At the university, my sentiments for the events from the First and the Second Bulgarian Kingdom developed into a partiality for the cultural succession of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages in our lands. Therefore, I was tracking out with extreme interest the scientific publications on the history of the Thracians and the early history of the Bulgarians. Reading the studies of professor Alexander Foll, professor Ivan Marzov, senior research associate professor Dimitar Ovcharov, PhD, Vidka Nikolova, PhD, Tsvetan Stepanov, PhD, Veselina Vachkova, PhD, brought me extreme pleasure through the years. Their scientific conclusions are significant to my attempt to re-create in fiction khan Omortag’s times.  

The historical sources from the time of khan Krum and khan Omortag’s reign give no information about the women in the rulers’ families. It is my conviction that the lack of information does not come to show that the Bulgarian princesses were denied political power. The history of many ancient societies is a proof that women have played an important behind-the-scene part not only in the ruler’s private life, but in the county’s life as well. My opinion is that the situation in Danube Bulgaria was a vivid example of the above.

           No books depicting this specific period of our past in fiction have been published in Bulgaria so far.The name of the female protagonist – Aspata – is fictitious. There is no evidence for its existence so far. The historical events, in which I entangle Aspata’s destiny, however, are real; as real as the fact that khan Omortag was the third great ruler in Europe, an equal to the ruler of The Byzantine Empire and the Emperor of the Franks. 

            The protagonist in the novel is the Bulgarian princess Aspata – a trustworthy advisor of the khan in his governing of the country.

            The book will take you to the remote ninth century, in the capital of Bulgaria at the Danube – Pliska, near the Great Sanctuary of Tangra, at the foot of the Madara horseman, as well as to the ancient city of Perperikon, so that you can experience the way of life of a country, which even the Great Byzantine Empire considered an equal.

I kept writing this book with the strongest conviction that it was worth sharing my pride with the reader – that we, the Bulgarians, are the descendants of glorious ancestors.

I was also writing with the hope that the story I have created would bestow people with beauty and love!