ABOUT PAT SILVER-LASKY
Pat Silver-Lasky wrote as a team with her late husband, the well known Hollywood screen writer and author, Jesse L. Lasky, Jr., son of the film pioneer. Jesse Lasky, Sr.’s company, Jesse Lasky Feature Play Company produced the first full length motion picture in Hollywood, The Squaw Man. Jesse, Jr. wrote 40 films, 8 for C.B. DeMille, includingThe Ten Commandments, and Samson And Delilah.
With Jesse, Pat wrote 4 books (including the American best seller historical novel, The Offer), 8 produced films, nearly 100 produced TV scripts, (including the award winning ‘Explorers’ series (’Ten Who Dared’ in U.S.A.). Their verse play, ‘Ghost Town’ won several awards in the States. In 1984/6 their TV series, ‘Philip Marlowe’ won three awards in the USA, and in Holland. Jesse Lasky Jr. died in 1988.
Born in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., Pat attended the University of Washington as a Drama Major, Stanford University and Reed College, where she produced and directed their first play.
She produced, wrote, directed, and acted (as Barbara Hayden) in the first live TV drama series from Hollywood: ‘Mabel’s Fables’, for KTLA (Paramount), appeared in feature roles in films (Sammy Fuller’s The Crimson Kimono) and played leading and co-starring roles on television, and directed for the theatre in Los Angeles and Palm Springs.
As an A.S.C.A.P. writer, she wrote lyrics for 14 published and recorded songs, including “While You’re Young” for Johnny Mathis’s album, “Portrait of Johnny”. She wrote the lyrics for two films at Columbia Studios.
Pat has lived in London since the early 1960’s and has duel citizenship. In 1987 she and Jesse wrote the play, ‘Vivien’, based on their book, “Love Scene”, the story of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Pat directed its highly acclaimed first production at the Melrose Theatre, Los Angeles, 1987 and directed the London Rehearsed Reading of ‘VIVIEN’ in 1992.
Pat served as a Story Editor on the second MARLOWE series (see credits), has written articles and interviews, contributed to various British antique journals, written short stories for international magazines including a 1999 series of romantic short stories for the magazine, A World of Romance.
She has lectured on script writing at several American Universities, was Script Consultant and guest lecturer at the London (International) Film School for eight years until 1999.
Her book, SCREENWRITING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY was published for B.T. Batsford Books (Chrysalis Publishing) in March, 2004.
To find out more visit her website at : www.Pat Silver-Lasky.com or her blog at: http://pat-silver.blogspot.com
How did you come up with the title of your book?
A. An ancient Chinese proverb translates roughly to: “One who rides the tiger finds it difficult to dismount.” Several other writers have discovered this proverb. I chose it because the protagonist in my book, Maggie Brent has mounted the tiger –– but she is about to fall off.
What is your writing environment like?
A. I share a large library/work room with my painter/cartoonist husband, Peter Betts––far enough apart for privacy and close enough to exchange a thought now and then.
What is your favorite quote? Why?
A. Andre Gidé said, “It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.” And Christopher Isherwood remarked (perhaps not on Gidé’s remark), ‘I have been perfectly happy the way I am. If my mother was responsible for it, I am grateful.” You don’t have to be gay to agree.
How has your upbringing influenced your writing?
A. During my first semester as a drama major at University, I read 300 plays on my own time. That started me writing plays. I moved on to professionally writing for television and films and eventually, books.
What inspires you to write?
A. People.
What do you consider the most challenging part about writing a novel, or about writing in general?
A. With a novel, believing in your characters. Generally, sitting down, tuning out the world and letting your imagination take over.
Did you learn anything while writing this book? If so, what was it?
A. Yes. Relying on tools I’d acquired during years of writing for visual mediums, I learned to accent the descriptive and eliminate the camera angles.
What have you done to promote this book?
A. Never enough. But this month I am on a virtual blog tour with PumUpYourBook –– and I hope it will bring Ride The Tiger to the attention of a wider audience.
What are some of the best tools available today for writers?
A. If we are talking about writing: the internet, Wikipedia, for research of all kinds. If you are with an established publisher they should be pushing your book, but if not, for marketing again the internet would appear to be the best way to reach a wide market.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
A. I would like to hear from any reader who has seen a comparison between what happens to Madelaine Brent in the end, and a famous character in a classic novel. It was deliberate, but so far no readers have got the message.
ABOUT RIDE THE TIGER
Fame, money and sex, that’s what tinsletown is all about. Madelaine Brent wanted them all and she always got everything she wanted. But sometimes everything is too much and somebody gets murdered. Maddie remembered an ancient Chinese proverb her agent told her as a warning, so long ago: ‘She who rides the tiger better not dismount.’ Was she about to fall off?
This is the deeply penetrating story of a film star who puts her career and her erotic desires above all else. Madelaine Brent is willing to undergo the tortuous beauty treatments that will keep her on top – a survivor in the film world, the Las Vegas showtime scene and a survivor in the art of love. But Maddie does not foresee the consequences her actions will have on the men in her life: her British film director husband Charles who is devoted to her, the one-night stand she thought she could dismiss, the French film star who fathered her child, the young writer-director she seduced and the actor who holds her spellbound. Her beautiful daughter Cathy, alienated from her mother, has taken a dangerous path that leads to prison. Maddie’s path leads her to a place she didn’t expect – and a trail of murders.
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