Better Know An Author – Geoff Hall

Our weekly spotlight series on authors from around the world. This week we sat down with Geoff Hall!

Please give a brief introduction including your name and where you are based

Hi, I’m Geoff Hall and I’m based in Bristol, UK. I started writing in 1995, so I guess that dates me. I was an Arts Editor on a magazine called The Big Picture’, which was published in South Africa. This came to an end in 1999/2000.

What book or books have you published or are working on at the moment?

My novel, “0w1:believe” has just been published. It’s a supernatural political horror story, set in my home city of Bristol and is part one of a three-part series. Think of it as ‘1984’ with bestial demons and vampire priests. It follows a group of young political dissidents, called The Group, who are artists and coders. They are committed to social change through non-violence and are inspired to this commitment by the White Rose Movement, who stood against the Nazi Regime in Munich (1942/43).

You may recall the film ‘Sophie Scholl: The Last Days’ (2005 – Marc Rothemund). The White Rose were a group of students who wrote pamphlets and painted graffiti on public buildings, saying things like “Hitler is a Murderer”. They were caught, interrogated, tried and executed (by guillotine) in the space of four days.

The book is available here:

Apple Books:

https://books.apple.com/gb/book/0w1-believe/id1572689790

Amazon Kindle:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097CGR4RT

I’m working on publicizing the novel at the moment and have dedicated the next six months of my life to it!

In terms of writing, over the last few years, I’ve been working on backstories for the novel. These are written by different character: Strix, and his parents Jack and Shula. It’s a little like an actor getting into character for a role. They each have different characteristics as writers. Strix is a writer of journals, who can be quite acerbic and angst-ridden. Some of his work appears in the novel, with more on the website:

https://www.worldofowl.co.uk/owlnewsblog/strixs-journal-violence

Jack was known by the State Press as the ‘toxic poet’ for his anti-State views. Shula his partner only appears, so far, in the backstories. She was a model and a mystic poet, and equally her fate was set by the hands of the Press; leading to dire consequences.

Writing for such diverse characters is a challenge, but well worth the focus of attention.

The plan is, when resources allow, to create a short series of graphic novels for some of these backstories. Finding the right artist will be important for us, to make sure we find the right visual style.

What drives you to write?

Kafka wrote in one of his letters:

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading it for?…”

My focus as a writer, whether for film or fiction novels, has been on social concerns. I love genre-bending and so any issue is treated with that in mind. My aim is to wound, to wake people up. A few years ago, I wrote a screenplay called Seeing Rachel. It’s about sex-trafficking and the treatment of the story moves from a procedural crime drama, to a horror film as we plummet the depths of the predator’s psyche.

The novel, “0w1:believe”, is a dystopian political drama but instead of just focusing on the greyness of The Group’s existence, we are introduced to the ‘vision space’. Even with a totalitarian State, there are cracks in their political reality and it is through those cracks that a world of bestial demons and vampire priests, down at the local cathedral, opens up.

As a writer, I focus on the social aspects of problems but heighten that reality by introducing, supernatural or psychological elements.

I think society is in a mess, the political and spiritual systems are in a state of dilapidation and as well as alienating them, they treat people as chattel. It is my job as a writer to stir the imagination of readers and viewers, to see that a different world is possible outside of our reliance on Statist institutions; both of the temporal and so-called eternal kind – Government and Church.

Where can folks find you online and on social media?

I can be found hanging out on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/GeoffHall_OWL

Please use the hashtags #owlbelieve and #enterthevisionspace to find the relevant threads or help promote the book. Thanks.

Or you will find me at the World of 0w1 website, which is there to promote the book and help to expound the issues and themes of the novel.

https://www.worldofowl.co.uk/

There is also a soundtrack for the novel, on Spotify. The novel is written with immersive storytelling in mind and so as you read the book there are links to the music they are listening to, or lyrics that they recite:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/48XCrlf2KjBh6SKjCD36Wc?si=0129f71d4d774799

And finally, you will find part of my consciousness at Stage 32:

https://www.stage32.com/GeoffHall

What is one piece of advice you would give to another author out there who might be struggling?

Read widely, write deeply. And never give up. And remember, your time may not be just yet.

What are some of your five-year goals with writing?

To work with great talent to get the novels out there and the backstories too. And to get that darn film made. At the end of those 5 years, I’ll be 69, by the way!

Final thoughts?

We are given these incredible gifts to communicate with people in a way that politicians and bureaucrats can’t; even though they control the world (for now). The great filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky tells us that there should be no split between our artwork and our social commitments. That’s my challenge to myself and to you, reading this.

And thank you Daniel, for this opportunity to talk about my work.

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