Ellis Shuman's Blog, page 30

The Burgas Affair - But What Are They Eating?

When Detective Boyko Stanchev of the Bulgarian State Agency for National Security sits down for lunch at a roadside cafe, he is furious that his partner is an inexperienced data analyst from Israel. Ayala Navon has just flown in from Tel Aviv to join the investigation of a bombing at Burgas Airport which took the lives of five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver. Ayala has never previously been to Bulgaria and Boyko feels she will interfere with his work on the case.

The waiter brings their lunch.

There is the ubiquitous shopska salad—finely cut wedges of tomatoes and cucumbers topped with grated salty white cheese. Next to it were small ceramic bowls of potato salad and the so-called Russian salad, which was nearly the same, except for the addition of carrots and peas. A colorful tomato salad and one made from peppers were also quite appealing; they were served on traditional Bulgarian plates. Off to the side was a bowl of yogurt spotted with drops of green.

“Snezhanka salata,” Ayala said, dipping in her spoon to help herself.

“How do you know its name?”

“It’s because,” she began, but then she shrugged, smiling to herself. She recalled the occasions during her childhood when her father had asked to include Bulgarian dishes in their meals, a request stated so frequently that her mother had given in to his tastes, despite their being so different from the cuisine with which she was familiar.

“Because?” he asked, waiting for an answer.

“I just know the name.”

Read the rest of this article on But What Are They Eating?

The Burgas Affair review - Me and My Books

Ellis has used real life events of the bombing of a bus at Burgas Airport in Bulgaria as the basis of his story.  He has used his unique knowledge and experiences to add extra dimensions to his story.

Overall a book that starts very dramatically, that then twists and turns its way through several themes.  It was a very insightful read with good attention to details, and a lot of little added extras that the author has used to create a dramatic, exciting edge of the seat read.  A real page turner from start to finish and one I would definitely recommend.  Ideal for readers of crime, thriller with good amount of action, adventure.  I also want to mention how after reading this book, that the cover is a perfect accompaniment.

Read the full review at Me and My Books

The Burgas Bombing: Where Fact and Fiction Meet

Two alleged Hezbollah terrorists went on trial in absentia in Sofia, Bulgaria, this week, for their role in the Burgas Airport bus bombing in July 2012, an attack in which five Israeli tourists and their Bulgarian bus driver were killed.


Readers of my novel The Burgas Affair are well aware of the details of the bombing. The book is a fictional account of a joint Bulgarian-Israel investigation launched in the wake of the terror attack.


“Lax security at the airport at that time facilitated the bomber," Trenchev said.

The Burgas Affair walks a thin line between fact and fiction. The novel is based on the very real bombing at Burgas Airport, but the names of the victim and the investigation itself are totally fictional. Some of the leads investigated in the novel, however, are based on information that was reported in the media at the time. The names of the suspected terrorists in the book are the same as those of the men now on trial. Other than that, any similarities to the actual events is purely coincidental.

More information about the trial is reported in The Times of Israel, The Sofia Globe, The Jerusalem Post, and the Bulgarian News Agency.

Photo credit: Bulgarian Interior Ministry

Why I Will Never Again Promote My Book with a Facebook Boost or Ad

If I was to say to you, in the very first sentence of this article, that I just published a new novel and you can click here to buy it, your response would probably be one word: “Congratulations!” And that’s the only result I would get from my marketing pitch.

It’s quite an accomplishment to write, edit, format, and self-publish a book. It’s an even more daunting task to market a book.

If you’re expecting me to tell you the secret to marketing a book, you’re in for a disappointment. I have not yet been successful in my marketing endeavors, unfortunately, but I’m still working on it!

What I can tell you is that when I tried to promote my novel on Facebook, it was not successful. That was an experiment which I will not repeat and here’s why.



I had been reluctant to set up an author page on Facebook. I already had many “friends”, including people from all over the world who I didn’t even know. These virtual friends included like-minded writers who were occasionally clicking through to read my blog articles. Why did I need to do double work and post on a page as well?

With minimal effort, I set up my author page in July 2015. I included an online store with links to my books. I began posting articles while the number of people who liked the page increased at a steady pace.

With over 1,800 people now liking my page, I figured that I already had an audience to see, and read my posts. But this is not how Facebook works. No matter how many fans you have, hardly any of them will see your posts. My regular posts are seen on an average by 60-70 people. And just because they “see” the posts, that doesn’t mean that they actually read or engage with them.

The situation is actually getting worse! Facebook has made a change in the algorithm determining what people see in their News Feed. Facebook will give higher priority to "posts from friends and family and updates that spark conversation” and as a result, “pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease."

Boosting with no results

When I published my new novel, The Burgas Affair , in October 2017, I decided to try advertising on Facebook for the first time. I didn’t want to create an “ad” but rather test the waters by boosting my posts and the book’s Amazon description itself.

Boosting a post, I believed, would increase its reach substantially. Facebook informed me in the notifications I received on my page that for a small investment I could get my posts seen by thousands of users.

When I boosted my posts, I targeted an audience in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. I boosted my posts on a weekend when more people reportedly interact on Facebook. I narrowed down the audience to people who like reading detective novels, crime fiction, and thrillers. I chose both men and women, ages 30 to 60. This, I believed, is the audience most likely to read my novel.

In total, my boosted posts generated 2,873 impressions and brought 87 clicks to the book’s page on Amazon. There were no sales recorded on the days of the boosts, but that could be explained by a number of other factors totally unconnected to Facebook.

Maybe you’ve had better results

If you’ve had better success marketing on Facebook, congratulations! Perhaps you’ll tell me that I should have checked my page’s insights; that I should have timed my boosts to when my audience was online. That I could have improved the image, and the text, of my posts. In short, I should have spent more time mastering Facebook advertising. I don’t have the time for that.

I am not a social media expert, nor do I desire to be one. I am a writer, an author, someone who is devoting a small amount of time each day to marketing my books. I don’t think Facebook users visit Facebook in order to buy books. At least, not my books.

Luckily, my advertising ventures on Facebook were not expensive. I see this as a lesson learned, another step taken on my journey to market my book. I came, I tried, I did not succeed. On to something else, something hopefully more successful. Maybe I should stick to writing!

I Had Never Considered Writing about Bulgaria until…

At the end of 2008 I was summoned into my boss’s office. I worked in online marketing at a mid-level management position and I thought I was handling the work pretty well. My boss informed me that the position was being relocated from Israel, where I live, to Bulgaria.

In January 2009, I arrived in Sofia with my wife to start a two-year relocation of the job. I had never previously been to Bulgaria and I had never lived before in Europe. I was born in the United States and Israel has been my home since I was as a teenager. Living in Bulgaria would not only be an exciting challenge to my career, but also an adventure.

I found working at a desk in a Bulgarian office to be very similar to working at a desk in Tel Aviv. I eagerly looked forward to the weekends, when my wife and I set forth to explore the country which had become our temporary home.

Read the rest of the article on Donna's Book Blog.

10 Reasons to Visit Bulgaria in 2018

Bulgaria is not on the bucket list of most travellers and many would find it difficult to place the country on a map. This is a shame because Bulgaria is an amazing, underrated travel destination, one that is blessed with stunning natural beauty and an abundance of fascinating places to visit. Listed below are ten of the most compelling reasons to travel to Bulgaria this year.


Sofia. Many visitors start their exploration of Bulgaria in the country’s capital. Sofia has a very Eastern European ambience but everywhere there are signs of that it is quickly adapting to the modern era. Most of the main attractions are in the centre, where the Roman ruins of Serdika can be seen in the metro stations. It is hard to miss the gold-domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, built to honour Russia’s assistance to Bulgaria in its war of independence from the Ottomans in the 1870s.


Rila Monastery. The most popular tourist site in the entire country is located about an hour and half’s drive south from Sofia. In a serene mountain setting, the monastery is named for Ivan Rilski, Bulgaria’s patron saint who lived in a cave at the site. The main church is framed by black and white-striped pillars and its external walls are covered with Biblical-themed frescoes. The church’s interior is dark but welcoming for the many pilgrims who flock there to light candles.

Read the rest of the article on The Huffington Post.

The Burgas Affair - Review by E.L. Lindley

" The Burgas Affair is a very readable novel; Shuman is clearly a talented writer and engages the reader early on, conveying the horror and mystery surrounding the bombing. He weaves a complex story all the while exerting complete control over it. Boyko’s past and the investigation dance around each other until they collide in an explosive finale.

There is crime, thrills, a hint of romance and corruption to keep the reader enthralled.

"If you enjoy a story with lots going on then you’ll like this one. The action is relentless, spilling across Bulgaria and Israel to great effect."

Read the full review on lindleyreviews

Review of The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

When Alexandra Boyd arrives in Sofia to start her position as an English teacher, she doesn’t know what to expect of Bulgaria. The Eastern European country is as far away as she can possibly go from her home in the Appalachian Mountains, and from the tragic loss of her beloved brother.

Upon her arrival in the city, Alexandra is dropped off by mistake at a hotel where she goodheartedly helps an elderly couple into a taxi. When the vehicle drives off, Alexandra realizes that she has accidentally taken one of their bags.

Inside the bag is a small wooden box containing an urn with human ashes. Realizing that this box is undoubtedly sorely missed, Alexandra sets out to return it to the couple to whom it belongs. If only she can find them.

Like Alexandra, most readers of The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova (Ballantine Books, April 2017) will be visiting Bulgaria for the first time. The customs, the villages, the culture, and the history come to life in a country that surprises at every turn.


The Shadow Land is a page-turning adventure, a gripping tale told in eloquent language and with totally believable characters. It is much more than a travel tale of Alexandra’s journeys, for it is also an introduction to Bulgaria, to its painful past and its hope for the future.

Elizabeth Kostova is an American author best known for The Historian, the first debut novel to land at number one on The New York Times bestseller list in its first week of sales. She is co-founder of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, which provides competitive opportunities for Bulgarian writers and translators, as well as opportunities for native-English writers to travel to Bulgaria.

What Readers Are Saying about “The Burgas Affair”

Readers, book bloggers, and reviewers around the world are thrilled to be reading my crime thriller, The Burgas Affair . Here is what they are saying, in their own words. Have you gotten your copy yet?

“Beginning with an enigmatic prologue featuring an unnamed woman strapped into a ticking bomb-jacket, each scene is packed with suspense. Layers of intrigue build to a fever pitch when Ayala and Boyko meet their nemeses - and confront each other. When he isn't describing terrorism and crime, Shuman fills out the story with lush and complex Bulgarian and Israeli scenery and culture. In real life, the case has never been solved. I'll leave it to you readers to discover how Shuman handles the ending. Given his penchant for dramatic tension, don't expect a predictable conclusion.”
- Midwest Book Review

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“The Burgas Affair is a very readable novel; Shuman is clearly a talented writer and engages the reader early on, conveying the horror and mystery surrounding the bombing. He weaves a complex story all the while exerting complete control over it. Boyko’s past and the investigation dance around each other until they collide in an explosive finale. There is crime, thrills, a hint of romance and corruption to keep the reader enthralled. If you enjoy a story with lots going on then you’ll like this one. The action is relentless, spilling across Bulgaria and Israel to great effect.”
- Lindley Reviews


"It was a great read, interesting, informative especially about Israeli culture, and suspenseful.”
- The Aspiring Wordsmith

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“The Burgas Affair hit the ground running. Vivid descriptions in Bulgaria and Israel, deep, believable characters and meticulous research weaved together skillfully kept me reading Shuman's debut suspense novel.”
- Customer review, Amazon

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“A masterfully written fictional account that weaves personal tragedy into the intricacies of international police cooperation in a way that will grab and hold the reader’s attention throughout.”
- Customer review, Goodreads

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"This is a very engaging and thought-provoking read, a gripping thriller and a multi-layered read that I would highly recommend."
- Writer Christoph Fischer

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“The Burgas Affair is hard hitting, and heart pounding! It will have you on the edge of your seat! For those who enjoy gripping, crime thrillers, look no further!”
- Darque Dreamer Reads

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“What a great thriller! This book is based on terror attack in Bulgaria. I was on the edge of my seat and wanted to keep reading this book. I enjoyed the characters in this story and I felt my heart pounding with all the action in this book.”
- Customer review, Goodreads

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“This book is beautifully written, easily draws you in, and leaves you rushing to see how it ends.”
- Customer review, Amazon

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What do you have to say about The Burgas Affair? Get your copy now!

Don’t Read It until I Finish Writing It!

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I had just finished writing the first section of the first draft of my first novel and I was eager to have my wife read it. Who was better qualified than my wife to serve as my alpha reader?

My previous attempts at writing a novel had been overly autobiographical, my wife had stated in the past. In my new manuscript, I believed, I had created a totally fictional world, in a unique setting, and with three-dimensional characters dealing with unusual circumstances. My wife would be the best judge of this, I thought, as I waited for her reaction.

“I can’t read it on the computer,” she said.


My progress was interrupted when my wife gave me her opinion on the first section. She had suggestions for improvement. Some elements of the story were hard to follow, she told me, and on occasion, I was overly repetitious in my words and descriptions.

“I’ll correct the spelling mistakes and grammar errors in my second draft,” I promised.

I was encouraged when my wife said that she was looking forward to see what would happen next. This confirmed that the plot captured the reader’s attention!

I Continued to Write

My mind raced forward. My fingers typed as quickly as they could in efforts to keep pace. I was confident that my writing was good. But writing a book isn’t a task that is completed overnight.

Several weeks later I printed out the next 100 pages. But when I gave the manuscript to my wife, I was confronted with an unexpected reaction.

“Remind me what happened in the first part,” she said.

So much time had passed since she read the opening of the book that she had forgotten what it was all about. While I had been breathing the story every minute of every day, my faithful alpha reader’s journey had been on pause. How could I expect her to reconnect to the plot after an extended break?

My novel had four parts and it took me just over 14 months to complete the first draft. Each section was handed over to my wife to read and evaluate, and each time I had to reacquaint her with the story.

I still had many drafts ahead of me, as well as reviews by beta readers and the assistance of a professional freelance editor. But I learned my lesson. A manuscript should only be shared after you finish writing it. And even then, the manuscript is far from finished!

Do you agree? Do you share your writing before it is finished?


Originally published on Medium.
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