Pretty in Paper

My name is Ivana. Aproximately every fifth girl is called Ivana in Croatia  (English equivalent is Joana). I'm 24, I live in Croatia, study German and English majoring in translation. I'm a single mom to a little boy of four.
I obviously enjoy reading and writing. I learned to read with four. My first literature were political newspapers and Mickey Mouse magazines. Until high school, I used to read up to five books a week. My favorites of that time were Enid Blyton (The Famous Five series), Ann Bryant (Cafe Club series) and R. L. Stine. In high school, we had a terrible professor and an even worse literature program and my library visits became rare. I rediscovered my passion on college first.

I guess I was always writing something-there is a bunch of my old diaries with snippets of some never finished stories and corny love poems. My mom teases me that it was just a matter of time when the writer in me would show up--my dad is writing lots of poetry and song lyrics and mom used to write short stories when she was younger. I'm lucky to be raised in a family where literature was always highly appreciated, and where shelves gave way under the weight of books.

About two years ago, I took it more seriously and wrote a full-length novel. When I finished this one, I realized it was terrible-and started another one. It's still terrible, but I'm learning. Maybe one day I manage to write a good novel. You have to kiss a lot of toads before you find the prince.

I hope to finish college in due time and become a translator of literary texts. I love the world of publishing and hope to make it my career one day.

As for other things--I enjoy all genres of rock music, my favorite drink is lemonade, my favorite snack potato chips with pepper seasoning. I don't like chocolate (I hear you gasp). I love cooking and housework. I'm a complete coffee addict. It's sick how much coffee I drink. That's probably the reason why I never sleep more than five hours a day. My greatest fears and joys concern my son. My favorite place to read is my bed, when my son curls up next to me and falls asleep. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with the Roswell TV series. I decided to study English and visit Roswell one day. Still hoping for that second part to happen. Since we lived in Germany for the first few years of my life, that language became a natural second choice to study. One of the very rare movies that made me cry was Tuck Everlasting with Alexis Bledel. I still love it, only now I cry more often--even on Finding Nemo and Kung Fu Panda (that's my favorite cartoon).

I'll just take Mr Coelho by his words and say that my motto is "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." And add-if you're passionate about something and are willing to invest time and blood to make it happen, it'll come faster than you think.