A girl is in the bus and starts reading a book with a challenging photograph of a woman on the cover. A middle-aged man sitting beside her looks at the cover photo but has never heard of the title though it is classics in literature. He tends to think negatively of young people though reading books is by rule thought of highly. This is roughly the episode that Eddie Rumyan recounts in his short story In the Bus which he presented at this year's Sofia Breathes Festival. The festival had invited young writers with original ideas whom publishers will most probably notice and promote in the foreseeable future. The format of cross-reading - i.e. mutual presentation of own works - gave the chance to writers and listeners/readers to share their impressions. To Eddie Rumyan every meeting with readers is priceless. He says that today many people define themselves as writers. Anybody running an own blog believes he or she is a writing success, Eddie remarks. Therefore the writer who is member of the circle Writers Without Books is proud of the numerous audience of casual guests who listened with interest to his story.

„The audience was mixed in terms of age: there were older people because the story made reference to the times of the communist regime (prior to 1989) and I even mentioned names that young people are not aware of. I have included a female character from a novel by Charles Bukowski, Lydia. She is a fictitious character but there is a real man in the story too - translator Bogdan Rusev who has translated the Bukowski novel. The third man is the deceased secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party Yordan Yotov. The experiment is successful - for the first time, I have created a mix of fictitious and real characters. My concept from the very start was to write something grotesque and absurd as a portrayal of society and of the time.”  

The Top 10 of writers who have influenced Eddie Rumyan includes Friedrich Durrenmatt. “Before starting a career in writing, you must have read a lot yourself.” He believes that reading is a great factor for the development of the personality.

„People should read in the first place. Well, there is nothing wrong in writing but as a friend of mine once said, writers have become more numerous than readers. The truth is that reading gives readers access to various points of view. Also, it cultivates taste for literature. If you do not like a book this is not because it is not good, but maybe because the writer's ideas and emotions are not appealing to you. I think that we should read books that we like, not books that others read or ones in the vogue. In reading today there is a touch of snobbishness. I believe that reading should be a sincere activity - one cannot resort to it as only a way to build a good image. Parents and the school are responsible for creating interest in reading with kids. On the other hand, writing goes hand in hand with reading - everybody has tried it when writing essays in school.”

Eddie Rumyan contends that there is no school to teach one how to become a writer. Every external intervention is false and easily detected by readers. Writing is the result of a creative charge that the writer wants to share with the reading public, he argues in conclusion.  

English Daniela Konstantinova