With natural disasters and nuclear war threatening their small town, two twin brothers find themselves enraptured by mysterious music that could change the course of their lives in J. C. Geiger’s The Great Big One.
We chat with J. C. about his latest book release The Great Big One, along with book recommendations, writing, and more!
Hi, J. C.! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a guy in Oregon with long hair on rollerblades who looks like maybe he’ll hurt himself while skating. Also, I was born on Halloween and so I scare children every year in my garage with ridiculously elaborate theatre & props. One time, my son dressed up like Calvin and I dressed up like a really evil version of Hobbes and leapt out from behind a curtain and pretended to eat him. That’s not my whole personality, but hopefully it helps paint a picture.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
In 4th grade I often got in trouble for talking too much. I was always getting my desk moved around and my teacher stacked quiet, well-behaved children around me. Then one day we got a creative writing assignment for a five-paragraph essay and I ended up writing a 15-page story about a walk I took in the swamp behind my house. I kind of just disappeared into the story and couldn’t stop writing. I thought maybe I’d get in trouble for blowing off the format, but then my teacher asked if I’d stand up in front of the room and share and I was like – wait, I get to love writing this story and now get to talk as much as I want?! Amazing! I’m in forever.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Are You My Mother? is the first book I remember reading by myself. James and the Giant Peach, for sure, lit the author fire inside me. And I think about Beloved probably five times a week.
Your latest novel The Great Big One is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Eerie, scientific, bizarre, twisty, adventurous.
What can readers expect?
The book definitely blurs the lines between genres, and I’ve been told it’s not an ordinary YA novel. So readers can expect to be surprised. Wait. Can you expect a surprise? Ha! I’m already worried I’m giving too much away.
Where did the inspiration for The Great Big One come from?
I was doing a presentation for work on the southern coast of Oregon and got interrupted by this horrific wailing sound from outside. I freaked — nobody else seemed to mind, and I realized it was a standard tsunami warning drill for an eventual disaster. This happened every week. Then I noticed dozens of tsunami evacuation signs pointing arrows straight out of town and thought – what would it be like to have these sounds and visuals in your daily landscape? To be a teenager and have the classic issues of disappointment with life, hometown, parents, annoying teachers, etc – compounded by this whole idea: We could *literally* die any moment, based on where you idiots decided to live! It made me think about the disasters we expect and prepare for, and that ones that come anyway – no matter what. And it made me wonder — how do we stay responsible to ourselves and others while holding out hope for the beautiful things that make life worth living?
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
Writing this book was a series of cascading catastrophes. Physical, psychological, publication-based – where do I start? I’ll just say my stack of drafts for this book stands taller than a Great Dane. I went first person, then epistolary, then third omniscient. It was an action thriller. A three part series. A burn pile. Every one of those attempts was like striking a match in a cave and exploring as much of the story as I could before I got to a dead end and had to start over. Eventually, I learned the path through the story. That moment felt like catching a fresh breath after a long, deep dive.
How can I say it better? There’s a Robert Frost quote from A Servant to Servants. He says: “The best way out is always through.” That was it. I was tangled in this story for years, but I just kept going.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Yes. Writing Charity was the biggest exploration, because she is Black and Dominican and a female and a professional musician and I’m not any of those things. I do believe authors should try to stretch themselves – while, yes, acknowledging their own privilege and ignorance and issues of entitlement and appropriation. At a conference, a friend once told me, “The problem with being so white is you don’t know what you don’t know.” I took that to heart. I saw Colson Whitehead speak at a pivotal moment in my career and he said something like: I think it’s absurd to say you can only write from the perspective of your own race or gender of profession. But if you’re white and trying to write a person of color, you can, but don’t f— it up. That’s the only rule. So if you get burned on Twitter or Facebook or whatever, don’t blame me. You f—ed it up! So I worked with authenticity readers, read dozens of blogs from people I thought Charity would hang with, watched vlogs, and kind of got my ass kicked for a few years trying to do this. I can’t say that I was successful. I mean – I still don’t know what I don’t know. But it was personal growth. And it’s important to keep art and artists relevant, growing, evolving. It’s also terrifying. In the end, I kept just wanting to do right by Charity. I’d kind of look at her and say, “Is this okay?” And sometimes she’d smile and other times shake her head disappointed and I would think, “Okay, damn. Back to the drawing board.”
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
Probably the worst advice was to stop writing. Best advice? Keep writing, no matter what. Pretty simple.
What’s next for you?
I’d say about once a year I have a transformative, epiphanous moment that makes me think – “You are a writer, and you need to keep writing.” Every time it’s like this crazy sword in the stone moment. Magical, and I almost never see it coming. That’s still happening. My plan is to keep writing to the best of my ability, as long as I can. I’ve got plenty of stories left. Just hope I have enough time.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I have so many! If you love science and poetry and the magic of the ocean, I’d recommend anything by Rachel Carson who is an incredibly eloquent scientist and gift to the human race. Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women is stunning, Heavy by Kiese Laymon is brilliant, if you haven’t read The Liars Club by Mary Karr it’s the best memoir I’ve ever read, and anything by Tobias Wolff will only have a positive impact on your life.
You can find J. C. on Instagram and at his website.
