Broken Pencil: Philip Quinn's The Skeleton Dance

An online exclusive interview
By Nathaniel G. Moore

Recently BP assistant editor Nathaniel G. Moore caught up with Toronto novelist
and poet Philip Quinn to discuss his brand new book The Skeleton Dance, a novel
which takes place on the mean, formerly clean streets of Toronto before the
century ticked over into the new millennium. This dark novel depicts the human
casualties and debris piled up around the downtown bank towers in a way only
Quinn can deliver.
BP: When did you begin working on The Skeleton Dance and how was it working with
Anvil?
PQ: This novel in terms of composition precedes my novel The Double and some
other works of fiction. I put it aside but went back to it thinking that it
might suit a small press such as Vancouver's Anvil Press which specializes in
'grunt literature'. Namely writing that strips away the polite, literary stuff
and looks at things in the raw.
BP: Your new novel has noir elements to it. How did you incorporate a dark mood
into your character Robert Walker, and successfully reflect that in the city
itself which is presented in equally and fitting darkness?
PQ: I wanted to write about murder, not because of the violence or what it said
about the city of Toronto but because of what it said about the nature of
friendship. The key word for me was elemental. When we give up everything what
keeps us sane or innocent?
BP: Your characters are at times vampiric, was this a device you used to help
create tension and conflict?
PQ: The characters prey on each other. I don't think they necessarily see it
that way. But that's what goes on. They all do it, some are better at it than
others.
BP: There are musical soundbites throughout the book, what was your ideal
soundtrack, if you had one for this novel?
PQ: No piped in sound, just listen to the city, for its John Cage music, how the
silence so quickly fills up with a discordant yet at times beautiful symphony.
BP: The seedy lawyer/best friend Klin is the most memorable character outside of
the protagonist in the novel, how did you come up with this cold moody flake?
PQ: Klin has everything going for him yet he's so hollowed out that he's become
this monster. I based him on several monsters I've met over the years.