site.btaInterest in Fantasy Comes from Adventures Readers Can Experience, Writer Nikola Chalakov Says

Interest in Fantasy Comes from Adventures Readers Can Experience, Writer Nikola Chalakov Says
Interest in Fantasy Comes from Adventures Readers Can Experience, Writer Nikola Chalakov Says
Nikola Chalakov at Varna Regional Library (BTA photo)

Fantasy author Nikola Chalakov presented his latest book, The Circle of Moonlight, at the Regional Library in the Black Sea city of Varna. “My books are classic fantasy with a lot of adventures, magic and sorcerers, as well as monsters invented by me or inspired by mythologies”, Chalakov told BTA.

The author is a translator with BTA's English-language service.

The Circle of Moonlight is a collection of ten short stories. One on them was included in the anthology Fable of Redemption Reclaimed, published in English in the USA by Of Metal and Magic Publishing.

Asked whether his stories and characters have a connection with Bulgarian myths, the author explained that there are creatures he has borrowed from Slavic mythology: not the most common ones, but new and unknown to readers. Instead of samodivas or dragons, his texts feature monsters like the fearsome liho and the vodenyak who is an old man living at the bottom of a river where he drags his victims. Chalakov said that he gets the ideas for his books from his experiences and from what he reads, which sometimes inspires him years later.

The interest in fantasy came to Chalakov when as a schoolboy he first read the novel The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, which he says opened up new horizons and visions for him in terms of expression and writing style. However, he thinks Tolkien's readers need to be more mature people to grasp and appreciate him because the writer has put a lot of knowledge into creating his world and language. He translated from Old English and was very knowledgeable about history and mythology, Chalakov said.

He finds his own work suitable for people over the age of 10. His second novel, Rozara’s Trial, was published in 2019, and his collection of short stories, The Circle of Moonlight, was published in 2022. Fantasy is popular in Bulgaria both as literature and films, Chalakov believes. He said that after the Harry Potter series craze, "The Witcher" is now in vogue, but it is for people of a more mature age. He attributes teenagers' interest in fantasy to the availability of many adventures that readers can experience, as well as characters with earthy or fantastical traits.

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By 21:04 on 28.03.2024 Today`s news

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