Jonathan
Lowe: How did you start writing?
Geoff
Sturtevant: I started writing mostly to make
my mom laugh. I'd spend two or three weeks writing
a novelette just to invite her over, hand her a manuscript,
and just sit in the other room listening to her laugh.
There's something about making a 70 year-old lady
laugh at what she's probably not supposed to laugh
at that's very gratifying. Craft is more important
to me than being funny, but I love getting laughs
most of all.
Jonathan
Lowe: Why
this book, and why multiple narrators on the audio
version?
Geoff:
I
put together Occupational Hazards with the
audiobook specifically in mind. I'm a huge audiobook
fan, and I reached out to a bunch of my personal favorite
narrators to help me produce it. The response has
been positive, and the narrators had a lot to do with
that.
Jonathan
Lowe: Views
on morality arise in your writing. God given or human
choice?
Geoff:
I
think morality is both God-given and based on choices.
New cultural values are embraced, and God-given morals
are ignored. People are complicated creatures, and
no one reason is responsible for anyone's particular
values. Both of my daughters, for example, decided
as soon as they understood meat came from animals,
that they didn't want to eat meat. It still surprises
me that this seemed to be their default moral choice.
Maybe they'll un-learn this one, maybe not. I do hope
to teach them other ones I consider valuable, but
society is steadily forgetting.
Jonathan
Lowe: Funny
you should mention meat. I’ve interviewed authors
on both sides of that issue, too. Meatonomics
versus The Big Fat Surprise. Dr. Preston
Estep at Harvard takes another view in The Mindspan
Diet, showing that iron in meat and supplemental
iron added to flours in America cause Alzheimers in
over age 50 adults. I forget who the other one I interviewed…oh,
right. Kelly Preston. Tell us about your story The
Relativist.
Geoff:
In
that story, which on the surface is a really ridiculous,
the underlying moral message/question is: if you've
committed to ethical relativism, is it possible to
hold anything sacred? The story is totally surreal,
but it constantly puts cultural values at odds with
each other; from quirky culinary differences to all-out
good vs. evil Moral values is a tough subject itself,
but it's good for writing fiction. You don't necessarily
need the answers, only the conflict.
Jonathan
Lowe: Takeaway
from your book?
Geoff:
The
reason I call this "Blue-Collar fiction"
is that I wrote it for guys like me, who work hard,
and like to be able to laugh at whatever they think
is funny. Nobody who drives a truck for a living is
concerned with political correctness. Since those
are the people I relate to, I like to use work-oriented
scenarios and regular-guy characters, and write the
kind of material that amuses guys like us.
Geoff:
I
think morality is both God-given and based on choices.
New cultural values are embraced, and God-given morals
are ignored. People are complicated creatures, and
no one reason is responsible for anyone's particular
values. Both of my daughters, for example, decided
as soon as they understood meat came from animals,
that they didn't want to eat meat. It still surprises
me that this seemed to be their default moral choice.
Maybe they'll un-learn this one, maybe not. I do hope
to teach them other ones I consider valuable, but
society is steadily forgetting. |