An Interview with D.K. Silver
D.K. Silver is the author of The Weight of Flowers, and Forcing Shoots, a four-book genre-bending saga. The series explores themes of sexual exploitation and dalliance, greed in its many guises, and the quest for self-worth.
D.K. Silver is fearless in her determination to explore taboos, using her gifts to relentlessly dig below the surface. As a costume designer, she’s been trained to visually reveal a character’s truer nature – as a writer, she takes it to another level, passionate to unmask the deliciously decadent, the deviant, and the downright misguided aspects of our collective humanness. Her stories are paced like a slow-motion car crash that’s difficult to look away from.
When not at her kitchen table in Carmel-By-The-Sea writing her next project, Signal Hill, you’ll find her teaching yoga or walking the beach. She often divides her time between her own thoughts and the clamoring of characters who vie for her attention. She celebrates long, well-penned sentences with cooking and gardening, and irons her sheets for meditation. On Sundays, you’ll find her letting go on a World Ecstatic Dance Zoom site.
Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?
Truth be told, I never thought of being a writer. I’ve always been creative; I was a costume designer, had my own children’s wear line, and threw fabulously beautiful parties, but writing never arrived on my radar screen until it did. I’ve always been a huge reader; I love to be transported to new places, new situations that are far outside my norm that feel real, like I’m in the story. Well, I got to a point in my life where I wanted to recreate myself and that situational need opened my mind to writing. And being severely dyslexic presented massive challenges as well.
What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?
The dots of my past jobs would be hard to connect. My early jobs were scattered: ice cream scooper, head elf for Santa, oil refinery worker (there’s a story there!!) and finally, in college I zeroed in on costume design working on projects that took me to Santa Fe Opera, The Los Angeles Music Center, and ultimately costume design in Hollywood. What my readers probably don’t know is that I taught English in a Mexican prison and worked at Union Oil Refinery in San Pedro. My second vocation that has carried through the last twenty-five years of my life is yoga; I am a yoga teacher and devotee.
Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?
The first title of my book was The Collection. I thought it was a great choice because my heroine collected people, people who would teach her how to discover who she was supposed to be. But as the years went by and I continued to edit my book, I realized that the title, as broad as it was, wasn’t evocative enough. As this massive tome – 430,000 words – became four books, I became more thoughtful as her character arc became clearer. That’s when it came to me – it being the perfect title for the first book: The Weight Of Flowers. If you’re anything like Jamison, the heroine of this series who receives a huge bouquet of flowers in public, she feels almost assaulted – she didn’t ask for the attention, and now she has an action item, she’s forced to change because she’s become the object of someone’s desire.
Anyway, enough of the deep dive into the title – it took me years to come up with it but once I did, the other titles came easily.
What part of publishing your book made it feel real for the first time?
I think seeing someone I didn’t know, reading my book – that was sublime…real author moment.
If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?
My books do have a soundtrack and it can be found on The Weight Of Flowers Pinterest board. The series is set in 1920 but as a genre-bending compilation, the music ranges from 1920s to the 1980s, from Igor Stravinsky-Tengo to White Town, “I could never be your woman.” I love music and the voyeuristic opportunities in blending genres, tones, and periods.
What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?
The sensation of my stories and my name.
What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?
I find it incredibly rewarding to speak with new writers, to hear about their journey and their dreams to encourage them to continue. As I stated earlier, I’m a creative person to my core and being creative means making something new, putting yourself in a position that could be soul crushing. Creativity takes courage; to stand naked in front of the world isn’t easy but it is incredibly rewarding and so I applaud and support new creatives in whatever medium they choose.
What creative projects are you currently working on?
My WIP is called Signal Hill and it’s another historical, multigenerational saga, semi-autobiographical about the time I found a naked, bald, dead man in the gutter on my way home from graveyard shift at Union Oil Refiner.
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