Okay, I know you all are probably really sick of hearing about my Bulgaria fetish, but honestly, it goes beyond that…I think, maybe, somewhere deep inside, I am a Bulgarian.
Zack, Silvia and Sara are three of my favorite people in the world. I met them in Sozopol this summer, and have been wanting to visit them in San Diego…then I had to go there, suddenly, to do some research on a ghostwriting”project…I know that is vauge, but it is all I can say about it right now, except that I’m very passionate about it and know it will sell, be published, and inspire a lot of people.
When I went to San Diego, though, I was having a shitty couple of days. And they wouldn’t let me sulk and be a bitch… they just smiled and opened their home to me and made me feel a million times better…and I had to write about them.
Okay, I know they will hate these pictures, because it is first thing in the morning and Silvia is making a face and Sara isn’t wearing makeup (but they are both gorgeous anyway, so there). But this is what I love about them…sitting out on the porch as a family, drinking Turkish coffee, making fun of their crackhead neighbors, talking about art and writing, mocking the dog in the condo across the way, who hates his owners so much he sneaks out on the roof and paces, his paws tapping against the shingles (they imitated the clicking his paws made and he came right through the window to see what was going on…), and basically being a family…a family that gets on each other’s nerves and sometimes loses their temper, but who, above all, love each other.
Oh, and did I mention the are all three ridiculously talented?
Silvia just made the most tasteless joke ever...and she thinks it is hilarious! I swear to god, bulgarians have the sickest sense of humor.
Silvia and Zack have been married for twenty-something years…they look so young, it is hard to imagine…they left Bulgaria right at the height of Communism (they’ve seen/participated in some revolutionary moments) and are now American citizens (how they got out is a great story – they won a lottery – but I’ll let Zack write that one some day). Silvia just got her MFA in Painting – she’s brilliant. Her paintings are stacked against the wall of their apartment, and they take your breath away…both in a good and horrifying way (that is meant as a compliment, and she knows it). She has had paintings sold, hung in galleries, featured in shows…
Check out her website here:
SILVIAZack is a rockstar writer. Seriously. His book 18% Gray is a bestseller in Bulgaria, nominated for Best Book of the Year, on the BBC’s list of Bulgaria’s top one hundred favorite books…and he is regularly recognized by Bulgarians living in America who get excited just to meet him…his writing is raw and exciting and unlike anything you’ve ever read…yet he hasn’t been translated and published in America (you’ve heard me bitch about this before – virtually NONE of the Bulgarians have), which fucking sucks, ’cause America needs to read more fearless voices like his…which is why we spent six hour working on a translated excerpt of his novel, and I’m gonna try my damnedest to get it published in America…
This is when we were finally on the last page of Zack’s translation…it had been HOURS, and it was intense, and we were really close at this point, and we were so excited we broke out the wine:
Then we finished, and we were so happy Zack decided we should commemorate the experience by becoming Burn Brothers (some shit he made up)…look how evil his face is….
of course i couldn’t go through with it (pussy) , but Zack is still my Burn Brother no matter what.
Here’s the thing…Zack and Silvia are fucking retardedly talented, extremely accomplished in their fields, and they are still living this poor bohemian life… Zack works as a bartender, and Silvia is looking for teaching jobs…but, unlike many people in their situation, they are not bitter. They are happy to be alive and together, to have amazing friends, to keep doing their work… they never stop doing their art, or being warm and kind, or loving life even though it can be a struggle…
Anyway, more on them later. I won’t put Zack’s writing here, because I wanna find him an agent… And if anyone has connections to American publishers who would like first dibs on some fucking enthralling/captivating/disturbing/brilliant Bulgarian writing, contact me…’cause Zack is gonna explode on the American literary scene one way or another.
But enough about the parents…’cause I GOTTA talk about Sara.
The moment I met her I though: damn, this girl looks like a model. And then I got to know her. Yeah, she’s gorgeous AND brilliant…. she’s just what you’d expect of Zack and Silvia’s offspring…funny, intelligent, gifted, confident but unpretentions. And of course, she can write.
And I’m not just saying this because she gave me one of the best compliments of my life…though she did do that, and it meant a lot to me.
Hardly anyone has read my novel at this point, and Zack and Silvia have. I didn’t know Sara had too, but when I met her I told her I liked her shirt, and she said she “cut out the neck because Laurilee did.” Laurilee is one of the characters in my novel…who is also sixteen, and she sees a rerun of Flashdance and cuts all the necks out of her t-shirts…well, Sara DID THIS. And she liked the book… and that is better than any good review from any prestigious literary critic I could ever get. And, by the way, I stole a scarf she had made by tying all the abandoned shirt collars together, and I will treasure it for as long as I live and wear it to every damn reading I give for the rest of my life…
But, honestly, I’m not just saying she’s awesome because she liked my novel…this girl is amazing. We had the best time. She is so smart and funny. I made her watch Pretty in Pink, and, just like me at sixteen, she wondered why Andie didn’t pick Duckie. We also had a crazy dance party:
I had the best time. And everywhere we went, the teenage boys swooned all over her…and they were SO OBVIOUS…following us around in CVS, getting all nervous and figety, and even the perverts who are WAY TOO OLD for her (this guy was in L-U-V, and so was this clerk who found some crazy reason to come up to the register and oogle Sara as well):
Anyway, I was never the pretty girl in high school…and spending time with Sara, and seeing how fiercely herself and sharp she is, how her beauty is just something she was born with, and how she puts real value on the things she cares about – her friends, her writing, learning as much as she can…well, it gave me hope for the future of America. And I forgive her for making me feel ancient by telling me that
her classmates are into this really cool, retro, old school singer named Kurt Cobain…I had a blast with her. Sometime you really need to hang with a sixteen year-0ld…but only a genius one like Sara. And PS, I know she’ll read this and it will embarrass her to death, but too bad missy.
MORAL: If you ever have a shitty week, just go hang out with Zack, Silvia and Sara, and all will be shiny, bright pennies and chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles again!!!!
The next blog will be a piece of Sara’s writing that I forced her to give me. She’s only sixteen, and she’s that good. I know. Jealousy-inducing, huh?
This is the most heartfelt and wonderful thing anyone has ever written for me (for us), not that I would expect anything less from you. You’re amazing like that. I would write a blog about you. If I had a blog, I would. I swear to god, I would!
P.S. I’ll make you another scarf. Maybe a somewhat more color-coordinated one. (:
Oh my gosh, I LOVE you guys, are you kidding? You are the bestest people in the whole wide world!!!! I miss you!!!!