As you probably already understood, "Bulgarian Illustration" can now proudly call itself a "publisher" because we had the incredible opportunity to partner with the wonderful Elena Pavlova and... and to make our first children's book... expect more, but everything in its own order.
And here is how our first publishing offspring was born.
Elena Pavlova tells…
Backstory: Rescuing and returning animals to their natural habitat has been a passion of mine since I was very young – I must have been around eight years old when I read “Elsa the Lioness” by Joy Adamson and started looking for more books on the subject. I grew up with Gerald Durrell, Gavin Maxwell, Bernhard Gzymek… and my interest in the animals around us never faded when I became a big and serious adult. The problem with growing up, however, is that you can’t follow all your dreams. You have to choose. And I chose writing, although it would probably have been many times more interesting to become like Jane Goodall, who knows.
The idea: Although I am not involved in rescue, I try to help as much as I can. I follow with interest the work of organizations and centers in Bulgaria and abroad. I donate when I can. I volunteer when I have time, for example by translating materials into English. That is how I came up with the idea that there is a need for a book that tells the stories of rescued animals not only for "grown-ups" like me, but also for children. A book with fairy tales and lots and lots of pictures, all dedicated to saving the wild animals around us and returning them to freedom.
The stories: The birth of the book was supported by the "Socially Active Arts" program of the National Culture Fund. The tales in the book were born in a few months - all, except one, are based on real cases, related to real patients in the "animal hospital" and their rescuers, doctors, rehabilitators. Even Petulia the goose is real!
How to write a book: Word by word and sentence by sentence. The important thing is to start and not give up… until you finish. But besides the author, other important people are also involved in the writing process: consultants who help to ensure that the stories do not contain stupid mistakes in facts or descriptions; an editor who cleans up the errors in the text itself; a proofreader who checks for spelling errors and that the periods and commas are in place… It is not an easy job and does not end with writing “The End” after the last word.
Many of the initially planned stories did not make it into this book, simply because it turned out that there would not be room for everyone. That is why… there will be a second book of tales about wild animals from the city!
What comes after writing: After the work on the text is finished, it is time for pagination – the arrangement of illustrations and text into a real book. Then it goes to the printer and is “dressed” in paper pages. And finally it reaches the most important people: the readers who will read it. Hurray and you know – I am very glad that our book has found you!
In this case, the reader – you! – has another important task, because the proceeds from the book will be donated to the rescue and rehabilitation of wild animals that have suffered in our, human, artificial urban environment. Thank you and enjoy reading!
You can order the book from our online store – https://shop.bulgarian-illustration.com/
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