MEETING MY FAV AUTHOR: NAELA ALI

            Last month, I met one of my fav authors, Leila S. Chudori. Earlier this month (Feb, 10^th), I met another fav author of mine, Naela Ali. If you haven’t heard about Naela Ali, let me tell you about her briefly. Naela Ali is an author/illustrator from Jakarta. She published three books, Stories for Rainy Days Vol. I & II and Things & Thoughts I Drew When I Was Bored, by far, and the fourth book, Stories for Rainy Days Vol. III, was officially published a week ago in all bookstores (Feb 12^th).

            Lucky me that I’m still livin in Yogyakarta, cos apparently, she did a “book tour” in three big cities, Yogyakarta – Bandung – Jakarta. I was so excited to attend her book launch, since Yogya is the first city that would get her newest book cos it hasn’t out everywhere till two days later. Naela announced that in her book launch we could get special package that cost IDR 200k to get: Stories for Rainy Days Vol. III, Iron Patches, Bookmark, Sticker, and a Totebag. Fair prices to get a whole package, don’t you think?

            After waiting for few weeks, the day had finally come. The event took place in Artotel Hotel Yogyakarta, around 5 minutes from my dorm. I decided to take Go-Jek (again) cos I was too lazy to drive xD Book Launch starts at 4pm – 6pm, but I went to the venue 30 minutes earlier to avoid queue in getting the package. But guess what? The queue was already super long when I arrived! Crazy!

            Uray and I then joined the queue to get our own package. Oh, btw, I made new friend there (this Uray girl) since I went all by myself. We chatted a bit to get to know each other whilst waiting for our turn. After a while, it’s finally our turn to get these packages. Then, we waited again to get into the room and found a seat to rest our bum.

            Exactly at 4pm, the event was started. It was mainly Q&A session for almost two hours. One thing that I keep in mind is when Naela getting asked about how come she finally could publish her first book. She said all we have to do is just be ourselves. Make our works as authentic as possible and never give up.

            Once Q&A session done, there’s book signing session followed. I brought all my books that hasn’t signed by Naela to the event so that I could get them all signed at once. Sneaky, aren’t I? Lol. Unlike the last time when I met Bu Leila, I wasn’t shaking that much when I met Naela. I got her signed my books and also a proper picture. She was so lovely and actually a warm person irl. I had a great time indeed. So happey! #lifegoalachieved

P.s:

I got interviewed by her team as well after the event. Check the video below. Sorry for dark vid, the sun was setting and not much light where I was standing. But, who cares?!