dan saat ini memulai debutnya sebagai penulis skenario film dan sinetron. Aku kenal Mas Wiwien sejak tahun 2002, saat (bekas) perusahaanku masih mengelola website sebuah tabloid remaja di mana Mas Wien duduk (dan bekerja tentunya.. :D) sebagai Wapimred-nya.

Beberapa karakter dalam buku mas Wien terinspirasi dari karakter teman-temannya, termasuk aku. Sejauh ini, mas Wien sudah "menyumbangkan" 2 bukunya buatku: "Kok Jadi Gini" dan "Say No to Love". Buku yang terakhir ini menyentuh perasaan banget.. karena di salah satu halaman terdepannya beliau menulis.. "for Asri"... Awww...

Mas Wien selalu menyemangati aku buat menulis. Salah satunya dengan memintaku mengirim cerpen ke tabloidnya, dan memberiku banyak saran buat mengembangkan bakat menulisku. Nah, setelah aku cukup PeDe, akhirnya aku mencoba mengirimkan cerpenku ke sebuah majalah remaja nasional... dan dimuat sebagai cerpen utama untuk edisi Natal 2005-nya! :) Waw. Makasih sekali lagi buat Mas Wien. Makasih banyak!