My dearest readers,

When I first wrote Summer in Seoul, the idea of making a Tetralogy never ever crossed my mind before. Summer in Seoul, which was has a very different title before, was written to compete in a writing novel contest. Because I failed to win it (Hiks…), I tried to fix it up, finding a more appropriate and intrigued title, to be honest, the first title of Summer in Seoul was terribly hideous. LOL. Then, I send it on Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

The result?

Summer in Seoul was finally published. Hurray!

After that, I tried to think of the next novel. And Jessica Jung (Tara Dupont), who was making a short appearance in the first book as a cameo, looked like a very interesting character. She seemed like a kind of person who has a lot of story to be told. So, I approached her and just let her telling all of her story.

The idea of making a Tertralogy came up after Autumn in Paris was done to be written. At that time, I thought, “There is already Summer and Autumn, it’s better for me to make the rest of the seasons, which is Winter and Spring. Alright then, what should I do with this Winter story? Without wasting any time, Tiffany Hwang (Ishida Keiko) took a bold move ahead and asked me whether I’m willing to write a story about her or not.

Well, it’s impossible for me to dismiss this chance, right?

In the middle process of writing Winter in Tokyo, I came to realize that after I’m done writing this series, I have to find out more about Tiffany’s twin, Hwang Jessica, who once be told in this book but never truly be seen. Seeing a lot of plots which were offered by this mysterious blonde girl emphasized my decision on following her to write her side story in this finale Tertalogy, Spring in London.

Every writer has their own style to write a story. Including me. I didn’t make any plan or structure when I wrote it. One story was just started with a very simple idea. Then, I just have to wait till this simple idea to evolve by itself. I always kept an eye on the plot of the story, where the story would flow and just wrote the story based on it. I never ordered my characters to do something specifically, or said something as a part of my own orders. I just put them in a certain condition, then monitoring what are they going to do and what will they say to settle a conflict. Because these are their stories, not mine.

Gramedia Pustaka was the one who gave me the idea of writing this journal, and through this book I wanted to invite you recalling every story in these four seasons novel. I hope you can find your own favorite quotes in this journal.

Please, add your own impression and message on each page.

The last but not the least, thank you so much for your support and motivation over this time. I hope you guys can enjoy every story of the seasons as much as I savor writing every single line on each story.

Ilana Tan.

I didn't own any picture or the plot of the story here. Credit to the original author of this book: Ilana Tan.