Ask the Author: P.K. Silverson
Answered Questions (6)
P.K. Silverson
What's writer's block. Seriously. Is that a thing? Do they pay you for it? I mean, can you get disability if you have it because I think I could fake it if there's a check in it.
P.K. Silverson
Bumping into someone who enjoyed what you've done. Finding out somebody "gets it."
P.K. Silverson
Be prepared for questions you don't want to answer. "What else do you have?" is always a lot of fun to deal with. "What's your favorite thing you've written?"... as if all the stuff you did is secondary to one thing. "Why are you doing this?" and "How much did you make?" take a lot of fun out of trying to reach your reader, but people ask anyway. And then there's the tough question... "Do you have what it takes to get knocked down over and over and keep coming back until you realize your dream?" Nobody can tell you not to be a writer... except for you.
P.K. Silverson
As of the date this question is being answered, I'm in the middle of a creature feature screenplay which needs to be ready for pitching to film production executives in exactly 27 days. I estimate the balance of the rough draft will take 6 days and the rewrite and polish will take an additional 5 days. The synopsis... always the most difficult aspect of a screen project, will take a day. Once this project is ready for pitching, I'll move back to the fifth book of "The Magic Triangle" trilogy and try to remember where I left my mermaid. That is, of course, if the musical theater piece based on the life of Aesop doesn't find a composer at the upcoming Bookwriter/Composer exchange being sponsored by the Dramatists Guild this coming weekend. If somebody wants to write the music which will breathe life into this piece, all bets are off.
P.K. Silverson
I used to know the answer to this question, but the decision to write full time precludes the original answer. Starting out as a copywriter in advertising, it was easy to be inspired... no copy, no paycheck. Branching into fiction was pure self defense... a means to express something larger than next Saturday's in-store savings. When the first screenplay I optioned was being discussed with a development exec, he gave me the choice of selling the project to him outright or doing the rewrite on spec for 15 times the sale-only price. I jumped at the rewrite, which turns out to have been a grave error, as the screenplay never made it to the screen and the option money wouldn't buy a king size candy bar in today's market. A better question may be: Where does inspiration come from to start a writing project? This answer is easy: It comes from listening. Good ideas are everywhere. You can talk through them or over them or around them, or you can pay attention both to what you and others might be saying. Anything and everything is fodder for imagination.
P.K. Silverson
While not quite ready for publication as of the date this question is being answered, "The Book Of Djinn" is the fourth novel in a trilogy which began with "The Fairy's Tale." Each of the four novels, as well as the two now being written, stemmed from a single conceit on a single day. The decision to voice each book through its primary character led to considering which characters would be the most interesting to listen to. Hence, a fairy prince, a troll, a wizard, a genie all currently serve as our story-tellers, with a mermaid and the most mischievous fairy of them all bringing the story to its as yet undefined end.
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