Geoff Lawson
Geoff Lawson left school at fifteen and became a carpenter, coach-builder, sheetmetal worker, kitchen installer, and an all round handy guy. His first attempt at writing was a booklet outlining the restoration of the historic riverboat Waimarie when he was working there, and a history book followed when working on the restoration of the iconic antique artillery gun, Krupp Number Four. He realised one day, that the gun would be finished and people would ask – where did it come from, and, how did it get here? Only intending to create a pamphlet he soon realised that this story was too good to be left to the silence of history, so it became a book. The novel Forgiven followed. Utilising knowledge of the Anglo-Boer War, and incorporating some old family stories into the mix, he created a romance/drama that is so good it could even be true.
What authors did you dislike at first, but grew into?
Fiction writers Patricia Cornwell, Barry Maitland, Lynne Heitman, Dan Brown, et al.
Do you try more to be original, or to deliver to readers what they want?
Well, it is nice to be original, which is really the realm of fantasy, but if you are producing something for sale you have to provide something that the buyers would want. FORGIVEN has been written with careful attention to detail and really takes the reader on a voyage into the past. I think a lot of HF writers don’t actually know anything about the historical, and therefore write HF as a modern story with people in old fashioned clothes, and, presenting the past in this manner can lead to a lot of misconceptions. Since I am something of a historian I think HF can be exciting and interesting enough without modern fanfare and other such nonsense. Also, HF doesn’t need to mean ‘regency romance’ either. I think it all boils down to how you write it, and that is what makes it interesting…
How do you select the names of your characters?
I select names of characters randomly, whatever seems to fit in each case. I would never call a character Randy, or Storm, because no one in antiquity would be called something like that.
What was the first book that made you cry?
None, although one book really shocked me. Enemy at the Gate was so horrific that it took me almost a year before I could finish it. A history of the battle of Stalingrad, I think the thing that appalled me the most was that it was all true.
If you had to do something differently as a child or teenager to become a better writer as an adult, what would you do?
As a child I had no concept of writing, although I did read a large amount of adult books; histories and biographies mostly. I became a writer gradually, as I became interested in the things I was working on as an adult.
Have you Googled yourself? Did you find out anything interesting?
Googled myself? No, although I have found references to me in places I would not expect.
Are there any secrets in your books that only a few people will find? Can you tell us one? Or give us any hints?
There are no intentional secrets in Forgiven, although there is a lot of information about the old times that wouldn’t register with the majority of readers.
How did publishing your first book change your writing process?
What's the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex?
I don’t have any problems with writing about women. Since I was young I was fascinated by their logic and having a wife and two lovely daughters would have helped as well.
Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?
Disappointed sometimes. My first review on Goodreads was awful. Scathing, derogatory and harmful. It was a long time before anyone on Goodreads was game to read Forgiven. Amazon was different. I had 37 other reviews that totally disagreed with it, and made me feel a whole lot better. I think the reviewer was a young American woman who’s philosophy in life was ‘sex first and all else later’, which was the direct reverse of the Victorian model for a variety of reasons that someone like her would never comprehend. Never get involved with sites that ‘garrantee 50 reviews’ etc.. You’ll get burned if you do.