MY BIO
Meet Ben C. Lawes
I was born and raised in a seaside town in the south of England. My parents divorced when I was quite young and consequently I missed the stability and guidance of a father figure.
I was most definitely not the popular kid at school and I scraped through with a handful of what was, back in the seventies, 'O' levels. After a brief flirt with a financial company (a job that, like Jordan Westward in 'Three Minutes', I barely hung on to because of some poor life choices) I was offered a position in the IT operations division of a major credit card company.
A few years passed and I soon realised that the minor pay increases matched the very limited opportunities to advance my career. Around the same time I found out that there was much money to be earned in the freelance IT market. This was the advent of what was to be the 'networking' boom of the late eighties along with the widespread requirement of personal computers. I formed my own consultancy and very soon found a hungry market for my skills. I gained very lucrative contracts with major banks, oil companies and drug companies. I might add that there was for a while a glut of workers like myself, not all with a professional work ethic. While others struggled to get extensions to contracts because of this, I had no such problems and for the best part of fifteen years built a solid client base up and down the UK. During this time, along with my wife, I came to saving faith in Jesus Christ, which, naturally, was a huge turning point for us.
However, as with all gravy trains, they don't stay on the tracks for long. As with their usual 'let's crack this nut with a sledge hammer' strategy, an over-zealous government decided to remove the financially beneficial facility of limited company status for people like myself. This all done in the name of cracking down on 'tax evaders'. The writing was on the wall and I soon found the IT market all but disappear. It was then that I decided to diversify and put my hand to novel writing amongst other activities.
People often ask me 'where did the idea of Three Minutes come from? Truth be told, Woodmouth Albion was birthed at High School where, along with a few friends, I begun sketchy ideas of a football story. Like most creative work it gets put on the ever cooling back-burner and the responsibilities of life drown out any opportunities of ever giving time to frivolities such as writing.
Writing is, if you are going to do it with any seriousness, a very time-consuming business. It isn't just bashing away tirelessly on a keyboard, carefully knitting together endless dialogue and descriptions of people and places. It is the necessity of getting to know people like they are real and being able to anticipate how they would deal with any given situation. As with the majority of aspiring writers, we find we aren't able to devote time to it because we are too busy earning a crust. For me I had the cushion of finances for a while to allow me to work part-time and to give the necessary extra attention to the project. From prayer, God gave me a very clear strategy to complete the project: I was to split each chapter into three major events, each containing approximately seven pages. I now had a framework to work within and instead of writing a book, I was now writing chapters. Now, some authors find it easy to start at the beginning, proceed happily through the middle and culminate comfortably at the end. For me, I didn't find it that simple. I wrote as I had inspiration and that quite often meant that the production of the story flitted back and forth like an ebbing tide. I have been told that full-time authors can produce a book in a year. From attacking the project with a healthy amount of attention, it took me seven. I soon realised that having a completed draft was about two-thirds of the way there. There was then the endless editing, proof reading, re-writing scenes and moving chunks to be used in future volumes.
Where does one get ideas for characters? Life is full, if we look carefully, of acquaintances, work-mates, family members, all with idiosyncrasies and traits which can soon mould into people. All we need to do is observe.
The name Jordan Westward came about one day out of the blue. I had wanted a name that was original, punchy and memorable. Then one day I happened to be reading Joshua chapter 5 in the Bible. Sure enough, there was the name: “And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of JORDAN WESTWARD...” A man was born.
Three Minutes was originally to be a single volume. However, it wasn't long before I realised that the amount of material on hand constituted at least two and eventually three. Eventually, ideas for a fourth volume materialised which would chronicle Westward's fortunes as England manager.
Writing is rarely the work of an individual. I have to give immense thanks to my long-suffering but ever-creative wife, my children, the highly innovative skills of my cover designer and many others who helped turn a rough draft into 270 pages of novel. I must also give a big thank you to Matador publishers who bravely took on the physical job of taking the final draft and turning it into what I hope you will give time to read – and hopefully come back for the future instalments as they come available.
Can anybody write a book? Sure they can. Just establish what the goal of the book is and stick to that. We are not all going to become the next Lee Child or J.K. Rowling but that shouldn't stop anyone from putting ideas down on paper. You never know whose life you may impact. Good luck to you!