Bologna Oh Bologna Notes #17 – The 4 day Fair
Did I tell you that the place was really big? :) People
said it’s “small” compared to Frankfurt, but still it’s big. And my bad sense
of direction didn’t help. The map that I printed from the internet helped … a little
bit.
During the 4 day fair, I said hi to the people that I
have known before but had never met. There were the Paka people from
Hongkong. I did some script writing for
their animation children DVDs (Patrick and friends) a few years back. Check one
of their sites here: http://www.patricknfriends.com/
There were the Sterling people from India who bought the
rights of my books (Shirley and Wooly) in the past. Check out Shirley on their
website: http://www.sterlingpublishers.com/p/productdetail&product=96064574497&cat=2294665708
And of course I
met a lot of new friends. Three gentlemen from Saudi Arabia who came twice to
our booth to look at I Love you mom; a very nice couple from Navneet India who
also came twice to look at Financial Intelligence for Kids; a gentleman from
Dreamland who came in the morning when I was alone in the booth setting up the
laptop. He picked up a copy of Amazing Stories to Read and Read and Read; a
professor from Australia who thought that both human interactions and
communications are very important and are diminishing because of the electronic
devices. He then came up with a touch board that can be used in a classroom
setting so that students can have both technology and human interactions as
well in the classroom and several others whom I need to follow up by sending a
few pdfs of my books later. Hopefully one of those leads will result in my
books being forwarded to children in other countries.
Chris Lie (if you don’t know who Chris Lie is, you better
google Chris Lie Caravan) was our speaker for the first day. He talked about
artist management and the ins and outs of his studio. I talked on the second
day. My talk was to showcase the books we have as a colorful country. Clara Ng
talked on the third day regarding the characteristics of good children books
and Sweta Kartika (if you don’t know him, you better google him as well) talked
on the fourth day about how Indonesian folk lore influences our comic industry.
On the third day, we had a special performance by Chris
Lie and Sweta. Both took an hour to draw on our walls. It was really amazing to
see them work, transforming a blank wall into something awesome. People stopped
by to see them work. Some even sat on the ground (in the middle of the walkway)
to watch them.
Overall, the fair was a fruitful one. I got to see that
out there, the world of children book is much much bigger than I thought. I
have known that being a children book writer means that you can be anyone, you
can do anything, you can be anywhere and you can even time travel. But over
there, there is so much more than that. You know that even when you don’t fit
into several boxes, there are still endless boxes out there waiting for you to
try. (And if still there is no box to fit you, that means, you don’t need a box
at all :)) I saw that there are countless ways to be anyone, myriad ways to do
anything, endless ways to be anywhere and anytime. It’s a total freedom of
expression.
But after four days, I really really missed home. So even
though it was a fabulous fair and it felt good to be among so many colorful
books (check out my Bologna Children’s Book Fair photo album and also my
Bologna city album!) and among so many book loving individuals, four days were
enough. And despite the fact that I hate long flights, I looked forward to my
flight home.
I personally thank all of my fellow Indonesian companions
at the fair, my family away from home: Bu Lucya and Bu Greti from IKAPI and
Komite Nasional, thank you for your guidance and for letting me come to such a
wonderful place so I can see and feel new things. Laura and Pieter from tim
panitia and Kesaint Blanc, I wouldn’t know what to do without you two. Thank
you for taking care of all of us. Laura, you are such a wonderful and capable
lady! Ira from Pesona edu, thank you for sharing the chats during such a long
flight and the pizzas, too :) You did a
wonderful job at the Digital Café! Mbak Yuliani, Mbak Di and Mbak Anna from
Mizan, thank you for the laughs in the booth and also waktu ngantri toilet.
Ngantri toilet yang panjang kayak di Dufan jadi nggak terasa ya, Mbak Anna!
haha :). Clara, my fellow writer. It was not the first time we spoke in the
same event and I sure hope it won’t be the last time. Chris Lie and Sweta, two
very talented young men. Indonesia could use more dedicated young men like you!
Thanks for the windy trip to the city. Thank you all for sharing the eye
opening and heart warming trip with me.
Arleen
