I Am A 2013 NaNoWriMo Winner!

My first book, ‘The Calovinia’ was a 5,000 words story; and after I finished the book, my next dream was to write a more than 10,000 words story.

But of course, it was not easy to achieve the dream

Early this year, my eldest sister, Aiman Amani introduced me to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I decided to join it.

I joined the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program challenge.

And to win the challenge, I must write a 20,000 words story or a novella in a month; I could only start writing my story on November 1 and finish it by November 30.

Writing a 20,000 words story in a month?

I wasn’t quite certain if I could win the challenge as I took three months to write ‘The Calovinia’, which I started at the end of 2011 and completed the book in early 2012.

But when November came, I had a bad fever.

I could only wrote 348 words on the first day when I was supposed to write at least 667 words each day to finish the story on time.

But then the next day, I wrote 1017 words and my word count was alright.

Days passed and I tried to write as much as I could each day because there were days when we were away from Kuala Lumpur and I did not have time to write at all.

My blogs’ loyal readers might had realised that I did not write as often as I used to during the month of November.

Finally, on November 22, 2013, I reached my 20,000 words goal and around nine o’clock that night, I finished my novella, ‘Hilmania’ – which is about a place called Himania in the continent of Grender.

And I made a record of writing 2800 words in a day.

My second eldest sister, Aeshah Adlina who took a 30,000 words story challenge, finished hers on November 27, 2013 while my eldest sister, Aiman Amani finished her 50,000 words story on November 29, together with my immediate sister, Anisah Afifah, who took a 23,000 words challenge.

I am so happy and thankful when I finally finished writing the novella.

It was like killing two birds with one stone; first, I won the NaNoWriMo challenge and second, I reached my dream to write a more than 10,000 words story which was what I had wanted to do since I was eight.

Meeting Indiana Jones Again

On October 10, 2012, we fetched our Australian friend, Rupert Mann from the Islamic Arts Museum.

Like Indiana Jones, Rupert is an archaeologist and wears a hat too.

I wore the hat that he gave me during his last trip to Malaysia in February 2012, and I was very happy because he wore the same hat too 🙂

It was really fun talking to him again after 8 months since we last met.

He gave us lots of beautiful stamps from all around the world.

We were looking at the beautiful stamps.

He flew to Kuala Lumpur on his way to Kathmandu, Nepal for a hiking trip.

We went to a frozen yoghurt shop, Tutti Frutti which served very tasty frozen yogurt with all kinds of toppings.

I really enjoyed talking to Rupert and he is really fun to be with.

Everybody in my family really like Rupert because he is a wonderful and nice friend.

Rupert is very polite and very wise too.

I gave him the book that I wrote, titled, ‘The Calovinia’ and I hope that he’ll enjoy the book.

Rupert (R) and I holding ‘The Calovinia’.

I love meeting him and I really hope to meet him again soon.

The Calovinia – A Book By Ahmad Ali Karim

This is the front cover of 'The Calovinia'. I designed the cover my self. Ahmad Ali JetPlane Books is a subsidiary of one of my imaginary companies, Ahmad Ali JetPlane group.

I love writing stories. I wrote my first story, entitled ‘The Pink Elephant’ when I was about 3 years old. It was actually a really, really short story 🙂 And on my ninth birthday (February 13, 2012), I finished writing my first storybook! The book has 26 chapters with about 5100 words. My mother and my big sister Aiman Amani love my book and said that it is fun, funny and really amazing. 

I am very, very, very happy and excited when my father printed a few copies of the book 🙂 I gave the first copy to Pak Cik Amin and Ummi Yati. I am very happy because Pak Cik Amin, Abang Aiman and Abang Hatim like the way I wrote the story. I wish I can print this book in a real story book format and sell it like Uncle Awang Goneng

Below is the first chapter of my book:

CHAPTER 1: THE CALOVINIA

   Once upon a time, there was a nice beautiful place called Calovinia. But one day, Brotosh armies attacked the place and destroyed some of the beautiful buildings.

   The next day, the Calovinians make an alliance meeting with the Brotosh and the Brotosh became allies. Sir Adhavadejonge of Calovininia told the Brotosh not to let the Arguays know about the agreement. But unfortunately the Arguays had already heard about it.

   The Arguays rushed in to the Calovinian castle and attacked them using some magical swords and arrows. Sir Ali ordered his griffins to attack the Arguays. The griffins blew big blue fire from their mouth but the Arhuays managed to steal the special dagger from the Calovinian treasure box and put it into their own treasure box before taking it away.

   After the Arguays had gone, Sir Ali’s friend named Jolly said,”I want to get out dagger back from the Arguays all by myself”. Sir Ali said,”I don’t think that’s a good idea, Jolly”. Sir Adhavadejonge added,”You will be captured if you go there all alone”.

   Then Sir Layon of Calovinia took out his sword belt. The sword belt was a special belt where there would always be a new sword whenever it’s owner put it’s hand into the bet’s pocket. Sir Layon said,” No one should bring their own sword because the Arguays will steal your swords just like they stole our special dagger. I have enough swords for all of us

The back cover of 'The Calovinia'.