Stanislav Balakchiev

Hello everyone! My name is Stanislav Balakchiev and I am a 16 year old college student, living in London, UK. Currently, I am deep in work, trying to excell at my IB course. So far it is going really well. My plans are to get a score of at least 38/40 so I can go to University and do a Joined Honors degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies (or perhaps English).

As you might guess, I have not been writing for a long time. In fact, I only started writing my first (and only) novel about a year and a half ago. Due to my many exams and stressful schedule in high school I was not able to spend much time on my novel, therefore leaving it at a standstill for a while. Recently I came back to it with a passion.

As for my background, I was originally born in Bulgaria and the only child of a humble family. My shared passion for Fiction and Fantasy in perticular had brought me and my grandfather together. He was always a great enthusiast for these genres of literature and introduced me to some of the greatest works in his library. My personal favorites were The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien (of course) and Wizard's First Rule, by Terry Goodkind (although I never managed to finish it; I hope one day I do!). Most recently I have read, can you guess, Harry Potter by Ms. Joanne Rowling and Geomancer by Ian Irvine. You might be able to see that I really do enjoy reading fantasy, although this is not a full list of the books I've read. These, however, have been the bellows which ignited the fire of writing within me.

I would love to share more about me, but I am constrained in the space I can take. To wrap up, I want to express my greatest gratitude and warm feelings for the organizers of this contest, for they give me a chance which I have never had before. I will do to the best of my ability and limited time (as I have a lot of work to do for the serious IB exam board people) to produce something interesting, exciting and gripping for all of you to read.

Yours in pen and keyboard,

Stanislav Balakchiev