147 ratings | 50 reviews | avg rating:3.73

Ulises Silva’s Followers (16)

Ulises’s Bookshelves

to-read (33)
currently-reading (3)
read (152)
did-not-finish (0)
couldn-t-finish (4)
favorite-books (9)

Ulises’s Friends (38)

Kristen

1,412 books | 226 friends

Libby Juliá

576 books | 237 friends

Amy

1,458 books | 25 friends

Ann Warner

2,409 books | 57 friends

Alex

352 books | 11 friends

Christina

145 books | 190 friends

Jane Alberdeston

300 books | 41 friends

Lisa

1,549 books | 53 friends

More friends…

Ulises Silva

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.ulisessilva.com

Twitter

zombiesandtacos

Genre

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Humor and Comedy, Horror

Influences

Sandra Cisneros, Lucha Corpi, Philip K. Dick, Christopher Moore, Jenny ...more

Member Since

June 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/ulises

edit data

So yeah, about this writing thing… I started writing in grad school, when I somehow completed and serialized a 500-page Anime fanfic called Nightmares in the Apocalypse. And because I’m sure you can’t tell from the title, it was a very dark story that had lots of death and destruction and happy dreams. No wait, nightmares. It had lots of nightmares. And death.

It was terribly written and embarrassing to even claim, but it was my first novel-length writing, and so I have to embrace it the way Darth Vader has to embrace his previous associations with Jar Jar Binks.

Maybe it was my horror film upbringing; my parents took me to see The Shining, Alien, and The Exorcist when most of my classmates were going to see The Last Unicorn and The Dark Crys So yeah, about this writing thing… I started writing in grad school, when I somehow completed and serialized a 500-page Anime fanfic called Nightmares in the Apocalypse. And because I’m sure you can’t tell from the title, it was a very dark story that had lots of death and destruction and happy dreams. No wait, nightmares. It had lots of nightmares. And death.

It was terribly written and embarrassing to even claim, but it was my first novel-length writing, and so I have to embrace it the way Darth Vader has to embrace his previous associations with Jar Jar Binks.

Maybe it was my horror film upbringing; my parents took me to see The Shining, Alien, and The Exorcist when most of my classmates were going to see The Last Unicorn and The Dark Crystal. Which, come to think of it, were kind of dark movies in their own right, so I guess we were all a little screwed up in 80s. Whatever it was, I kept writing dark fiction, culminating in my first novel in 2007, Solstice.

Solstice is, well, not a happy story. But, hey, for fans of apocalyptic, end-of-world fiction, it’s awesome!

Fast-forward a year or two later, when, I don’t know, happiness and stuff start filtering back into my life. My writing took a decidedly more comedic and lighthearted tone. Some say I sold out my dark, apocalyptic roots, but that’s because they haven’t discovered the joys and oddities of writing in the first person. As a woman. When you’re a man. Which my wife kind of digs. Or not really.

As a result of all this, my second novel, The Perfect Teresa, is to Solstice what, I don’t know, mangoes are to soy beans.

The Perfect Teresa is a novel near and dear to my heart because it got me back into writing, and because I took a “who cares if it’s good” attitude when writing it. Which is to say, it’s totally good and you should buy a copy because, totally, it’s good, I was just kidding when I said I didn’t care.

My new novel, The Modern Aztec's Guide to Dating and Time Travel, takes things in an even zanier direction. Inspired by the works of authors like Christopher Moore and Alexander C. Kane, I let my creative id run amok in an orgy of zany characters, outlandish plot elements, and combative animals. The final product is something that is fun, lighthearted, somewhat profane and raunchy, and what I hope is the start of a successful trilogy of books.

And if nothing else, you now have a novel with a half-Mexican, half-Scottish woman named Quality Jones, who holds the key to the safety of the space-time continuum in her reckless hands.

You’ve been warned. ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Ulises Silva questions, please sign up.

Combine Editions
Ulises Silva’s books

Average rating: 3.6 · 57 ratings · 27 reviews · 3 distinct works

	Solstice 3.21 avg rating — 39 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Perfect Teresa 4.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Modern Aztec's Guide to Dating and Time Travel: A Quality Jones Book 4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

62 posts
Ulises Silva's Blog

No love lost: Saving a dying writing project

This weekend, I came clean and admitted something terrible to my wife.

I was no longer enjoying writing. I was even thinking of stopping altogether.

For weeks now, when I opened my Scrivener project file, I didn’t feel joy. Or happiness. Or fulfillment. Or the need to eat papaya, though that was never really a thing so I guess I shouldn’t bemoan the lack of papaya urges.

What I was feeling was dread.

Ulises is Currently Reading

Ulises is currently reading

Solstice

by Ulises Silva (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Feb 14, 2025 04:09PM

Ulises is currently reading

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

by Isabel Wilkerson (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Feb 20, 2024 05:27PM

Ulises is currently reading

The Tanglewood Tea Shop (Tanglewood Village #1)

by Lilac Mills (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mar 30, 2023 06:11PM

rss
Ulises’s Recent Updates

Ulises is currently reading Solstice by Ulises Silva (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 14, 2025 04:09PM · like
Ulises finished reading 30 Days in the Word Mines by Chuck Wendig (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 11, 2024 08:07PM · like