Today we are diving into the world of the Six Kingdoms with G. R. Matthews, author of A Good Day to Die.

Rawlins is a walking disaster with a blade, a temper and a talent for making problems worse before he makes them better. Which means interviewing the person who built him is just as much fun as you would expect.

Matthews brings a wonderfully sharp sense of humour to his work and an equally sharp honesty to his answers. From awful life advice to tactical frying pans to the worst holiday destination imaginable, this Q&A gives a brilliant look at how his books come together and what makes Rawlins such an entertaining menace.

Settle in and enjoy.

About the Author

After studying for a Diploma in Creative Writing, G. R. Matthews taught the subject at A Level and holds a BSc (Hons) in Geography. He currently works in education with a focus on Child Protection and Safeguarding, and writes in the evenings between convincing his children to go to bed and resisting the urge to binge Eureka. He’s trained (and been hit a lot) in Judo, Kung fu, Wing Chun and Kickboxing, claims no great skill in any (see: being hit), and is a long-time D&D enthusiast who favours the rogue. A self-taught guitarist, he sometimes even sings — and most of the audience has recovered. At night he dreams that Spielberg, Lucas, or Keanu Reeves reads his books and calls about a film deal. He lives with his long-suffering wife, two children, and two hamsters who show him the respect he deserves.

Rawlins is a walking disaster with excellent narrative timing. When you created him, did he arrive fully chaotic or did he slowly evolve into the man who attracts trouble like it owes him money?**

Rawlins arrived as an idea, a way of exploring a villain’s viewpoint. I wanted him to be dark, violent and blunt. He has been betrayed, lost all he thought he held dear and been left with nothing. He does not really know who he is, only what he did not want to be, and so he makes choices which conform to a skewed idea of what he has become, what people expect of him.

He goes after those who betray him, refuses to listen to advice and gets himself into trouble. He is competent and uncaring towards those he sees as weaker. They are prey, he is the hunter. And for those who stole the ideal he built himself into, he has no sympathy. He wants them to understand their mistake. In their downfall he rebuilds himself, or so he thinks.

If Rawlins had to give someone life advice, what would his top three tips be? (We assume none of them are good.)

Loyalty is a dagger, keep the pointed end away from your heart.

Meet every insult with a fist, or sword, or axe.

There are always folks bigger than you, so hit them when they are down, or preferably asleep, or better yet, unconscious.

If your cast were stuck in a pub during a storm, who starts the fight, who ends the fight and who finishes the drinks?

Starts the fight? Rawlins, every single time.

Finishes it? Wilone without anger, without a smile, but with a sharp blade across the throat.

Finishes the drinks? Probably Rawlins, loudly telling everyone he is the scariest person around. The crowd will be staring at Wilone as she wipes her blade clean and sits back down to finish her interrupted meal.

If Esadale had tourism posters, what would the slogan be?

Try Esadale’s famous herbs and forget your worries… try enough of them and you will forget everything.

Which location in the Six Kingdoms would be the worst possible holiday destination, and why is it even worse than we think?

Aeledyfr in the far North-West of the Six Kingdoms. It is sparsely populated and absolutely beautiful. Snow-capped peaks, deep valleys, forests and lakes fed by warm springs. There are ribbons of colourful minerals around some lakes.

Of course, it is all sat atop a super-volcano. Some of those stunning pools are boiling hot or highly acidic and will strip flesh from bone in seconds. What looks like solid ground might be a thin crust above rivers of boiling water. Some valleys are filled with poisonous mist.

But it looks beautiful.

When writing something so gritty and sharp, what do you do to reset your brain?

I drink a lot of coffee, Earl Grey tea (hot), play guitar and take Poppy, my dog, for walks. I do not have a window in my writing room, sadly.

Writing Rawlins or other villain viewpoints is not really me. I like books with hope, redemption and the fight for what is right. A Good Day to Die begins as a revenge story and Rawlins is not a nice man. His emotions are blunted by his experiences. I cannot wallow in the dark for too long.

So a good round of first-person shooters is perfect. Suck it up, losers.

(Not really. I tend to be the one who gets killed first. I am old, slow, colour-blind and bad at them.)

Do you draft your action scenes first, or do they ambush you the same way they ambush Rawlins?

It is all about location. Rawlins fights differently in a tunnel, a room or on the streets. He may not be the strongest, but he has an innate grasp of tactics.

When I write any fight scene, it starts with where they are and what skills the characters have.

Give Rawlins a blade and he knows where to stick it.

Corin uses improvised weapons, including forks and frying pans.

Huang only uses a sword.

Kyron uses magic.

Wei uses a sniper rifle.

I see battles play out in my head. Moves, reactions, what happens if something goes wrong. Very few of my fight scenes are duels. They are about survival, so anything goes.

Your books have a wonderfully dry, crooked sense of humour. Do you plan the snark or does it just show up uninvited?

That is probably just me. I have a crooked sense of humour and sometimes keeping my mouth shut is impossible. People have given me strange looks when I hear my own words at the same time they do. The brain brake fails.

Corin is a great outlet for that. Rawlins too. In other books I try to rein it in and use it only when needed.

I am also British. That probably explains a lot.

What is the most fun kind of scene for you to write: banter, arguments, disasters or very poor life choices?

Banter. Always. Arguments that slide into banter are even better. Once that starts, the characters are working together in the right way.

Rawlins and Wilone have a strange relationship. She never speaks more than four words at a time and still manages to puncture his ego effortlessly.

Those moments make me smile, laugh and sometimes tear up when emotional scenes land. Not because the writing is bad. And do not tempt me. I will set Rawlins on you.

What is one question you wish readers would ask but never do?

I always wanted more readers to notice the link between three of my series. The one common thread that appears in all of them. A few have spotted it and that is a great feeling.

A huge thank you to G. R. Matthews for this wonderfully entertaining interview. Few authors can switch so effortlessly between grim violence, tactical thinking and perfectly timed humour, and it shows both on the page and in these answers.

If you enjoyed this glimpse into Rawlins’s chaotic world, you will have an even better time reading A Good Day to Die. The book is brutal, clever and wildly entertaining, and Rawlins himself is one of the most compelling disasters you will ever follow.

A Good Day to Die is available now, you can order your copy on Amazon