Why modern fairy-tales are better than the old, classical...

Probably only some people will agree with me about this... Many of them like only the classical fairy-tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Snow-White And The Seven Dwarves, Puss In Boots, etc. just because they remind them of their childhood. They even forbid their kids to read books like Harry Potter, Peter Pan, The Hobbit, Alice In Wonderland, or The Wizard Of Oz. I guess it's a certain evidence of "narrow-mindedness", because they just can't realize these modern tales combine not only amazing events, incredible creatures, or breath-taking battles and deeds. They also show us many good ways to deal with everlasting problems, problems we have today, had in the past too, or will have in the future...
They show us how useless and stupid it is to be a racis (remember how useless it was to name H. Grainger a mud-blood in Harry Potter books, she was one of the best students Hogwarts had ever seen), to care only about our own well-being (in the battle between good and evil in Bring me The Head Of Prince Charming where the good won the contest just because being evil was stupid and the good creatures helped much more the evil contestants than any other evil doers did), or the true meaning of words like love (I hope I showed well enough what the real, unudultered love can do in my Tale Of The Rock Pieces), good, evil, truth, lies... Meanwhile, what mopst of the classical fairy-tales deal with is finding of enormous treasures, or good, profitable marriages. I’m not sure whether it’s a good comparison, but I guess old fairy-tales were the equivalent of soap operas in the past when there was no TV, Internet? So, I guess the difference between a TV soap opera of 1000 meaningless episodes and an Oscar nominee like Schilndler’s List, The Fisher King, Rain-man, or The Slumdog Billionaire...
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aren't you fed up with stupidity in the streets?

I guess everyone have seen "wise" headlines on T-shirts, fridge magnets, etc? Headlines like: My boyfriend kisses better than yours, or FBI - Female Body Inspector?
Don't you think not everything we should think of should be about sex? I guess it would be much better if we see more good, inspirational thoughts, or nice pictures of mythical creatures, or other funny quotes, photos etc. that don't include only sex... If you want to know my opinion, everyone could help about that using sites like zazzle.com, cafepress.com, fiverr, etc. There any user could create T-shirts, stickers, cups, fridge magnets, etc. with his/her own design, then share his/her work with family/friends/world... Join me, I'm allanbard there, you'll see what I mean. I usually use some of my photos, quotes or illustrations from my books, or other wise thoughts, which most of population on Earth would find interesting, inspiring, or even useful. Thoughts like:

The fabled musk deer searches the world over for the source of the scent which comes from itself. Ramakrishna
When Injustice becomes law, rebelion becomes duty.
One can fight money only with money... my Tale Of The Rock Pieces.
Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be ~ Thomas à Kempis
The one who asks is stupid 5 minutes, the one who doesn't is stupid for life. Chinesse saying.
One of the greatest delusions of mankind is that men are superior to animals... my The Opposite Of Magic.
Love can be used for good or ill, but hatred leads only to destruction.
"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."- Josef Stalin
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins- not through strength but by perseverance. ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
All the problems in the world lead to one - narrow-minded people... my Incredible Future.

the best job ever...

Many of my friends, acquaintances, relatives etc. complain what they do for living is boring, dull and is "kïlling" them bit by bit. All of them explain they are forced to do that for the sake of the good salary or some other benefits (beautiful colleagues, long vacations, many bonuses on different occasions, etc.). When I explain what it means to be a writer, they usually don't believe their ears... It seems it's hard for anyone who has never written a book, short story, or even an article, to realize the amazing experience one could have creating some great adventures, breath-taking plots,
or the glorious wisdom of wise thoughts, the thoughts that made nations or many people set deep in thought. It seems it's hard for most people too to realize writing of books is connected to every job, activity, hobby one could think of or imagine. It depends on the book a writer writes of course, but actually even a "stupid" love story could include interesting facts, useful tips, or breath-taking adventures, or amazing writing skills, which make the story incredible. All these could make any writer's life a real adventure, without anything like dull time, unhappy thoughts, and attempts to suicide oneself because of meaningless existence...
These are not just my thoughts and experience I remember a saying of an ancient wiseman (Chinese I guess, can't remember his name): Find a job you like and you'll never work again in your life. I don't know whether he was a writer in the meaning we use today, but this is quite an acceptable explanation. I remember another thought, which some other writers used , including me in my next book The Opposite Of Magic, and which shows the incredible job, experience, or way of life writing of books could be: Oftentimes, the fictional stories are more true than the real...
There are many other "benefits" about writing. Writing a story, any writer could become a real expert in many fields. To describe something well enough, one has to "experience" it, to know perfectly well every detail about it. Many writers usually prepare for the writing of a book a few months or even years, collecting information, learning a lot of new things, creating amazing new worlds, or "making" new friends (actually, the best friends one could have are amongst the fictional characters in the books, as they could be whatever the writer wants ;)... I can still "talk" with some of my characters from my Tale Of The Rock Pieces or The Opposite Of Magic for example, and "ask" them about their opinions about things from my next books...;) So, a writer would never be bored writing a good story.
Of course, usually writing is considered "thankless" work. After spending some years collecting information and writing a good story, there's no guarantee that the book will be a bestseller... As far as I know only about ten percent of the published books are "well-rewarded". However, it doesn't mean that the other benefits disappear because of this statistic...
I guess I'm not the only one with the same frame of mind and thoughts? Your opinions, please?

the most serious genre.

I guess this topic has so many answers that they wouldn't "fit" in a blog post... Many people would say stories about everyday's life (marriage, having kids and teaching them of good manners, or about the horrible divorces that destroy many kids and parents' life) are amongst the things everyone must put under the pillows or over the beds. Of course, some other people would claim to put books or other products about "How to..." themes amongst the five things they would take on a desert island. According to their opinion, these books are the best helpers in everyday's life, showing us which are the best ways to deal with an ex-boy/girl-friend, how to make useful objects out of scrap, or train our mind to remember all we need (or don't need) to know in life, etc.
Actually, they all are right to some extent... I don't mean these books, movies, etc. couldn't be useful in many cases. Yet, it doesn't mean they should be worshiped so much that their titles should replace everything else in the front pages of newspapers or in all the appropriate comercials. But I guess anyone would agree a reader couldn't find more wisdom in any other genre than in fantasy or sci-fy books. Wisdom that oftentimes is eternal, i. e. it's actual for any time of our history and could help us solve any problems in the future too. Where else one could find such good thoughts but in fantasy or sci-fy stories:
The first step to correct a mistake is patience. Clone Wars.
You'll never be able to win, unless you defeat yourself first. Samurai Jack.
Oftentimes it's harder to accpet help than offering. Clone Wars.
The one who runs with aggression walks without dignity. Samurai Jack.
It's our choices, far more than our abilities, that show us who we really are. J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.
One could fight money only with money. my Tale Of The Rock Pieces.
To die will be an awfully big adventure. Peter Pan.
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering... master Yoda, The Phantom Menace.
Even in the hottest fire there's a bit of water. my The Opposite Of Magic.
If there isn't Santa Claus, the sun won't rise. There will just be a giant ball of hot gasses. Terry Pratchett's Hogfather.
All the problems in the world lead to one - narrow-minded people. my Incredible Future.
Of course, many of the sci-fy, fantasy novels, movies, etc. include much action, many battle scenes, wierd creatures etc. that "hide" the wisdom in these stories... Probably that's why they usually don't win Oscars for something else but special effects (with a few exceptions - The Lord Of The Rings - Return Of The King).
Yet, it doesn’t mean the useful and important lessons aren’t there. We just have to learn not only to watch the special effects, the amazing battle scenes or creatures, but to think over the glorious thoughts and wisdom we could find there. As they could really make our present and future world better.
Finally, I’ll just give an example of the great power of such stories. Flesh, a book of about 150-180 pages, describing a future after we destroyed the ozon layer, made USA government change its policy about the harmful emisions. So, this small book was one of the main reasons we still exist.
I guess many readers could give similar examples? Best wishes to all fans of fantasy and sci-fy!


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the easy/hard writing and the many skills and things any author should have and know

Most of the people think the most important skills for any author should be the good knowledge of the language, the good writing skills, or the good imagination. But I guess any writer would say these are just some of the basic skills. The writing of any book requires much other information, many other skills that are connected to that information. For example, if a writer writes a book describing a fierce battle with swords, he or she has to be familiar with many (or all) of sword battle techniques... or even has to "take part" in such a battle, may be even more than once... That way the description of such events in the book will be really amazing (and true at the same time).
Books could be also a way to educate anyone. Any author use much information in his/her books, and in most cases that requires months or even years of research and collecting of useful information for creating new facts, thoughts and plots. Sometimes, this could be very hard, even harder than any physical work or activity, like digging of channels with a spade...
Few people realize what a great and hard work the writing of a book requires. Bernard Werber read and collected information about his “Ants” novel about a year, then used just about 18 % of the read facts. John Grisham uses his years of studying law and practice to write his bestsellers in the best possible way.
I’m sure any author could name a lot of similar examples? As for me, my hair stand on end when I remember how many books (the Bible, Quran, many books and a lot of information about octopuses, enormous quantities of facts about antiquity, etc.) I must read just about one of my future books – “The Lord Of The Christ”…
I feel almost the same, when I remember that I have to learn how to dance exactly like Michael Jackson for another book of mine – "Lake Mystery"… Or the fact that I will have to become a bodybuilder and learn all the details about bodybuilding to write my "Incredible Future"…
I’ll be glad to hear some other opinions from other writers, editors, or readers about the hard/easy writing and the hard/easy ways to create these incredible things we call books…

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jokes that could make anyone's day or evening/night better...;)

There are many important and serious things in the world, but to cope with them anyone needs to laugh from time to time, don't you think so too?:

A cop stopped a driver who was driving with high speed, but as the driver had no money he offered to ask the cop a question and if the cop couldn't answer he would go without paying a cent. The cop said "OK", so the driver said: In which month a woman is most pregnant? The cop thought and thought, but couldn't remember and answer, so the driver told him in the ninth and left. But the cop said to himself: I've lost some money, but I'll use what I've learnt to gain some too... He went to one of his colleagues and asked him the same question, explaining if he couldn't answer he should pay him. The other one thought and thought but couldn't answer too, so the first cop said contentedly: It's in September, stupid!

A boy and a mother walk on the street on the way home and the boy asks her all the time "Buy me a bycicle, buy me a bycicle..." Finally the mother gets angry and says "Shut up and let's go home!" When they get home the boy says "let's play we are family, you'll be my wife I'll be the man of the house who's coming back from work and you are resting on the coach." "OK" sais the mother. After a while the boy comes dressed as his father, gave an angry look at his mother and shouts: "Why are you lying, silly bitch? Get up right now and buy our boy a bycicle!"...

A mother rabbit with her children saw a drunk hunter in the forest and said to her children: "Close your ears right now! Now the hunter won't hit us with his gun and he'll began to curse in such an awful way..."

Do you know what's more awful than an elephant in china shop? A hedgehog in a shop for condoms... An elephant ran away from the zoo, went to a garden and started eating cabbages. A woman who was the owner of the garden saw him and called the zoo right away: "Hello, there's a giant mouse in my garden, it grabs cabbages with her tail and don't ask me where it thrusts them after that..."

What is that TRUST? When two canibals make sex using pose 69...

While a falling star was falling a school-boy wasn't very sure what he had to wish, so in the next day he received a bike with bosoms...

In a class-room an inspector seats by a boy, while the young female teacher drops her piece of chalk, bends that way her ass is seen, then stands up and asks nodding toward the black board: "What do we see hear?" The boy sitting next to the inspector says right away: "One cool ass!" The teacher tells him to leave the classroom immediately, but at the door the boy turns his head and asks the inspector: "Why you tell the answer when you don't know?..."

In the middle of a rainy night a young couple sleeping in their appartment heard a ringing at the door. The man got up, opened the door and saw a wet man who asked him: "Please, come to push me, my friend!" "Get lost!" said the man of the house and slammed the door. But his wife told him: "Shame on you! Remember a month ago when our car was out of order how a friendly man helped us?... Go and do the same for this poor guy!" The man got out of the appartment, and shouted out: "OK, I'll push you, where are you?" "I'm right here!" answered the wet guy. "On the kids' swing..."

The big bad wolf walked in the forest and looked around him fiercely, and a drunk rabbit saw him and began to annoy him: "I'll beat you black and blue, wolf, I'll tear you apart! Come closer, or you are a chicken?" The wolf gave a deep sigh: "If only my dentist didn't forbid me to eat anything for two hours, I would let you know what for..."

A kid saw his parents while they were having sex, and said to himself immediately: "Well, well, well! And these guys don't let me stick my fingers in my nose???"

2 cowboys saw a reward is given to anyone who brings a scapl of an Indian. Travelling in the prairie they saw an old, alone Indian, killed him and took his scalp. Then made a camp and spent the night there. In the morning one of them got out of their tent and saw their camp was surrounded by 100-200 hundreds Indians, all of them painted in the war colours, watching fiercely, holding many weapons... And the cowboy entered into the tent right away, kicked his friend and shouted: "Get up, John! We are rich..."

What a gypsi can do when one gives him a computer? He starts to search in the Recycle Bin...

A group of tourists in the mountain saw an eagle flew with a white sheep, put her in a herd of sheep and took a black one. Perplexed the tourists asked the sheperd what was going on. "Nothing unusual." said the sheperd. "We play chess with the eagle and this time he plays with the white figures..."

A man was at a party and as he was drunk he chose a girl and went to his house with her. But when they get there he became suspicious and asked her: "How old are you?" "13" said the girl. "Go home right now!" the man said frightened. "Well, well, how supersticious you are..." replied the girl.

A man had to punish his parrot because the bird was joking and had made a phone call and had ordered a ton of naphtha to be poured in his bathroom. So the man nailed him on the back of a Christ figure with Jesus on the other side. "You'll stay here for 2 weeks!" declared the man. After some time the parrot turned his head and asked Jesus: "Since when you stay here, dude?" "2000 years..." sighed Jesus. "WOW! What a quantity of naphtha you ordered!..."

An advertisement of the zoo: The Rhino from our zoo escaped!!! Please, if you see him, give two dollars to the lady at the entrance...

Hope these anecdotes could make anyone's day or evening look better?

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books as a way to lead a healthy life

There are a lot of books about diets, exercises for the human bodies and minds, or for other ways and principles to lead a healthy life. There are many good books amongst them that could help a lot of people to be always healthy and feel happy. But none of them is interesting enough to keep any reader in suspense, as a book about adventure, fairy-tales, or other breath-taking stories could do...
I think that any author who writes such books could create them that way that they could be interesting and useful at the same time. A story about swords, battles and glorious deeds could also describe ways and tricks to be always healthy and be disgusted at the bad habits like smoking, drinking of enormous quantities of wine and other strong drinks, etc... I hope I managed to do that well enough in my first Tale Of The Rock Pieces!
I remember an event from my childhood that is a certain evidence my suppositions are true. When a friend of mine saw "Rocky" (the very first movie about the famous boxer), he forgot smoking (it was very modern and "cool" amongst young and older students, I guess it is the same now too?) and didn't want to have a look at any bottle or glass of any strong drinks. Then, he woke up at 5,30 - 6 o’clock in the morning, so that he could train and run a couple of kilometers before the first classes at school!.. So, I guess nothing could be more inspiring for kids and other readers and spectators than a good story full of useful tips. And actually, I hope I managed to combine (or will manage in my future books) an interesting, good story and a lot of useful tips in my works.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yw3a5n00FI

e-books or paperback and hardcover books?

I’ve heard a couple of years ago that usually only 10 % of the purchased books are of the kind one could read on a PC or other e-device. I’m not sure whether the situation today has changed, yet many of my friends, realtives and acquaintances prefer to hold a book made of paper. None of them thinks about the awful consequences the creating of paper could cause to the nature... Everey tree is connected to at least twenty species of animals or other plants (it depends on the longitude and latitude, please excuse me if my numbers are not quite correct)... When a tree is cut off, it means death for some of these species, and much stress for the others, that could even lead to extinction...
There are many other awful consecuences caused by the disappearance of the trees. Like draught, erosion, climate change... Usually, the new generation of trees grow up for about ten years, so it takes a lot of time until things are normal again... Finally, that leads to awful consequences for us humans (hunger, diseases, even death...).
I’ve heard that about 98 % of all the animal and plant species that existed on Earth are extinct, since the Earth has been formed or created. I don’t know what is the percentage of the species killed by people’s way of life or strivings for a better future. But I remember when a journalist asked the famous naturalist Gerald Durrel how many animals and plants were threatened or extincted because of people’s activities, Mr Durrel showed him two enormous volumes of The Red Book and replied: „ I don’t know, I’m not brave enough to count them...”
I remember also an excellent thought of the Indians from North America: The Earth is not ours, we just borrowed it from our children... I guess all of us should bear in mind this excellent saying, which Antoan De St. Exupery used too, and do our best to preserve the planet... Reading e-books instead of those made of paper could be one of the ways to do that...

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about books and movies based on them

Do you like any movie better than the book it’s based on? I guess one could hardly find such a motion picture?
Probably the reason is that usually movies are much „shorter” than books, so oftentimes books’ most important ideas and thoughts could not be a part of the movies based on them. However, I remember a few motion pictures (only two actually) that are at least a few levels up their stories written on paper. Yet, both The Little Mermaid and The Little Prince are longer than (or equal to) their text versions... Probably most teenagers, or even a lot of adults too, prefer to watch the movies than to read the books they are based on. I don’t know whether they could change their opinion... But I’m certain that any writer could improve his/her writing, so that any potential reader could enjouy his/her works much more.
Being a writer, I could name a few ways I’ve heard for improvement of the written stories, like avoiding the dull, boring explanations, or the long, unnecessary sentences, etc. Though I’d love to know some other opinions of readers, writers, or movie fans, concerning what should be done so that movies could be more like the stories they are based on, or books could become more interesting for any reader. Actually, readers and movie fans’ opinions are what any writer should bear in mind, right?

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have you ever been saved by a book/books?

Have you ever been saved by a book? I’m serious, so it’s not a joke... ;) Well, I don’t mean that books can cut the rope of your gallows, be your lawyer at the court, or give you or create antidote for the poison you just drank... Yet, it doesn’t mean that many books couldn’t change anyone’s way of thimking, or choices people make, or even make many of us do a lot of incredible deeds (more of them good, less evil or bad I hope...).
For example, a small book of about 150 pages (Flesh by Ph. Farmer) was one of the main reasons for our actions to prevent the destruction of the ozon layer... And I’m sure anyone could name some other examples too of the great power many books have! I’m sure also there are other readers and writers who could share similar stories, like mine:
About ten years ago, there was a period in my life when everything seemed hopeless and meaningless, it seemed my studying of English would be endless (I’m not a native Englishman or American, I’m Bulgarian and realized very soon English was a very difficult language, with so many meanings of a single word, there were so many expressions I had to learn, etc.). After that, it seemed almost impossible to find a publisher for my translated in English book, or even a literary agent who would find a publisher... Then I was so depressed because all these happened so slow, that I wanted to suicide myself...
Fortunately, the reading of some of Terry Pratchett’s excellent books changed my mind and way of thinking once and for all. They made me realize to cope well with any situation in life one has to find the funny side even of the worst events and mishaps. But what was even more incredible was something else. Terry Pratchett’s books’ most amazing quality was that they could make anyone think about serious and important things like wars, good and evil, the real difference between perfection and imperfection, human stupidity and its many forms, the good and bad sides of humans’ faith, etc...
I’m really glad Terry Pratchett’s books appeared in my life at the right moment! Now, when my first book Tale Of The Rock Pieces is finally published I feel I have to thank Mr. Pratchett for his amazing works. I don’t know whether he will read this, but I have to admit he actually helped me to make my dreams come true!

Ivan Stoikov - Allan Bard
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