an interview of mine at a site for creative people...

I can't remember the site url for the presetn, so I just posted it without the url...:
what is your name?
Ivan Stoikov – aka Allan Bard
how would you describe what you do?
Well, I could say I’m a writer, though for the present I’ve published only one book (Tale Of The Rock Pieces) and almost written another (The Opposite Of Magic) but have about 20 other in my heard, waiting impatiently to be written too. Yet, I would definitely claim that writing books is the best activity, job, hobby, way of life one could have!!! It is probably one of the few jobs, activities that’s connected with everything else one could imagine or think up… ;). For the present, writing is not my primary job, I work in a pharmaceutical company, I’m a healthy food consultant, massage therapist and I have a master’s degree in biology, which really helps for some of my books.
what are you currently working on?
I’m finishing my next The Opposite Of Magic, searching for some info for the next Kids’ Funny Business and The Lord Of The Christ, etc.
what has had the greatest influence on your work?
My dreams as a child, many famous authors’ works as Terry Pratchett, Ursula Le Gwuin, Michael Criton, J.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Ivan Vazov, Ivan Marinovski, Elin Pelin, Jack McDevit, Paolo Coehlo, G. Rodenburry, (sorry for my spelling…), Victor Hugo, movies like Star Wars (especially The Empire Strikes Back), Star Trek, Masters Of Science Fiction, The Outer Limit, etc… the list goes on but it will be too boring I guess to write them all here? ;)
what is the greatest misconception about you or your work?
After reading some of my book/s, some people said I was a racist… Yet, I guess my explanations helped them realize they were wrong. Using characters like Brown faces could not be a reason to make me something that I’m not and will never be. As in the past Brown faces had fair skin but their awful nature, thoughts and actions made them ugly and dark-skinned…
what do you see as the main strengths and weaknesses of the medium you work in?
Well, I guess in all my works there are not just breath-taking adventures, incredible, unknown and never-seen-before creatures and characters, but also a lot of wisdom, philosophy and thoughts/quotes that could be used in any period of our history.
I guess greatest weakness in my works would be my English… I mean I’m not a native Englishman or American, so many times my writing needs a lot of editing, my sentences are too long, some of my expressions are with Bulgarian logic, fromk time to time I guess my descriptions are too long too…
how has technology impacted upon the work you do?
I admire all the modern technologies, as Terry Pratchett said: We can find much more magic in an ordinary computer than in a gathering of witches…;) Using Internet, I could find editors, proof-readers of my works, literary agents, publishers, and having a PC and laptop made writing really easy! At first I used an old type-writer but after I bought my 1st PC, I’ll never use such a “trouble-making” device again…;)
what’s the greatest piece of advice you would like to pass on?
Read not just to find out about new facts, adventures, thoughts, quotes, etc but to think and comprehend the wisdom we could find in any book ;). Books could be a great way for educating, not just for entertainment.
where can we find you online?
http://www.myspace.com/ivan_allanbard, http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/ivanstoikov.allanbard, http://www.shelfari.com/allanbard,
http://www.allanbard.blogspot.com,
yahoo.messenger: wingofsard, skype: ambigat.son
what are you reading at the moment?
Catcher In The Rye, Orcs, Photoshop’s manual, Goosebumps…
what are you listening to at the moment?
Duffy’s Mercy, The Asteroids’ Galaxy Tour’s Golden Age, London Philharmonic Orchestra’ Kashmir…
anything else we should know?
I cried when I wrote the most horrifying moments in my Tale Of The Rock Pieces though I knew very well what the end will be, I’ll have to learn to dance like Michael Jackson to write really well my future Lake Mystery, for some of my books I prefer to make my own illustrations as I guess the worst covers and illustrations are made by professional artists… which usually have little in common with the story…;)

http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TaleOfTheRockPieces.html, http://allanbard.hit.bg, http://allanbard.hpage.com, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Allan-Bard-Ivan-Stoikov-Fan-Page-Strategic-Book-Group/121092637984053,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yw3a5n00FI, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qUA8Avl7ew, http:// www.allanbard.blogspot.com, www.allanbard.wordpress.com

A couple of jokes/anecdotes for the weekend :)

Hope many people could find these amusing ;):

Guy goes into a bar in New Jersey where there's a robot bartender! The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Beer." The robot brings back his drink and says to the man, "What's your IQ?" The guy says," 168."

The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space exploration and medical technology.

The guy leaves , . . . but he is curious . . . So he goes back into the bar. The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"

The guy says, "Beer."

Again, the robot brings the man his drink and says, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "100."

The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser, the Saints and LSU Tigers.

The
guy leaves, but finds it very interesting, so he thinks he will try it
one more time. He goes back into the bar. The robot says, "What will you
have?"

The guy says, "Beer,"

Once again the robot brings him his beer. The robot then says, " What's your IQ?" The guy says, "Uh, about 50."
The robot leans in real close and says, "SO, . . . you people . . . still happy . . . with Barrack Obama?"

T. Jivkov, the ex-"president" of Bulgaria had a tour in the country with his group of politicians. they went to some jails and T. Jivkov raised the prisoners'ration from 1 to 5 $. Then, they visited some universities, and T. Jivkov raised t...he students' ration from 0,50 to 2 $... "Why you didn't raise the students' rations as you did with those of prisoners?" asked his friends and colleagues. "Well, do you think that we could ever become students? But in the future jail could be our home..."

Have a nice weekend, everyone ;)!

http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TaleOfTheRockPieces.html, http://allanbard.hit.bg, http://allanbard.hpage.com, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Allan-Bard-Ivan-Stoikov-Fan-Page-Strategic-Book-Group/121092637984053,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yw3a5n00FI, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qUA8Avl7ew

Computer games vs books…

I’m sure that if the people who prefer PC and other games stand on one side of a pair of scales, and on the other all those who prefer reading of books gather, the book lovers would go high in the air… There are so many modern games with amazing graphics, sound, and scary, awesome, funny, etc creatures, adventures, scenes, etc that the many gamers usually don’t like to spend any time reading the black lines of a book. It seems using their imagination to “see” all the glory, magnificence or wisdom in written stories is harder than pushing the buttons of a joystick, mouse or keyboard. Probably many fans of the virtual games will oppose, as there are some excellent, modern and old “additions” in the virtual world, which can improve our imagination, thinking process, not to mention our skills like fast reactions, quickness of mind, or even the ability to remain calm in hard situations (which involve a lot of blood, killing of bad and dreadful characters, like vampires, zombies, burglars, murderers, whose only goals and intentions are to rob and kill everyone who stand in their way).
There’s no doubt such skills could be useful in our everyday life, when we face hard, deadly events. Yet, there are many details about books that make the rectangular objects, PDF and other text files better than the virtual battles, adventures and worlds from the PC and TV screens:
- no game could inspire imagination as the written words would, a game shows us everything in an imaginary world, a book just describes the scenes and leaves the rest to our thoughts and inspiration.
- a book could really develop our thinking, not just our logic, or fast reactions, remember al the good, inspiring, profound quotes, thoughts, events we could find in books that helped us change our attitude, way of thinking, way of life, etc…
- we could get bored by a game much faster and to a much greater extent than by any book, we know very well how a game will end (we’ll either win – kill all the bad guys, pass all the levels, etc, or lose), yet, most of the times the adventures in a book and its end are unpredictable, many books have happy endings, indeed, but the ways to get to there are so various that could surprise anyone (much more than the action in any game).
- the constant pushing of buttons while firing, shooting, passing through games’ levels could make us stupid, as then we don’t use our brains to think but mostly for our fast reactions…
- there are none (as far as I know) groups that try to heal the mental state of book lovers, but there are many which try to help the PC games addicts to lead a normal life again…
Of course, I cannot claim I’m the best expert on the subject; I didn’t play all the games that exist (I prefer to read/write a book than to spend endless hours killing virtual characters or flying and moving fast through the levels of a game). Yet, even the greatest fans of the games couldn’t deny there’s a lot of truth in my post?

http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TaleOfTheRockPieces.html, http://allanbard.hit.bg, http://allanbard.hpage.com, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Allan-Bard-Ivan-Stoikov-Fan-Page-Strategic-Book-Group/121092637984053,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yw3a5n00FI, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qUA8Avl7ew, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ijJl-6Be88, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vkixN9Nr2Q - pigeons, http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=263533&id=100000137216974#!/video/video.php?v=1297361605743,
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/ivanstoikov.allanbard, http://www.allanbard.wordpress.com

some jokes/anecdotes for the weekend ;)

Hope everyone will have a great weekend, and Í'm sure such jokes/anecdotes could help about that ;):

When a school-boy was asked which teeth appear last in humans, he was too confident replying: The false...

It's a well-known fact that nehind the complaints of a beauty, there are awlys at least 2 ugly women...

"Is it the police?"
"Yes, how can we help you?"
Two girls are fighting for me!"
"So? What's the problem, then?"
"The ugly one is winning..."

http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TaleOfTheRockPieces.html, http://allanbard.hit.bg, http://allanbard.hpage.com, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Allan-Bard-Ivan-Stoikov-Fan-Page-Strategic-Book-Group/121092637984053,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yw3a5n00FI, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qUA8Avl7ew,