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,

Writing of books – escaping from reality or just using it?

As far as I know, the common opinion about being an actor, physician, writer is that you are not obliged to be at least a little crazy, peculiar and strange to be one, but it helps a lot… There are many evidences about this “rule”: while Miguel de Cervantes was writing his Don Quixote, he wasn’t interested in anything else but writing. He was so far away from reality that he wasn’t impressed a bit about his spoiled daughter’s behavior or his wife’s threats for divorce if he wouldn’t do anything for his family. As far as I remember, J. Adams used to get naked while writing some of his Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’s stories (probably that way his mood would be the right for his funny stories). While writing, Umberto Eco surrounds himself with all sorts of small figures of ancient people to feel better the spirit of the time he’s writing about…
There are many similar events of the kind I guess, which prove how important it is to use one’s imagination while writing, but when the matter at hand is ignoring the reality creating a story, I would say: Quite the contrary! Even the most abstract sci-fi and fantasy books require a lot of the real life’s wisdom, or its “boring”, “dull” and “meaningless” details, which with a little imagination could be turned into an inspiring, wise or even funny adventure, novel, etc. So, only the one who never wrote a story would claim writing has nothing to do with reality and to create a good manuscript every writer have to forget the every day’s events, mishaps, joys, etc. For example, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was actually a parody of the political intrigues and stupidity and strivings for power at any cost of England’s high society from the author’s time, and because of this combining of fiction and reality I guess it’s still one of the classics. J. R. Tolkien also used some facts about animals, plants, which made his The Lord Of The Rings more real (remember that Frodo wasn’t killed by the giant spider Shelob’s sting but just paralyzed?).
Of course all these speculations are true for every writer, not only for the most famous (writing is a process that’s not much different, no matter how different the genre an author writes is). Thinking about that, I realized I used a lot of my biological knowledge to create many of my animal characters and their adventures, I used also some political debates, some philosophical thoughts/speculations from our time, etc…
I’m more than certain every writer could share similar experiences?
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, www.allanbard.blogspot.com
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.blogspot.com, www.allanbard.wordpress.com

jokes/anecdotes to make your Friday/weekend, some not appropriate for kids...;)

Some funny jokes/anecdotes I found and I guess could make anyone's Friday/weekend ;):
Answers of a Brilliant student who obtained 0% Q. In which battle did Napoleon die? A. His last battle. Q. Where was the Declaration of Independence Signed? A. At the Bottom of the Page. Q. River Ganges flows in which state? A. Liquid. Q. What's the main reason for Divorce? A. Marriage. Q. What's the main reason for Failure? A. Examinations... Did the student Answer Anything Wrong?

In a sex shop: I want a sex-doll... White or black? White. Fat or slim? Slim. Tall or short? Tall. Christian or Muslim? What's the difference...? Well, the Muslim explodes at the end...;)

2 hookers are waiting in the street for customers, and 2 cats are making love on the roof above them. Suddenly, as the cats didn't pay attention to anything else, they fell down. And a gypsy boy who played on the other side of the street shouted out: Hey, ladies, your advertisment is gone... ;)

If you don't turn the light on during a date, you could save not only electricity but cosmetics too...
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, www.allanbard.blogspot.com
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.blogspot.com, www.allanbard.wordpress.com

laughter could heal ;)

This post of a friend of mine at FB reminded me of my own pranks as a kid, when we threw eggs and tomatoes, or plastic bags filled with water, from the windows to hit people in the streets, or called strangers on the phone and turned a cassette player on close to the phone and spoke nonsense, or put lady's socks on our heads with 2 holes for the eyes and entered into a lift and waited for someone to call the lift, or nailed the shoes of a severe teacher of ours to the floor, etc...;). A post that proves again that laughter could be a good medicine, so I couldn't refrain from re-posting it...
via Allison Dohrman
WARNING...THIS IS LONG...BUT VERY FUNNY! THANKS =)

Why Women Shouldn't Take Men Shopping...

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women - she loves to browse. Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target.

Dear Mrs. Samuel,

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Samuel, are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1.June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.

2.July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3.July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.

4.July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away'. This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money.

5.August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6.August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7.August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8.August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?' EMTs were called.

9.September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.

10.September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.

11.October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme.

12.October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.

13.October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

14.October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'

And last, but certainly not least:

15.October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here.' One of the clerks passed out.
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, www.allanbard.blogspot.com
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.blogspot.com, www.allanbard.wordpress.com