About me
I was born in 1968 in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. I currently live in Vienna, Austria, where I work and teach in the areas of Marketing and Strategy. I have an M.A. in English Language and Literature from Sofia University and an MBA from INSEAD, France. My long-standing interest in Roman history and numismatics is reflected in this novel, which is my second book after the short stories collection Gods of The City (2018, published in Bulgarian). My passion is to observe the relationships between people and to analyze the surrounding world in order to understand it better.
My thoughts on writing
Writing is a natural extension of the way I think. In my opinion a truly good book needs several necessary elements. The first one is the story. When one writes without telling anything meaningful to your readers is comparable to using them as free psychologists. There are many elegantly written books which leave no trace in our minds because their style is not supported by a good storyline. The second one is to provoke your readers to use their imagination and learn something new about themselves and the world in general. A book that teaches you nothing is simply a chewing gum for your brain. The third one is depth. Life is complex and multilayered. A good book should explore these layers and tie them into a harmonic whole.
Of course, style is also of extreme importance. Every word should be in its right place and should contribute to the overall canvas of the story.
Favorite books
I read books from a wide range of styles in different languages. I am a big fan of the French literary school and writers like Guy de Maupassant, Prosper, Prosper Mérimée, and Alexandre Dumas. Other writer whose books I enjoy reading are Ilf and Petrov, Robert Sheckley, Bill Bryson, Jaroslav Hašek, Frederick Forsyth, Boris Akunin, James Clavell… My favorite poets are Percy Bysshe Shelley, Francois Villon, and the Bulgarian Peyo Yavorov.
