Author Website for PJ Skinner
I worked in Northeastern Angola at the tail end of the civil war with Unita in 1998-99 on an alluvial diamond mine. We lived constantly under the threat of Unita attacks. The rebels placed random landmines at night on our roads. As a result, it was my toughest ever contract.
My experiences there form the background to book 6 in the Sam Harris Series, Digging Deeper, which I will published in Q3 of 2019.
After I came back to the UK from Ecuador, I worked in a mining finance boutique looking for projects to fund. It was a big change for me and the first time I got the opportunity to work in Africa. I also used my first computer. These photos are from Mali. We traveled in an ancient car with no air conditioning so you can see my face is covered in red dust in the photo with the children
I am about to change my Sam Harris covers for a completely different look. If you wanted to buy paperbacks with the old covers, now would be the time as they will change in a couple of days. They are available on all retail sites.
Very excited to show you the new ones. Watch this space….
In 1991 I started working for myself and with the help of some funding set up a small project washing gold placers. We never made any money because the gold price was $250 and the machinery constantly broken down, but it was an intense and interesting time.
The experiences from my eight years in Ecuador form the basis for the background materials for my first two books, Fool’s Gold and Hitler’s Finger. I am writing a third book based in Ecuador at present. It will be called the Bonita Protocol and you can pre-order soon.
In 1987 I went to work for my uncle in Ecuador. He couldn’t afford to pay me, but I didn’t care. Getting a job as a female geologist in those days was a pipe dream. I hoped some real experience and fluent Spanish would help me rise above the prevalent sexism of those days. It was an amazing time, responsible for turning me into the adventurer I am now. The more I discovered, the more I wanted to travel and explore. Did your first job inspire or deter you?
I wrote the first two books in the Sam Harris Adventures using material from my early Ecuador years. Fool’s Gold uses the jungle settings I first worked in. The idea for Hitler’s Finger sprang from a report about Nazis in Ecuador which truly shocked me as I had no idea about Ecuador’s Nazi past. The characters are mostly generated in my imagination but Gloria and Alfredo are based on people I know and love, one of whom is no longer with us.
I have recently been asked to elaborate on my career and talk about how it influences my novels. We are going to take a tour through my career so that you can understand where my novels spring from. Here is a photo of me on my first foreign field trip during my MSc. Note the glamour and my expression of hopelessness. It was in Cyprus that I first realised just how tough the life of an exploration geologist was going to be. It was also the first time I appreciated the breadth of experiences available to me if I was brave enough.
I’d love to see photos of your first jobs. Post on my facebook page or on my twitter feed
