It is in the nature of every living thing to try and evolve. And ShadowDance is as much a living thing as any member of its team. Seven and a half years ago, when the magazine was first created, its purpose was simple - to review whatever the SD authors felt like writing about. As time passed and the team grew, we defined a new agenda - to be always up to date and to cover everything in the SFF field as far as Bulgaria is concerned.
Yet, as is often the case, people grow up and their interests change. And by this I don't mean we've stopped caring about the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. Exactly the opposite. Only we came to realize how utterly wrong the way books are published in BG is. We're a small country and as such, we don't have publishing houses comparable with those in America or the UK. What's worse, things always seem to get done the opposite of right here.
Whatever the reasons, Bulgarians are denied not only 8/10 of the best books currently published in the West, but also more than half of the great SFF classics. There are amazing authors that are practically unknown here, either because they've been published at the wrong time, with the wrong title or with an awful translation, or simply because they haven't been published at all.
So we defined a new Purpose, one deserving of a capital letter. We decided to promote the Happening World to Bulgarian audience. These days our Profile section is almost exclusively dedicated to unknown or less known authors. We have an Untranslated section where we review either new or older books that haven't yet been published in BG. Also, our Evergreen section has been redirected into reviewing world-renouned classics that - even though they've been around in our country - have never recieved the attention they deserve.
Well, that's us in a nutshell. Pretentious buggers one and all, but buggers with an ideal. We want publishers to know what we think, because - impertinent as it sounds - it's what the intelligent reader thinks. And guess what - some people have finally started listening...
Yet, as is often the case, people grow up and their interests change. And by this I don't mean we've stopped caring about the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. Exactly the opposite. Only we came to realize how utterly wrong the way books are published in BG is. We're a small country and as such, we don't have publishing houses comparable with those in America or the UK. What's worse, things always seem to get done the opposite of right here.
Whatever the reasons, Bulgarians are denied not only 8/10 of the best books currently published in the West, but also more than half of the great SFF classics. There are amazing authors that are practically unknown here, either because they've been published at the wrong time, with the wrong title or with an awful translation, or simply because they haven't been published at all.
So we defined a new Purpose, one deserving of a capital letter. We decided to promote the Happening World to Bulgarian audience. These days our Profile section is almost exclusively dedicated to unknown or less known authors. We have an Untranslated section where we review either new or older books that haven't yet been published in BG. Also, our Evergreen section has been redirected into reviewing world-renouned classics that - even though they've been around in our country - have never recieved the attention they deserve.
Well, that's us in a nutshell. Pretentious buggers one and all, but buggers with an ideal. We want publishers to know what we think, because - impertinent as it sounds - it's what the intelligent reader thinks. And guess what - some people have finally started listening...
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