the name ASUKA and the reason behind

Yes, asuka sakumo is not my real name. But it still have pieces from my real name; the initial and the meaning of my real name.

At first it started when my friend told me that i should have pseudo-name if I wanted to publish comic in Indonesia (though I'm not sure that this still happen or not). Well, to shorten the story, the idea of having a japanese name excited me and decided to play around with my initial AS and japanese word for cloud (short form of my real name and my chinese name).

And I began to use this name for fun.

Few years ago, when I first started to write and post on forums, somehow I don't feel like using my real name. Most of my friend know that asuka was my screen name, and the new ones were fascinated enough not to ask why.

After a while, my name on the forum gained popularity (I think; based in the popularity my post have became). They all said that everything I wrote were good, but when I reread them, I saw a lot of mistakes here and there. It got to the point where I asked, did they like my writing because the story were good or only because they like me? (The question of being subjective and objective.) It was not because I wasn't happy with their praises, but I wanted someone to "slap" me in the face, told me about my mistakes, and demanded me to do better. (And I still want this every now and then).

Then I created another name; Vanilla Latte (though i do think this name is too common). This name began with my friends' jokes about my skin colour and the total opposite of my best friend "Expresso".

Maybe it was because I was trying to be confident enough in my works; that eventhough the reader may not know who is the writer, they still like my story after all. (And I really do hope so.)