About Ivanka & This Website
“It's not the load that breaks you down;
it's the way you carry it.”
Leena Horne
Dear friends, readers, and occasional visitors who landed on this page by error.
Allow me to start by saying thank you for visiting my author and literary lifestyle website, whatever your motivation for getting here may have been.
Get to know Ivanka
About the Author
Ivanka is a Bulgarian-American author, certified life coach, content creator and accounting manager. She loves exploring the world and finding little known, inspiring places to write about. Ivanka has called three countries home and has visited many more.
She now lives and works in the United States and aims to make a difference the best way she knows how - by making the world a better place one reader and one book at a time.
Ivanka writes both fiction and non-fiction for children and adults exploring themes on personal growth, diversity, acceptance, family, nature and ancient history among other things. She is a mother and a wife, with a multi-national, multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-religious lovely blended family, she wouldn't trade for the world.
Ivanka is an International Business and Middle East and Africa area studies graduate from San Jose State University, California. She is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, Mystery Writers of America, the Lone Star Writer’s Club of Texas, the Women's National Book Association, and a travel journalist with the International Travel Writers Alliance. She is also a Literacy Mentor with the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation. Her debut picture book was featured in Arab News article: Little Reades: Finding the Right Book for Your Child. The book is available for purchase both online and at select bookstores in over 15 countries around the world.
A former children's gymnastics coach, she is now a certified Zumba Instructor, a Life Coach, a foodie, and an avid traveler with love for nature, cooking, wildlife, horses and photography. Her Books, Travel & Lifestyle website aims to inspire, empower and uplift readers urging them to live life to the fullest, explore the world, as well as embrace and celebrate being true to themselves.
Hobbies & Background
Books
I don't remember the first book I read, nor the day I fell in love with the written word, but I don't remember a time when books were not a part of my life either. I could spend hours in libraries, modern and ancient alike, as well as bookstores. I love organizing my excessive book collection, including my first editions, some of which signed and treat all my books like the treasures they are.
The featured photo is from my visit to the ancient city of Ephesus, where I got to see the Library of Celsus. Talk about a dream come true for a book nerd like me to walk the rooms of one of the only remaining examples of the great libraries of the ancient world, third largest in Greco-Roman times, behind only the libraries of Alexandria and Pergamum. So it's no surprise why I would have a literary blog and write myself. Books are a part of who I am.
Travel
Born in Bulgaria, just 20 minutes from the border with Greece, I have been fortunate to travel the world. I often visit Italy, where my parents live, as well as Bulgaria, the UK, Eastern Europe and Mexico to see family and friends, but love seeing new places and learning about other cultures.
All but one of my great grandparents were born in what is today northern Greece and while I am ethnic Bulgarian, my family and I love visiting both the Greek mainland and islands, as well as Turkey. Since I am passionate about history and archeology the Balkan, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries are some of my favorites to visit, but I can't wait to explore Africa, Australia and Asia.
High on my wish list are Morocco, Egypt, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Kenya, India and Peru to name a few.
Horses
Nature & Wildlife
Find on North Texas SCBWI
