I AM PLEASED TO WELCOME AUTHOR
Emmanuella Hristova
Author Bio:
I was born in Oakland, California and grew up in the Bay Area. I'm the third daughter to Bulgarian parents who immigrated to California shortly before I was born. At a young age, I began drawing, reading and writing. As a child, I was an avid reader and writer, but I focused on the fine arts in high school. I received many art accolades, including a Congressional award for my piece "Boy in Red" in 2009. In 2015, I received my Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. I began writing poetry again at age twenty-four when I was in graduate school. I earned my Master's in Education from the same alma mater in 2017. After, I spent two years as an English teacher in Richmond, California. During that time, I self-published my first poetry collection: "The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder". Currently, I'm writing my first novel. I speak English, Bulgarian, Spanish and am now learning French.
BANTER – STUFF ABOUT YOU
A: Relaxing bedtime sounds for me include water noises like soft rainfall or a babbling brook.
Q: What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have an all time favorite song?
A: I listen to almost everything; I’m obsessed with music especially any type of genre that incorporates soul in it. The last couple of years I’ve been really digging the song called ‘Poltergeist’ by the artist BANKS. Her first album really inspired my poetry collection The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder.
Q: What is the sexiest thing on a man?
A: Deep, introspective or philosophical thoughts. But aesthetically, I love tailored grey suits, a skinny tie and a silver tie clip. Also, dark hair, a trimmed beard, dark-rimmed glasses, and a book in hand never hurt. ;)
Q: Did you like school when you were a child?
A: I loved school. I still do. A part of me thinks I became an English teacher so that I would never leave school. ;) Sometimes I fantasize about going back to college to get my PhD in Linguistics.
BOOKS – ABOUT THE CRAFT
Q: When did you start writing and why?
A: My latest book is a poetry collection titled The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder. I started it while I was a soon-to-be college graduate musing about feminist issues like street harassment. Eventually, I began writing about the romantic relationship I was involved with at the time, and about the man I was falling in love with. When that relationship ended, the poetry took a tumultuous turn into heartbreak that melted into a depression once I found out my sister was dying, two weeks after my break-up.
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: Most of my work is an emotional response to real life struggles that I’m going through or a political or ethical issue happening around the world. I fill in the gaps using my imagination, which is often inspired by both Bible stories and Greek myths.
Q: How did you come to write your genre of choice?
A: When it came to poetry, I wrote to express my feelings or a sentiment. It wasn’t even intentional. Pent up emotions swelled up inside of me and they had no other place to spill other than onto a blank page. When I started to write my first novel, that was intentional. I had an idea in my head and on a flight home from Europe 16 months ago the ending clicked in my brain and I started scribbling the beginning in my Moleskin notebook. I came home and in my jet-laggedness I wrote the first 40 pages the first week I was home. And then I just kept on writing.
Q: Generally speaking, is your work based on real life experience? If it's not would you want it to be?
A: So far, all of my work has been based on real life experience. That includes my poetry collection, The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder and the novel that I wrote this year which I’m currently editing. In the future, I want to write novels that are not necessarily based on my life; but on the people in my life or purely on my imagination.
A: My latest book is a poetry collection titled The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder. I started it while I was a soon-to-be college graduate musing about feminist issues like street harassment. Eventually, I began writing about the romantic relationship I was involved with at the time, and about the man I was falling in love with. When that relationship ended, the poetry took a tumultuous turn into heartbreak that melted into a depression once I found out my sister was dying, two weeks after my break-up.
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: Most of my work is an emotional response to real life struggles that I’m going through or a political or ethical issue happening around the world. I fill in the gaps using my imagination, which is often inspired by both Bible stories and Greek myths.
Q: How did you come to write your genre of choice?
A: When it came to poetry, I wrote to express my feelings or a sentiment. It wasn’t even intentional. Pent up emotions swelled up inside of me and they had no other place to spill other than onto a blank page. When I started to write my first novel, that was intentional. I had an idea in my head and on a flight home from Europe 16 months ago the ending clicked in my brain and I started scribbling the beginning in my Moleskin notebook. I came home and in my jet-laggedness I wrote the first 40 pages the first week I was home. And then I just kept on writing.
Q: Generally speaking, is your work based on real life experience? If it's not would you want it to be?
A: So far, all of my work has been based on real life experience. That includes my poetry collection, The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder and the novel that I wrote this year which I’m currently editing. In the future, I want to write novels that are not necessarily based on my life; but on the people in my life or purely on my imagination.
BOOKS - NOW LETS PROMOTE – STRUT YOUR STUFF
Q: What are you working on now? Would you like to share anything about it?
A: I’m currently editing the first draft of my first novel. It’s a story about a first generation American, told in a genre that blends fantasy and magical realism. 30 years ago, Emmy’s parent immigrate to the United States and their lives are never the same. They give birth to their first American daughter; but, they never imagined her to be so gifted. They also never imagined they’d lose everything. She was born with the gift of prophesy, but not even that and her own religious faith can help her prevent the death of most of her family members. Meanwhile, in Emmy’s dream world, a golden statue of a young girl wakes up. Once Zoe realizes who she is and why she’s there, she embarks on the perilous mission to get Emmy out of the labrynth-like castle she’s stuck deep within the crevices of her mind. In the real world, Emmy’s left to deal with the psychological trauma of losing loved ones too soon, and with her inability to make the American Dream materialize. So she turns inward, to the fantastical world she’s built for herself to hide from her grief. However, the home she’s created is holding her captive, and she can’t seem to get out of her own head. So, she dreams up some fantastical sidekicks to get her out, who guide her as she contemplates the purpose of existance, of God, love, the American Dream, and the meaning of grief.
Q: Do you have a new book coming out soon? Tell us about it.
A: I’m currently promoting my poetry collection, but my novel is in the works!
This is my debut poetry collection and my first self-published work. I first published in April, 2018. Although the book only has a few reviews so far, it's rated a 4.5 on Amazon and 4.0 on Goodreads. It's available via eBook on Amazon, iBooks, barnesandnoble.com, Bookshout, Kobo, and Lulu for $3.99.
Q: How can we find you? Do you have a web page, FaceBook page or any buy links?
A: The best place to find me is on Instagram! http://www.instagram.com/emmy_speaks
You can also connect with me on my Amazon & Goodreads author pages: http://www.amazon.com/author/ehristova and https://www.goodreads.com/ehristova
You can also keep up with my work and publicity on my website: http://www.ehristova.com
These are also the links to my book:
A: I’m currently editing the first draft of my first novel. It’s a story about a first generation American, told in a genre that blends fantasy and magical realism. 30 years ago, Emmy’s parent immigrate to the United States and their lives are never the same. They give birth to their first American daughter; but, they never imagined her to be so gifted. They also never imagined they’d lose everything. She was born with the gift of prophesy, but not even that and her own religious faith can help her prevent the death of most of her family members. Meanwhile, in Emmy’s dream world, a golden statue of a young girl wakes up. Once Zoe realizes who she is and why she’s there, she embarks on the perilous mission to get Emmy out of the labrynth-like castle she’s stuck deep within the crevices of her mind. In the real world, Emmy’s left to deal with the psychological trauma of losing loved ones too soon, and with her inability to make the American Dream materialize. So she turns inward, to the fantastical world she’s built for herself to hide from her grief. However, the home she’s created is holding her captive, and she can’t seem to get out of her own head. So, she dreams up some fantastical sidekicks to get her out, who guide her as she contemplates the purpose of existance, of God, love, the American Dream, and the meaning of grief.
Q: Do you have a new book coming out soon? Tell us about it.
A: I’m currently promoting my poetry collection, but my novel is in the works!
This is my debut poetry collection and my first self-published work. I first published in April, 2018. Although the book only has a few reviews so far, it's rated a 4.5 on Amazon and 4.0 on Goodreads. It's available via eBook on Amazon, iBooks, barnesandnoble.com, Bookshout, Kobo, and Lulu for $3.99.
Q: How can we find you? Do you have a web page, FaceBook page or any buy links?
A: The best place to find me is on Instagram! http://www.instagram.com/emmy_speaks
You can also connect with me on my Amazon & Goodreads author pages: http://www.amazon.com/author/ehristova and https://www.goodreads.com/ehristova
You can also keep up with my work and publicity on my website: http://www.ehristova.com
These are also the links to my book:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-day-my-kisses-tasted-like-disorder-emmanuella-hristova/1128549978?ean=9780578203942
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-day-my-kisses-tasted-like-disorder
https://bookshout.com/ebooks/the-day-my-kisses-tasted-like-disorder
http://www.lulu.com/shop/emmanuella-hristova/the-day-my-kisses-tasted-like-disorder/ebook/product-23763003.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40772784-the-day-my-kisses-tasted-like-disorder
Blurb:
The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder is a collection of poems that explores a tumultuous year of love, heartbreak, and all kinds of unimaginable loss. Emmanuella's debut poetry book documents the birth and death of a relationship, and the death of her sister. Each poem is an emotional time-stamp that plunges the reader into the depths of the author’s feelings as they burgeon and wane. The book reads like a diary and chronicles the boundaries of the things that we all feel: passion, heartache, and pain that gives way to hope.
Extract:
The preface.
When the end was the beginning, and
the beginning was the end.
For Dora; I wish you were here.
June 23rd
In the depth of
winter, the flowers do not
bloom, no fruits
appear, the leaves
fall off, and the tree looks
dead, but deep in the
darkness underneath,
the roots grow
and grow
and
grow.
The beginning.
I guess I should thank you,
because you turned me into a poet.
I knew I loved you
the moment I saw you
the second time I came to
visit you in The City and you
were wearing a cerulean button-down
that matched your eyes and you
had just shaved your beard and
I wanted to kiss you, but
not like a nervous first kiss or
a slobbery wet one; but rather,
the kind of peck lovers give to one another
after being together for years and
what they’re passing between their lips
is time.
September 21st
upon telling you
The air is cold on the rooftop,
running across my bare shouldersas I tell you how I feel about you.
My arm presses against yours;
yours doesn’t move. I use it
for support. Our bodies pressed
against the cool, gritty concrete
of the wall that keeps us from falling to
our deaths down below.
Your eyes wax, deep and
limpid like
pools of ocean water
that I see into, staring back at me,
as if you’re
seeing me for the first time.
I see the fear in your face,
breath clutched
between your lips like a
piece of ice
stuck in your throat.
You’re afraid to exhale. Oh shit, oh shit,
oh shit, say your eyes.
No shit.
upon telling me
I am sitting in a middle school
classroom at lunchtime when youtell me you want to kiss me. My
breath stops in my throat. Instantly,
my heart beats faster and faster
like an unhinged train racing down
its tracks. I was hungry before,
I’m not hungry anymore. A heat
rises from the depths of my soul,
steaming the surface of my cheeks,
pouring out over the tops of my breasts,
and spilling out in between my thighs.
I flush. My flesh heats up, unable
to contain the fireworks exploding on
the inside of my heart.
He wants to kiss me.
And these explosions
going off inside me I imagine will be
bolder, brighter, and more beautiful
when you finally do.
A reminder to the reader ~ before you leave be sure to take a look at the
Funny/Stupid and Interesting Tabs
Come back and visit again.
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