Author JRD Skinner

J.R.D. Skinner is a writer, podcaster, and ne'er-do-well, from Toronto, Ontario. For unknowable reasons, he releases fiction thrice weekly at FlashPulp.com, and spends an inordinate amount of time telling children things they shouldn't know.

What is the current project you are working on?

Flash Pulp - an attempt at a modern take on the classic serial tales which were once pushed at the newspaper stands, or broadcast over radio. Three to ten minute tales, thrice weekly.

What is the best thing about being a writer?

There's a lot to love: there's an inherent joy in knowing you've entertained someone else, as well as a weaver's satisfaction in spinning multiple threads into a greater whole. That said, the best part is probably the utter freedom to operate within a universe of my own creation, without having to worry about anyone else storming through my sandbox and kicking over my castles.

What is the worst thing about being one?

Utter creative freedom is also probably the worst thing about being a writer - any failure is only my own.

What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?

I've published short pieces elsewhere, and have a trail of dead podcasts in my wake, but this is my first project of this scale.

What do you like to do besides writing?

The usual symptoms of a fiction-flinger, I suppose: Reading, vigilantly attempting to find myself in strange adventures, wrangling children, trying to come up with something clever to post on Twitter, and delving into the wilderness.

Who is your favorite author?

Tough question. I'd say, at the moment, that it's Ambrose Bierce. His ability with an abrupt opening, and an almost journalistic presentation, continues to astound. I've rarely seen such a perfect blend of literary and genre tendencies. It's a bit of a rotating fight between Bierce, Joseph Conrad, and Graham Greene though.

What are some of your favorite books?

Spook House, which is probably the mountaintop I recently aim for the most;

Heart of Darkness, or, really, all of Conrad's Marlow stories - I've never been able to shake his framing narrator, and I've never encountered an author whose personal temperament I so closely identify with (well, racism aside);

Finally, The Devil in the White City, as I love Erik Larson's style, and the juxtaposition of the book's threads are built like a master's waltz.

How would you describe the writing "scene" where you live?

Truthfully, I derive a lot more camaraderie, encouragement, and enjoyment, from the writers I interact with online than the literary aspirants I've met locally. There are too many Frank McCourt/John Updike/Joyce Carol Oates/(and even) Charlaine Harris imitators sitting around in critique groups, daydreaming that a fictionalized version of their own life story is going to win them a fat advance from a large publisher.

How has social media changed the publishing industry?

I think it's too early to be entirely sure - the old methodologies of pushing paper to convenience-store racks, and chain bookshops, are petering out, but I believe that's a larger symptom of the web as a whole. People claim that literacy is dying, but the majority of our interactions on the net are text-based, and, as such, my feeling is that we're simply waiting for The Next Big Thing. Maybe it'll eventually be Nook/Kobo/etc, but it's too soon to tell. In some ways, we're in the "A box that brings pictures and sounds to your living room? Fah, it'll never work."-phase.

With that said, though, social media has become the route by which the nuggets of genius that are out there become discovered and recommended. Our project, as nontraditional as it is, would have no following if it were not for the fine folks who spread the word via Twitter, Google+, or Facebook.

What is your thought process like when you're writing?

When I'm writing a Flash Pulp piece, the process is almost invariably the same: In my trusty notebook, I've jotted every idea that occurs to me. If I'm watching a documentary on giant marsupials, and I'm suddenly hit with the concept of a mounted Giant Sloth cavalry, it goes in the book. When it's time to actually sit down and write, I review the ideas in the hopper and see what seems to have some meat on it, or if a couple of ideas might combine into a larger plot-spine.

Once I've got a bee or two buzzing in my bonnet, I break the story down with a simple diagram. On the left side of my notebook page I draw a line with three sets of brackets along its length, and a second line 2/3rds of the page to the right. First act is the first bracket, etc, with free-floating items on the far side of the right-bar. I may have to go through two or three iterations of my plot diagrams before I've moved everything from the far right and into one of the act-brackets, but, due to the tight schedule we're on, I have no margin to find myself a thousand words into a story only to realize I've a better idea on how the tale might flow, or that I've missed a critical detail.



Novel plotting, which I'm still fairly new at, I assail the same way, but with a series of nesting act diagrams. Once the overview of the novel is complete, I break each section into chapters, then each chapter into its own mini three-part outline.

You could have any super power. What would it be?

I kid you not, this is actually something I've drilled into all of my children, should they somehow encounter a wish granting machine: There's only one power that means anything, and it's hyper-intelligence. Want to be invisible? Be smart enough to build an invisibility cloak. Want to be nearly indestructible? Be smart enough to build powered armour. Want x-ray eyes? You get the idea.

If you could have any first addition book. Which would it be and why?

It's not terribly ancient, nor likely valuable, but I'd love to have a first edition of Graham Greene's Ministry of Fear. All of Greene's work taught me about the fine line between social message and entertainment, but none so much as Ministry of Fear.