About Ivan Obolensky
Ivan Obolensky’s unusual upbringing (as a son of New York high society families) provides the background for his historical fiction/American gothic series. He captures the American high society of the 1960s and 1970s, weaving intrigue and the occult in a style uniquely his that has enchanted readers from ages 16 to 80.
Obolensky attended Buckley and The Hill School and spent a year at Lancing College in Sussex, England before attending Boston University. He wrote in his youth, but it was never a passion. That changed in 2011 when he was hired by his wife, Mary Jo Smith-Obolensky, to write articles on language, current affairs, and other social sciences for her company’s website, which were then translated into Latin American Spanish. Obolensky credited this process of researching and writing nonfiction and having it translated to be the foundational skills that allowed his ability to transition into hybrid genre fiction.
As a passionate reader with influences ranging from O. Henry, P. G. Wodehouse, Jane Austen, Raymond Chandler, Lao Tzu, and Will Durant, Ivan developed a unique writing style.
He was first inspired by the ending of “Ethan Frome” and wished he could write a novel like that.
However, it was decades later before he attended a writing course for short fiction in 2012 and met his editor, Tom Hyman, who continues to support him. Obolensky then based the “Eye of the Moon” series on the original characters from his short stories about the adventures of childhood mates growing up like brothers, Johnny and Percy.
The first novel, “Eye of the Moon”, published in 2018, has won awards and recognition from multiple venues and garnered over a thousand reviews.
Since then, Ivan has published the sequel, “Shadow of the Son”, and both books have been translated into Latin American Spanish (“El ojo de la luna” and “A la sombra del hijo”), with the third novel set for release in 2024. He also writes a weekly blog and personal newsletter to his subscribers once a month.
Obolensky’s other hobbies include photography, music, and riding his motorcycle.
