Maria Kuman as a writer

I was born in the country of Bulgaria. I was six years old when I announced that I would be writing books, but it would be at the end of my life when I would have the wisdom. What I understood about wisdom being 6 years old? This was the answer I was giving to the question what I would do when I grow up. So, I always knew I would be writing. I started writing poetry since I learned how to write. At the final exam in high school, I got an award for the best literature work in the nation and my literature teacher was very proud that one of her students earned the national award. She told me that I definitely have a talent for writing.

When my literature teacher learned that I enrolled in major specialty physics and minor mathematics, she was very upset that I would bury my bright writing talent. I told her that if I have the talent it would show up regardless what I study and it did. My PhD degree was from the University of Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was on the material of the Russian Cosmic Station, which is now International Cosmic Station. I am one of the few who know what it was made of. It was kept secret for 40 years.

I already had my PhD degrees in Physics and Mathematics when I wrote my first funny story for a humoristic journal. The editor told me to leave the manuscript and pass by the next day for an answer. When I appeared at his door the next day, he came from behind his desk to the middle of the room to meet me and shake my hand.

"Congratulations!" he said. "This is the best work I've read for years. It goes in print tomorrow because I took down a material that was planned and put your work instead. And I gave you the highest payment possible - $1 per word - because the funny story is excellent. Come on Friday to get your money and please bring more funny stories."

Instead of bringing more funny stories to the exalted editor of the humoristic journal, I wrote a popular science article and brought it to the editor of popular science journal for young people. He accepted the manuscript and told me to come for an answer after a week. When I appeared at his door a week later, he said: "The article is so well written that a word cannot be crossed or added without destroying the harmony of the text. Excellent work, it will be published as it is. Bring more articles like this one."

Instead of bringing another article to the same editor, I brought an article to another editor of popular science journal and got praising from him for my work and invitation to bring more articles like this. This was the start of my writing career. So, I don't know what it is to knock on the doors of editors and be rejected. Maybe, I indeed have a writing talent as my teacher said. When I met her, she said she was very glad I started writing and she loved my articles.

I was invited to write a scenario for popular science movie and I did. I also wrote a lot of articles for the Sunday newspaper Orbit and became friend with the vice-editor, who was handling the health column. I learned from her how to choose catchy titles. However, at the top of my writing carrier, I fell in love with a German who was American citizen, married him, and moved to live in the US.

In the US, I needed to start from the very beginning. I wrote an article for the local Knoxville newspaper about the fertilized water we drink in Tennessee, but I was surprised to hear that they didn't accept articles from freelance writers; they have staff writers to write about this. Where is the freedom of speech? I asked myself. I wrote popular science papers, sent them to: Popular Science, National Geographic, etc. journals and got the same answers. They offered me to share my ideas so that their writers can write about them. My answer was: "No! Thanks!" because being a scientist sometimes it took me years of hard work to find written proves that my ideas were right.

What to do? To quit writing was out of question. So I started looking for ways around? And I found a way around. I started publishing articles in Canada in magazine Alive; I published a series of articles there, which were a great success. Then I lost my part-time teaching job at the University because of budget cuts. After sending 1,200 job applications, getting 280 negative answers, and a few interviews that didn't bring me a job, I decided that probably it is God's will to start writing the books I was planning to write after I retire.

This made me a full time book writer. I started writing in 1993 and 22 years later I am still writing. I have written 26 books - 12 of them are books on health and happiness. I have also written a textbook Quantum Biophysics for my graduate students when teaching at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Now I am going to tell you how and why I became a self-publishing writer. I wrote a book Modern Aspects of Ancient Acupuncture and I sent it for publishing to Paradigm Press. The publisher called me and said that he loves the book - this is the first and only book that explains how acupuncture works. He speaks as a person, who has published 50 books on acupuncture, enough to really appreciate a good one like this.

However, he said, he cannot publish the book because I am way ahead of my time and this creates a problem. It will take many years until America will be ready to embrace and appreciate my book. He said: "Before I would publish a book like yours and later I would be proud that I was able to see the future of this book. Now I cannot do this because President H. W. Bush signed a law that if I don't sell the book I published the first year, I need to pay tax on the books I didn't sell. Since all publishers are in the same situation, my advice to you is - start self-publishing."

Since I am ahead of my time not only with the acupuncture book, but also with all other books I have written, I needed to start self-publishing. Starting my own self-publishing was my second way around the obstacles (the first was publishing articles in Canada). I named my self-publishing company Health and Happiness Books because most of my books were about health and happiness.

All my books reflect my original and scientific way of thinking. If I don't have something new and original to offer, I don't write a book. And the statements in my books are not hypothetical; they are science based because I am a scientist. Even my science-fiction books are written after profound literature search. Thus, it turned out that it is great to be a scientist and writer at the same time. I am joking that the whole my life I have been scientist among the writers and writer among the scientists.

Thus, I was born and educated in Europe: I hold Ph. D. degrees in science and math and a degree in Medical Biophysics from Europe. I have extended experience in teaching and popularizing science, which helps me present even complicated things in a manner simple to understand.

The fact that I can read and understand more than 12 languages allowed me to read the ancient texts and the web pages of many nations on ancient history in their original native language. This gave birth to the three historic books I have written. My knowledge of ancient Chinese and Hindu texts helped me integrate the ancient wisdom and the modern science in a unique way. This united ancient wisdom and modern science can be seen as a red thread in all my books.

To see my Curriculum Vitae, a PDF file, click here. (Adobe Reader or similar PDF reader like FoxitReader is required.)

Professor Kuman also writes under the pen-name, Mary Wise.

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