Barbora Knobova is a writer, relationship coach and expert in Delicious Life. A world traveler, she is one of those rare world citizens who live everywhere and nowhere. Barbora is a firm believer in female friendship, loyalty and bonding. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong, independent, smart, fearless women. Barbora has also written several self-improvement books and teaches women about the importance of self-love in relationships and life in general. Barbora speaks eight languages and has found her home away from home in New York, London and Milan. She is always on the move, accompanied by her beagle Brinkley, the nasty dog from Tales for Delicious Girls. You can visit her website at www.barboraknobova.com.
The Interview
Could you please tell us a little about your book?
Tales for Delicious Girls is a humorous, ironic book about men and women and about female friendship. It deals with dating and relationship mishaps and funny situations that actually happened, no matter how incredible it may seem. Its main purpose is to entertain but when you read it you realize the book also shows women that the relationship they have with themselves is much more important than their relationship with men and other people who surround them. It helps them love themselves more, appreciate and respect themselves.
Did something specific happen to prompt you to write this book?
I’m a relationship coach and I work only with women. Every day I see that no matter how strong we are, how educated we are, how great our career is, sometimes we just get lost in the complicated web of relationships. I wrote Tales for Delicious Girls because I would like every woman to see herself as the pillar of her own life, her best friend. I would like every woman to truly love herself. I hope that my book makes women laugh and also helps them deal with any personal and relationship issues they may have.
Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?
It’s simple: All the wonderful women I know, love and respect.
Who is your biggest supporter?
Definitely my mum. She’s my biggest fan. She has always supported me in all my endeavors.
Your biggest critic?
Definitely my mum. I appreciate her criticism because she’s right (most of the time). But she can be pretty harsh.
What cause are you most passionate about and why?
I actively support women in need, that’s the cause I’m really passionate about. I sponsor three little girls in India and I hope that thanks to my support they grow up to be educated, self-sufficient, independent women. I also support Women for Women International, an organization that helps women survivors of war. And as a member of Amnesty International I support SWAW – Stop Violence Against Women. In a few days I’m launching Delicious Path, an incredible personal development website for women that will support and encourage women to find and develop their inner strength and empower themselves. I’m a woman and I always look for new ways to work with and for women, to provide them with advice, help and guidance in various ways.
In the last year have you learned or improved on any skills?
Yes! I enjoy learning new skills, I’m a very restless person and I would hate to feel that I’m stagnating. I’ve become a better writer. I’m also learning the craft of copywriting which I find very exciting and interesting. I’ve taken up yoga. I’ve learned about new meditation techniques. I’ve learned to create and maintain my own websites (very useful!). I’ve become a better coach thanks to a series of amazing courses and workshops that I’ve attended. I’m more balanced, I know myself better. I’ve learned a lot about effective goal setting thanks to Jack Canfield and his seminars. I’m learning exciting new things about internet marketing thanks to Kathleen Gage and her VIP program. I’ve learned so much about book marketing from Dorothy Thompson, Kelly Wallace and Nikki Leigh. I’ve taken up Greek, my 9th language. I could go on and on. How much time do we have for this interview? 
Do you have any rituals you follow when finishing a piece of work?
Maybe not rituals, I prefer to call it a system. Last year I realized that if I wanted my work and my life to be really effective, I needed a system, a plan, and stick to it. I have weekly and monthly schedules and at the end of the day I plan the following day. Once you get into it and develop your own time-management system, you earn so much time and time is the most precious commodity. I’ve never had so much free time! I’ve learned to put my time above everything, to plan, prioritize and outsource. It’s invaluable and it’s changing my life every day.
Who has influenced you throughout your career as a writer?
My grandfather who was a writer and my parents. I was born into a family of book lovers. I learned to read and write at the age of four and I’ve been in love with books and writing ever since.
What is the most important thing in your life right now?
At this very moment it’s DeliciousPath.com, the personal development website that I’ve mentioned before. I love working on it and I want to make sure that it’s a place where women can gather and get valuable help, advice and guidance.
What are you currently working on?
I have just finished a new book, Delicious Girl’s Guide to Self-Love, which is on the way to Amazon.com, other online retailers and bookstores. It’s a guide to self-love and happiness that teaches women about the importance of self-love and helps them start loving themselves in only three weeks. In a way it picks up where Tales for Delicious Girls left off. It’s a complete step-by-step system, easy to use and understand. It helps women find themselves, respect and appreciate themselves and accept themselves. I’m finishing another book of tales, this time about life enjoyment and little pleasures that we all should learn to indulge in. I’m preparing two new self-development books for women. I’m a busy girl and I’m loving it!
Do you have any advice for writers or readers?
Love yourself and accept yourself the way you are. You are the only person you can always trust and rely on so treat yourself as such!
Is there an author that inspired you to write?
Yes, Marina Mayoral, a Spanish writer. I read her book Recóndita Harmonía a couple of years ago, it’s a novel about female friendship. It’s funny, moving, inspiring, and it really shows how powerful we women are and how incredibly strong our bond can be. She inspired me to write about women and for women.
What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?
Tales for Delicious Girls is a unique book. It’s somewhere between fiction and non-fiction, it’s entertaining, based on real-life stories and so much fun to read, but it’s also a self-improvement book that helps women discover their relationship patterns and deal with them. The concept of the book is exceptional.
What is the most important lesson you have learned from life so far?
The way we live, think and behave today influences our tomorrow. Our present is a reflection of our past actions and beliefs. If you want to change your life, change what you’re doing and thinking right now. There’s no destiny and nothing that happens to us is circumstantial. We create our own life and it depends only on us. I’ve learned to take 100% responsibility for my life. Today I know that happiness is a choice. Things don’t just happen, it’s us who make them happen.
Is there anything you regret doing/not doing?
It’s another thing that I’ve learned. I never regret anything. I’ve forbidden myself to use the words “should have” and “shouldn’t have”. Everything that happens, good or bad, is simply an experience and a chance to learn and grow. There are no mistakes and obstacles, just challenges. And challenges are good because they help you become a better person.
What’s in a word? Anything you want there to be! D for daring, E for enchanting,
L for loving, I for inspiring, C for captivating, I for intriguing, O for outgoing, U for unique, S for sophisticated: DELICIOUS.
Twenty-five exhilarating real-life stories about delicious women, eccentric men and stubborn dogs.
This book is meant to entertain you. It will make you laugh until there are tears in your eyes. It will become your faithful companion, and will help you find yourself. It was written for you because you’re delicious – the most delicious girl in the world.
Tales for Delicious Girls offers witty, refreshing, clever and ironic insight into relationships between men and women from all points of view. The book is a modern relationship manual, providing answers to the most pressing dating and friendship questions that strong, independent, modern women want to know. “Tales for Delicious Girls” deals with wishes, desires and dreams – as well as hilarious mishaps and dating disasters.
However, Tales for Delicious Girls is not simply a humorous book. In addition to entertaining the readers, the tales will inspire women to think about their own life and relationships, see themselves through different eyes and realize that they are their own best friend, the pillar of their own life, and the only person they can always count on. “Tales for Delicious Girls” encourages women to love, respect and appreciate themselves, to live the life they have always wanted, and become aware of their true uniqueness and deliciousness.
Tales for Delicious Girls contains over fifty beautiful, original illustrations by Nela Vadlejchova.
(supposing I withhold a few unimportant details that I prefer not to admit even to myself).
However, some women have tough luck with the word “almost”, as it seems to avoid them. It keeps jumping back, hiding and reappearing. And from the heights of its own elusiveness, it laughs at them and mocks them. In the upshot, many of us end up with an empty bank account, with an empty apartment, with empty hands and hitting rock bottom. At the best, with bruises on our soul. At the worst, with bruises even on the soul’s outer wrapping.
Nevertheless, this chameleon syndrome implying “I will be what you want me to be” probably affects only women. If you know a man who, because of “the love of his life”, gives up his job, his family, his fat cat whose hairs you are allergic to, and his disgusting high school sneakers that are “as good as new”, introduce him to me. Introduce him to me and I will have him submitted to a thorough psychological examination as an absurd natural phenomenon.
A man is simply an inadaptable creature. A man goes to bed when he is sick, even if a windstorm takes away the roof above his head and his boss threatens to fire him. A man eats what he likes, in the pub that he has adored since college parties. A man does not pretend that his biggest dream is to spend the evening with you and your bitter high school friend “whom you can’t stand
anyway, you told me that last Wednesday”. He does not walk your beagle if he hates dogs. And he does not join you on a guided tour in Madrid if he is all but enthusiastic about the gems of architecture. And a man does not care if you like it or not, if you fume with rage, cry or get mad and stop talking to him. He does not care what the others think of his decisions, choices and wacky opinions. He couldn’t care less, and actually, he wouldn’t even think of worrying about it because it’s a loss of time and especially of energy that needs to be saved for much more meaningful and much more entertaining stuff.
And that’s the point. Why do women trim their sails while men remain in their comfort zone? Why do we push ourselves to the limit, live on our nerves, give up our soul, our personality, the little things we love? Why do we pretend, fake, lie blatantly to ourselves and on top of that manage to become convinced that it’s making us happy? Why do we rigorously get rid of everything that makes us unique? What for?
Let’s try to put an end to it once and for all. Let’s try to love ourselves unconditionally; let’s protect ourselves and everything that belongs to us. Let’s not conform to the needs, ideas or demands of relationships in which we cannot be ourselves and in which we don’t even recognize ourselves anymore. Because men, lovers, admirers and potential (sometimes even real) fathers of our children come and go; some stay for awhile, some stay a little bit longer and some might stay forever, but that’s something we never know in advance. The only thing that stays forever is us. So don’t ever give up on yourself, because you are your own most precious possession.
“I have five daughters and want them all to read this book. I want them to remember that you are your own best friend, and when the rest of the world seems against you, when love has given you the dirty end of the stick, you should be able to look in the mirror, hold your head up, and smile right back. Why? Because every female is a Delicious Girl = D for daring, E for enchanting, L for loving, I for inspiring, C for captivating, I for intriguing, O for outgoing, U for unique, S for sophisticated: DELICIOUS!”
–Kelly Wallace
“The most important lesson that the female reader learns from this book is set out in the first chapter; this being that you are fantastic the way you are and shouldn’t change for anyone, and that you should love yourself. If you manage to form this relationship with yourself then the likelihood is that the right man will come into your life. You can’t change people, so why should you change yourself for them, whether it is your hair, what you enjoy doing or more serious parts of you that make you so very special.”
–Sarah Pierce
“This book is delish! sweet and adorable. I felt as though I could conquer the world after I finished it. It was such a nice twist over the usual self-help books that are always telling me (us) that we need to improve, develop and grow.”
–Bookshipper
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