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Geoffrey Dunn
Author, The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power

What do you do for a living?
Whatever it takes to put food on the table. Santa Cruz is a tough place. I’ve done everything from cutting fish and digging ditches to writing books about megalomaniac rightwing Republicans with presidential aspirations. Right now I have a hotter hand with words than I do with a knife or shovel.

What would you be doing if you weren’t doing that?
I have always done what I wanted to do. But I suppose I would rather being playing shortstop for the San Francisco Giants.

What do you do in your free time?
Honestly, “free time” isn’t a concept I embrace. When you are a cancer survivor, as I am, your sense of time changes. Either it’s all “free.” Or none of it is. It’s both limited and scared. I live in the moment.

What’s your favorite street?
Via Antonio Gramsci, Riva Trigoso, Italy. In Santa Cruz: Sadi Street. In the County: Cherryvale. Unpaved: The Hihn High Gulch Rd. In the Caribbean: Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

Name something you’re excited about.
My children—their dreams and aspirations.

Name a pet peeve.
Fox News.

What are you reading?
I always have several books going on at the same time. Right now I am reading four books about Frida Kahlo. And I am inveterate reader of the New Yorker. I have piles of them all around me. They are my bad habit. My cousin just turned me onto Einstein’s Dreams. And the next big book I’m going to read once summer starts is Willie Mays: The Life and Legend by James R. Hirsch.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in the last three years?
That there is a god and that love is all that matters.

Name something most of your friends don’t know about you.
That I search eBay for old Santa Cruz photos every day.

Secret star crush?
Tim Lincecum. Pablo Sandoval.

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