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Daniela Tomova
A Certain Quality of Light
I grew up in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, among the ruins of 8000 years of civilizations. A kid of the 80's, I read my way through libraries' worth of books, as yet another empire collapsed around me. I read under blankets, in bread lines, in the basement where ten thousand books lay in cardboard boxes, on my way to school, in the thyme-scented meadows of Rila mountain, and the pine forests of the Rhodope.
I work in data architecture and analytics (ask me anything about Splunk). By night, I write science fiction, fantasy, and horror—usually all at the same time. In-between, I am learning indie perfumery, playing Soulsborne games, and other things that catch my interest.
Raised by Feral Books
Stories raised me, educated me, taught me how to be a human. At the time, I thought they did that for everyone who needed it—I thought they squatted in libraries, just waiting for a kid to walk by alone so they can attach themselves.
I didn't even consciously understand they had authors until much later. In my head, the books were reality and writers were some abstract notion. So abstract that I never even imagined I could be one.
But the stories have a mind of their own.
Glass plate photography, circa eternal
Data Strategy
Enterprise intelligence through semantic architecture and data modeling. Building the foundations that transform raw information into strategic insight.
Speculative Fiction
Science fiction, fantasy, and horror woven from the threads of 8000 years of civilization. Stories where the boundaries dissolve.
Sensory Exploration
The architecture of scent and time. Essays on olfaction, chronoception, and the ways our senses construct reality.
Data Strategy & Advisory
Enterprise Intelligence • Semantic Architecture • Data Modeling
Expertise
I specialize in building the semantic foundations that transform enterprise data into strategic intelligence. My work spans data architecture, ontology design, and the creation of unified information frameworks.
Core competencies: Splunk analytics, semantic data modeling, enterprise knowledge graphs, information architecture, and translating complex technical systems into executive strategy.
Semantic architecture in practice
Biofeedback Analytics Framework
Enterprise Dashboard Suite
Multi-scale data integration from molecular to behavioral levels. Real-time correlation analysis with glassmorphic UI design.
View showcase →Semantic Layer Architecture
Knowledge Graph Implementation
Building unified ontologies for enterprise data. Transforming siloed information into interconnected intelligence.
Read article →Real-Time Analytics Pipeline
Splunk Enterprise Design
High-throughput data ingestion with Cribl Stream. Millisecond-resolution monitoring for critical systems.
Technical deep-dive →Data Governance Strategy
Executive Framework
Translating technical complexity into business strategy. Building bridges between engineering teams and C-suite vision.
Strategy guide →Published Fiction
Science Fiction • Fantasy • Horror
The Craft
I write at the boundaries where genres blur—science fiction haunted by ancient ruins, fantasy grounded in data systems, horror that emerges from the collapse of empires. My stories carry the weight of 8000 years of Bulgarian history, the strangeness of growing up as one world ended and another began, and the uncanny feeling that technology and magic might be the same thing viewed from different angles.
Selected Stories
Works etched in time
Rendezvous With Yellow Jacket
HIVEMIND: Global Speculative Fiction
Georgia Tech University, 2021
Read the story →The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Reporter
Tor.com
March 2022 • Best Horror of the Year Vol. 15
Read the story →Sensory Exploration
Olfaction • Chronoception • The Architecture of Perception
The Unmapped Senses
Between data architecture and fiction-writing lies another territory: the exploration of how our senses construct reality. I write about olfaction—the sense of smell that bypasses linguistic processing and speaks directly to memory—and chronoception, our mysterious ability to perceive and measure time without a dedicated sensory organ.
These essays explore indie perfumery as semantic architecture, the phenomenology of temporal perception, and the strange borderlands where neuroscience meets subjective experience.
The Grammar of Scent
On Olfactory Composition
Building fragrance structures like data models. Top notes as entry points, base notes as semantic foundations, the middle as transformation layer.
Read essay →Time Without Clocks
Essays on Chronoception
How we perceive duration, sequence, and simultaneity. The neuroscience of temporal illusions and the subjective elasticity of the present moment.
Read essay →Perfume as Archive
Memory, Scent, Storage
Olfactory memory bypasses the hippocampus. What does it mean to store experiences as molecules? The chemistry of remembering.
Read essay →Synesthesia & Cross-Modal Perception
When senses overlap. The sound of colors, the taste of words, the texture of time.
Explore →The Temporal Illusion of Now
The present moment is wider than we think. Neural delays and the construction of simultaneity.
Explore →Indie Perfumery as Practice
The materials, the methods, the patience. Creating scent from botanical absolutes and isolates.
Explore →Duration & Dasein
Phenomenological approaches to temporal experience. Bergson, Husserl, and the felt sense of passing.
Explore →