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Meet the Person Behind Member Jungle's Articles: Piper Jackson

Date:
Category: Our Clients

It has been brought to my attention that some people are enjoying the articles I write for Member Jungle and, for some unknown reason, want to know a bit more about me. So, I have been asked (and I promise I was asked; I swear I'm not an egomaniac) to write an article about myself for all of those who are interested. 

If you aren’t interested in this, and I honestly don’t blame you, we will be back to our regularly scheduled programming before you know it. For all of those who are interested, let’s get into it, I guess. 

To give this article some structure and prevent it from being rambling, I have asked the Member Jungle team some questions they think people might want to know about me. So, I will answer those, as well as rambling. 

Firstly, I just want to shout out to the whole Member Jungle team. They are all an incredibly down-to-earth and fun group of people to work with. It’s easy for me to be light-hearted and funny in my articles when all I’m really doing is making the funny quirkiness of the whole Member Jungle team visible from the outside. Also, I think a big shout-out needs to go to them for giving me enough leash to be odd and funny in these articles. They would be well within their right to tell me to stick to the point and not rant about how weird deer are, or make niche references to rugby union players or rant about the fact that Ryan Gosling was in Remember The Titans. 

Okay, so I haven't actually done that last one yet, but look, there he is, being all remembered.  

Ryan Gosling in Remember The Titans.

The Cold Hard Facts

To kick off the proceedings, I'll start with the cold, hard facts of my life. 

I was born in Sydney, but my family is from South Africa. I spent the first ten years living on the family farm. I'm a dog person, nothing against cats I'm just allergic. In my early twenties, I travelled around Australia in a campervan. I have mild dyslexia, nothing serious, but thank god for spell check. I'm not religious or spiritual, and I don't believe there is any rhyme, reason or meaning to life or what happens to us while we're stumbling around on this little speck. I store my BBQ and tomato sauce in the cupboard but keep my sweet chilli sauce in the fridge. I once lived with someone who kept their Vegemite in the fridge. I mean each to their own, but that's unhinged. 

Now that that’s all cleared up, let's go to the questions. 

Who Is Your Greatest Inspiration As A Writer?

There are so many people I want to say are my greatest inspirations, so many amazing writers whose styles I love and have actively tried to understand and replicate: Douglas Adams, Hunter S. Thompson, Christopher Brookmyre, Ta-Nehisi Coates, bell hooks, Jon Ronson, Becky Chambers, Paul Tremblay, Frankie Boyle, Margret Attwood, and so many more. 

Honestly, I'd have to say that my greatest inspiration as a writer is Bill Waterson. Bill Waterson is the author and illustrator behind the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. It is a comic that appeared in newspapers in the '80s and '90s and follows a six-year-old boy named Calvin and his best friend, a tiger named Hobbes. 

Calvin and Hobbes fall into the rare category of something I loved at five and still love nearly a quarter century later. It is a funny, childish, clever, heartfelt, often philosophical read that combines childlike humour with much more serious philosophical questions. I think it played a big role in my learning not only to question everything around me but also in teaching me that you don’t have to be serious and dour to make good points. You can teach, discuss, and debate serious, heavy topics in a way that is funny, light-hearted and entertaining. 

 

Calvin and Hobbes

 

I cannot overstate how much I cherished the wider, more adult themes and question-everything attitude of Calvin and Hobbes when I was a kid. 

 

Calvin and Hobbes 

Where Did You Get Your Love Of Writing?

I’m honestly not sure; my family was probably great at encouraging creativity. I remember one game I played with my mum when I was very little. I was taking it in turns to make up stories about a girl and her pet dog who went on adventures together. 

Outside of that, just whatever head injury or chronic dysfunction makes anyone else want to be a writer. 

Your articles are quite unique and funny - who's writing or comic style has influenced you the most?

As I have already talked at length about writers I admire, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about comedians who inspire me because there are a lot of them, and plenty of them I’d consider just as influential as my favourite authors: Jon Stewart, Russel Howard, Craig Ferguson, Sara Pascoe, Aisling Bea, Noel Fielding, John Oliver, Sophie Duker, Larry Willmore, Hannibal Buress, Trevor Noah, Fern Brady, Robin Williams, and Frankie Boyle. 

Overall, Frankie Boyle is the comedian who has most inspired me. His flat, dry, dark, absurdist sense of humour and brilliant writing have kept me entertained for hours. I have watched all his stand-ups, read his books, and read all of his articles in the Guardian. Frankie Boyle is proof that you can be dark, inappropriate, and wildly funny while making great points, all without punching down and mocking marginalised communities. If you were looking for a place to start, I’d recommend Frankie Boyle’s New World Order. 

 

Frankie Boyle

If you were accepting your award for hitting the NYT Best Sellers list with your first novel, how would you describe the plotline?

A hotshot detective, a grisly murder, so many unanswered questions. 

Who done it? 

Why done it?

How English it? 

Why do the victim’s legs bend backwards? 

And is that Charlie Chaplin swimming in the toilet bowl? 

 

Wait, hold on, that’s less of a plotline and more of a teaser. Let me try again. 

 

Anne was once a receptionist at a private investigator firm until her tattoos mysteriously came to life and started to “help” her solve crimes. Now a successful PI, Anne and her tattoos face their stupidest case yet. 

Can they solve the mystery, or will they get bored and go do something else? 

What Do You Do For Fun?

I write. I love writing, so when I'm not at work, I write short fiction stories and am currently working on my first novel. It’s painfully slow progress, but I love it. 

Outside of writing, I rock climb, kayak, free dive, spearfish, cycle, go camping, and draw. Below, you can see two of the things I drew; one is a lighthearted little thing about oranges, and the other is just a scientifically accurate frog. 

What Do You Do For Fun?

 

How Do You Manage To Keep The Articles Interesting?

I had a few questions about how I kept coming up with ways to make tech articles interesting. Again, I’d like to point to Member Jungle giving me enough leash to do funny, interesting things. I imagine a lot of tech writers are funny, interesting, and great writers who would write really fun, captivating stuff if they were given the room to do so. So, I really think that plays a huge part in it. 

Other than that, I have a chronically short attention span, and mucking about putting little jokes and memes into my work is about the only way I can focus. I did the same thing in my uni essays, though with them, I'd have to remove all the jokes in my final edit before handing it in because academia is not a place for joy. 

 

don't smile, learn meme

What Is Your Background In Writing?

I attended the University of Newcastle, where I studied journalism and English literature. I graduated with a communications degree with a major in “News Media,” which is what we are apparently calling journalism now. While at uni, I hoovered up every literature elective I could get my hands on, from short fiction to screenwriting to literary theory. 

The dream is to one day make a living from fiction writing, but in the meantime I’m just thrilled someone’s paying me to do the thing I love most in this world. 

Q&A Time

A lot of the questions I was asked were about my favourite this or that. So, I thought I'd just stick them in a big list and answer them all. I have limited myself to my top three for each question. Please note that I don't stand by these answers; I'm sure I'll look back at them in a few weeks and go, oh my god, how did I forget blah blah blah? 

Also, I made a rule for myself that if I included someone in one category, I couldn't mention them in another category. I did this because my top ten favourite books are all by Christopher Brookmyre and Douglas Adams, and the list got very samey. 

Favourite Books 

  • Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson 
  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
  • The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber

Favourite Authors 

  • Christopher Brookmyre
  • Douglas Adams 
  • Paul Tremblay

Favourite Movies

  • Only God Forgives 
  • Valhalla Rising 
  • Trainspotting (it’s not something I rewatch often and certainly not for fun, but damn, it’s good. I wrote that about Trainspotting, but it fits the other two too) 

Favourite TV Shows

  • Hannibal 
  • Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
  • Penny Dreadful

Favourite Musicians 

  • Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds 
  • Rage Against The Machine
  • Open Mike Eagle 

Favourite Albums 

  • Bronx I by The Bronx (This honestly could have been any of their albums; they are all perfect) 
  • Coral Fang by The Distillers 
  • Skeleton Coast by The Lawrence Arms
  • Honourable mention to Heavy Jelly by Soft Play. It’s been out barely four days as of this writing, and I’ve already listened to it literally dozens of times. 

 

What Is Your Background In Writing?

 

What Next? 

Well, that was that. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something; at the very least, you’ve remembered that Ryan Gosling was in Remember The Titans. 

Keep an eye on the Member Jungle Learning Centre for more great articles about club and membership management in the weeks to come. We’ve got some really good ones coming up. 

Also, I have a website called Sentient Ladders, where I occasionally post short stories that I’ve written. They are completely free to read if you do want to check them out. There are only a few up there at the moment, but more will be on the way, eventually, when I get time. 

Forewarning: if you don’t like violence, swearing and adult themes, probably give it a miss; it’s nothing horrific, but it's not calmly discussing email campaigns either. 

 

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