Tell us a bit more about you and where you’re from.
Fendy: I’m Fendy S. Tulodo, and I live in Malang, East Java, Indonesia. Day to day, I work as a motorcycle salesperson. Outside of that, I write short stories in different genres, sometimes poetry and reported essays. I also make music under the name Nep Kid.
I’m married and have one son. Where I live, not many people are especially interested in reading (in the long form), and even fewer people come from a background of writing (stories). That includes my family, my wife’s family, and many of the friends around me. I don’t know, maybe it’s a cultural difference, or maybe I just don’t want to be “lumped together” with everyone else 😅
What inspired your winning story? Why did that particular theme resonate with you?
Fendy: Honestly, I write about my grandmother quite often. You can probably find some of those stories at other publishers, and no, she is definitely not a “horror grandmother.” 😅
My son will turn four this December, and maybe I love both of them so much that they naturally became references for the characters in this story, which I then developed into something else. I also have an annoying aunt figure in my family, so there is a little bit of that in there too 😁
Overall, I think this story is a “piece” of family, memory, and the silence of people who know something but choose not to talk about it.
When, and why, did you start writing?
Fendy: Formally, I only really started writing seriously in late 2024, when I began writing properly and submitting my work to many publishers.
Before that, I already enjoyed writing stories, but mostly through songs, especially when I was in high school and still enjoyed playing in a band with my friends. A lot of what I wrote back then never got finished because I did not take it seriously.
So in a way, writing stories has actually been part of my life for a long time. I just started treating it as “proper” writing much later.
What’s your favorite aspect of writing horror?
Fendy: The part I like most about writing (horror) is deliberately leaving something “hanging” and letting the readers reflect on it through their own imagination and their own fears.
Maybe it is similar to watching a horror movie. You do not always need to show everything. Sometimes what the audience imagines is much more frightening than what you could actually put on the screen.
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
To read Fendy’s answer and more, click HERE!