1. What do you write and why?
I write erotic m/m contemporary romances, although lately I’ve been playing with some science fiction and historical ideas. I’ll be staying with the erotic m/m romance genre, of course; it’s where I’m happiest, I think. I love the lush decadence that comes with a really good erotic romance, that thrill that is entirely different than the warm fuzzies I get from oh-so-discrete romances. And as for m/m? Well, why not? Love is love! I’ve got ideas for a m/f romance or three, and I’ve been very slowly cooking a f/f fantasy plot that I probably could never do enough justice to. But that’s not the point – the point is that I love romance, I love love, and we all find it in our own ways. Right?
2. What do you read and why, especially if it's different from what you write?
Everything! I am a textbook (ha!) definition bibliophile, so I read all kinds of things. Classics, romances, mysteries, scifi, fantasy, urban fantasy, YA, erotica, poetry… my TBR pile, physical and digital, is epic. Give me a well-thought out world and solid characters, and I am all set to camp out until your plot unfolds. Lately, I’ve been reading mostly digital books, but that’s because I’ve had the good fortune to be able to do reviews for some very talented writers.
3. What publisher(s) do you write for?
Loose Id is the only publisher I’m with, actually. I love being with them, they have always treated me so wonderfully.
4. How long have you been writing?
I wrote my first short story when I was 10. It was about my cat, and I made her into a feline detective, solving crime for the neighborhood pets from her office in the back of our garage. It was most awesome, and I haven’t looked back since. Flash forward to last year when my first book was actually released (Winner Takes All, co-written with Jenny Urban), and now I can actually tell people I am a writer, instead of how I “want to be one.”
5. How do you world build?
I start with a basic concept, probably my main character and his motivations and obstacles. The world around a character plays an integral part in who he is and how he reacts to stimuli, so you can’t fully know or understand him until you know where he’s coming from. It involves a lot of asking myself yes, but why? But it pays off. For example, Jenny and I are working on a piece right now that’s in the not-too distant future. When I decided how far off it was, I had to ask how things had gotten to that point from where we as a society are now. How did technology seemingly not evolve for so long? What could have happened? And how did humanity manage to recover? Once I had the answers to those questions, the rest came easier.
6. It’s the month of love and romance. What was the funniest/ greatest Valentine your Significant Other ever gave you?
The greatest Valentine he ever gave me was his heart. My husband and I will be hitting our 11th wedding anniversary this year, and we were together long before that, too. He likes to send me Godiva and roses at the office every year because it’s his excuse to pamper me, but that man has never once let me forget how very much he loves me, and I couldn’t ask for anything greater.
7. How do you build characters and their personalities and looks?
Personalities evolve as a matter of the plot. Two laid-back hippies would never have worked in our first book about a couple of business men with a history of betting on everything they came across. Looks… Looks are often random. I try not to make them all look the same, so I do try to go for diversity whenever possible (again, everyone falls in love, not just the blonds!).
8. Tell me about some of your heroes and heroines:
In our most recent book, I had Steve Jacobson. Oh, Steve! How I adored him! A middle school gym teacher with an over-abundance of energy, Steve was desperately in love with both of his best friends. He didn’t let his emotions suppress his personality, though; he was still stubborn, fun, and caring. Always open and honest, he still managed to surprise even his friends a few times when they peeled back layers on him. Heck, he even surprised me!
9. Are you a pantser or plotter?
Plotter. I don’t outline (ew), but I do set down, at least in my head, what I want to have happen, so that I’m prepared for what’s to come. Sometimes that changes as the story develops and characters grow, but the overall loose structure holds enough to carry me through. When I want to get fresh with Jenny (my best friend, co-author, and a proud pantser), I threaten her with story-boarding. :p
10. What's your latest release and tell me about it:
My latest release is a m/m/m contemporary, Where the Heart Is. Co-authored with Jenny Urban, this one is about three lifelong friends who are forced to face their feelings for each other, or risk losing their friendship forever. Steve, Jason and Chris are all secretly in love with one another, but all reluctant to make a choice. And how can they? They’ve been friends for twenty years, gone through puberty, high school, college, the murder of Jason’s parents… there’s too much on the line. But then Steve decides he can’t stand it anymore and announces that he’s leaving, and their friendship is thrown into chaos. It’s what happens after that that starts the big changes.
11. What genre haven’t you tried, yet, that you would love to explore?
Urban Fantasy. I am kind of desperately in love with Harry Dresden, no lie.
12. If you could take one of your characters out on the town, who would it be and what would you do?
Chris Lee from Where the Heart Is. He comes from a comfortably well-off family, and he knows how to party. Plus, he’s an artist, so he’d get invites to all the cool places. Anything else we might do would be classified. *ahem*
13. Favorite naughty dessert and decadent drink.
Tiramisu, hand-made. Hot cocoa, made with real chocolate, topped with real whipped cream. Gotta love the classics.
14. If we looked on your bookshelf right now, what are some of the titles we would find?
Okay, since I have a book addiction, I’ll only do a few from my TBR shelf. Eragon, by Christopher Paolini (I will read it, Mom, I swear!); The Time Machine/The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells; Living Nightmare, by Shannon K. Butcher; My Give a Damn’s Busted, by Carolyn Brown; The Broken Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin (OMG TOP OF THE LIST); and Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher.
The scary thing is, if I had a week all to myself, I would plow right through those and then some.
15. Where can we find you on the internet?
http://www.UrbanSilver.net
http://www.twitter.com/LizSilverWrites
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3482277.Elizabeth_Silver
Sneak peek into Where the Heart is
Written by Elizabeth Silver and Jenny Urban
Available at Loose Id HERE
LGBT Multicultural Menage
Jason, Steve, and Chris have seen each other through the toughest times of their lives, but when they’re snowed in together on their annual Thanksgiving ski trip, they learn that you can still have secrets even after twenty years. After Steve reveals he’s on the verge of a major decision that could break them apart, those secrets -- their desires -- might be the only thing that could save them.
Then a blizzard hits and snows them in, and there’s nowhere to run from the feelings they’ve been ignoring for years. None of them want to choose one and risk the other, but before the week is out, they’re going to have to find a way to make the three of them work again. If not, they're going to lose each other after all.
Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Male/male sexual practices, menage (m/m/m).
Excerpt:
They barely made it back to the cabin before the storm made driving impossible, killing off their visibility entirely. Chris said, for about the hundredth time, that he was glad Jason always drove to the mountains. Chris’s car, a sweet ride that he’d paid more for than Steve thought he should have, would have been stuck in a snowbank half a dozen times just on the trip from the lodge alone. Steve’s car wasn’t up for conquering anything bigger than a parking-lot snowdrift, either, so it really was nice to let someone else worry about the transportation.
To make it up to Jason for having to deal with the nerve-wracking drive, Chris volunteered to bring in more wood when they got back, while Steve built up the fire again. They had such comfortable, lived-in rhythms with one another, Steve knew without looking that Jason had already settled on the couch again with his book within minutes of stripping off his outerwear. The fact that he knew Jason that well made Steve’s chest ache, and he knew he had to talk to his friends, had to tell them at least one of his secrets. He had one that wouldn’t keep, and he owed it to them to tell them as soon as possible.
He waited until Chris came back in, then grabbed beers for all of them and handed them out silently, still trying to figure out what words would be best. Inspiration failed him, though, and he just sat in his chair, knee bouncing as he ran his free hand though his hair. If only he weren’t so in love with them, it wouldn’t be so important that he get this right.
Then again, if he weren’t in love with them, this wouldn’t be an issue to begin with.
“Just spit it out, Stevie,” Jason said quietly, not looking up from his book.
All of a sudden, Steve didn’t want to tell them after all. But then he made the mistake of looking at Chris, of letting that warm, dark gaze hold him, and he knew there was no weaseling out of this.
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