Tag Archives: Bulgaria

The Little Red-Hat

Posted on November 13, 2021 by dan

This one is dedicated to T. Mike Keesey. Does it work?   (step 1: English) Once upon a time, there was a little girl whose granny loved her so much, that she bought the girl a red riding hood to … Continue reading →

Posted in Language is Great! | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Third Day of Junction: Radio Interview

Posted on January 5, 2019 by dan

Merry Third Day of Junction! And Merry Second Interview for the 12+3 show on Bulgarian National Radio (here’s the first). I recorded this interview at the end of December, getting ready for the big book launch of Junction. Here is … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Bulgarian words for try

Posted on July 26, 2018 by dan

Sorry I don’t have much for this week’s Wonderful Awful ideas. Just four Bulgarian words that might all be translated as English “try.” Opitvam se (опитвам се) is related to pitam (I ask). As in opitah se da pobedya, “I … Continue reading →

Posted in Language is Great!, Short Stories | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Junction Radio Interview!

Posted on May 8, 2018 by dan

I appeared…was audible?…on Bulgarian National Radio last week, where I talked about my life and work in Bulgaria and my upcoming book, Junction! Junction, as I describe it, is about интересни чудовища, които изяждат хората по интересни начини, or “interesting … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spring Sense Impressions

Posted on April 6, 2018 by dan

Happy Gyulovo Week, everyone! This week, between Lazarov Saturday and Orthodox Easter, covers almost all of the events of my nearly-finished historical fantasy The Sultan’s Enchanter. It’s during this week in early spring that Elena, the witch of Gyulovo, makes … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Beta-readers for The Sultan’s Enchanter?

Posted on December 18, 2017 by dan

Friends, arkadashli, and arkadaşlar! My historical fantasy-romance-alternate-history is done…again! Three years ago, my agent told me to rewrite the first three chapters and send it back to her. Three years later, I have somewhat done so! If you’ve read earlier versions of The … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Vbyinu Sea

Posted on October 13, 2017 by dan

It started with the corvids of Bulgaria, of which there are many.  Then I turned to awkwords, a random word generator I’ve played with before. One fun technique is to give the program a bank of sounds and a model for … Continue reading →

Posted in Short Stories | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Bulgarian has words for:

Posted on February 9, 2017 by dan

to wake up completely: разсънвам се (razsanvam se) Raz-san-vam se glosses as “apart-dream-verb reflexive” something like “I break up my dreams.” You can add the same suffixes and prefix to buzh- (the root for “wake,” cognate to Sanskrit “Buddha”) to get разбуждам се … Continue reading →

Posted in Language is Great! | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The Bulgarian of Moana

Posted on December 13, 2016 by dan

Yesterday my wife and I took our older daughter to see Moana ( Смелата Вайяна – Smelata Vayyana – Vaiyana the Brave). It was a great movie, my favorite since The Princess and the Frog, and I really enjoyed the translation. … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Learning Bulgarian: Vacations and Governments

Posted on September 22, 2016 by dan

Remember last week? Well here’s some more Bulgarian vocab! Obrashtam se kam (nyakogo): Turn to (somebody) for help Dezhuren-on duty (from French, de jure meaning “of day”) Pikolo-a bellhop (from Italian, piccolo meaning “smallest”) Funny how English also imported both words, but with different … Continue reading →

Posted in Language is Great! | Tagged , | Leave a comment