Page 73 - Phonebox Magazine July 2016

That’s so true, I say the same thing to my guitar students; the more you pick up your guitar and sing the better you will become, and the more chance that you will have of falling in love with your chosen art, and that’s when it gets amazing. So what’s next Adam, where is your story going?
“Well I’ve just signed a deal with Amazon’s crime imprint Thomas & Mercer to republish “Her Last Tomorrow” and release my next novel, provisionally titled Only the Truth, in 2017. So it’s all looking great, my wife is leaving her job to come and run the admin side of things for me, so we’ll have more time together, we’ve paid off our mortgage with just the last twenty week’s worth of book sales, it’s all going so well, the dream really is coming true.”
“We’re delighted that Adam has chosen to
join the Thomas & Mercer imprint – we’re looking forward to helping bring his pacy, dark thrillers to a wider audience,” said Eoin Purcell, UK leader of Amazon Publishing. “Adam is an exciting voice in one of the most interesting genres in crime writing right now, whose work really explores the psychological depths of his characters. We’re excited to help introduce him to new readers.”
So is there anything else you’d like to say?
“Yeah, it’s my round next time we have a beer.”
I’m truly over the moon for Adam, he’s a lovely fella who works hard for his art, when most are watching the television at night you’ll nd him sitting down writing. Some people think
it’s easy, it’s not, for every Adam Croft there are thousands of artists out there who are waiting for their break too, some of them may never get that break, and not because they aren’t great artists, it might be that it’s just not their time. But the one thing about people like Adam is the fact that he’d be writing even if he never had his break, he wrote before it and he’ll continue to write even if he never sold another book, he’s not in it for the fame or the money, he’s in it because he loves writing, just as I love writing songs, and that’s the thing, if you’re writing just because you love writing and for no other reason, then that’s what you should do, if it’s in you to do your art then always, always follow your heart. – But do it now, time waits for no-one.
Adam’s website here: http://adamcroft.net
If you’d like to see Adam in the video for “Christmas at our House” then visit: www.ianrobertsmusic.org
“About half way through the novel, the story changes completely as we get to see Angela’s legacy come to fruition. It is set in the future, but it’s not designed to be science- ction – there’s just no escaping the fact some of the story needs to move forward in time, otherwise I couldn’t explore the end game of the narrative I’d started.
“The novel is as much about the concept of legacy as it is with death, which is designed to make people hopeful, but also to give them pause when thinking about the possibility of living longer – or eventually forever. I don’t believe it would be the utopia many people think it could be.”
You can nd out more about John’s book here: https://unbound.co.uk/books/ghosts- in-the-machine
Olney Resident, John Auckland, Discusses His New Book
AGhosts in the Machine
uthor, John Auckland, is crowd- with cancer, John came up with the idea of funding his latest book, ‘Ghosts writing the book. He says, “I had the idea in the Machine’. Following the for the book when my Grandfather was journey of a successful biotech quite ill. He was diagnosed with cancer and
CEO who has a fear of dying, the novel – at I was very close to him so struggled to come
the time of writing – is over 81% funded on John’s crowd funding website and it is almost certain that the book will be published. Ghosts in the Machine is the Olney resident’s second book; his first being a university project that he turned into a full manuscript and published independently. John is passionate about crowd funding and has jumped at the chance to crowd-fund Ghosts in the Machine online. Clearly, now the book is almost completely funded, the crowd- funding website has been a great success. The book itself is about Angela, a CEO of a global pharmaceutical company. She is both fascinated and terri ed by the thought of dying so, using the company’s vast resources, she attempts to nd a cure for ageing. John explains, “The novel explores the idea of nding a cure for ageing, since by all de nitions it is a disease, and history has taught us that human ingenuity can nd a cure to most diseases.”
Following his Grandfather being diagnosed
to terms with it. He was still so strong and clear of mind, and it didn’t feel like it was his time. I remember reading about an African American woman called Henrietta Lacks who unknowingly donated cells from her cancerous tumour to John Hopkins Hospital back in the early 50s. Her cells formed part of the rst immortal cell line – they will never die. But, of course, the catch is that they’re cancerous. I realised cancer and immortality were closely linked, and knew instantly there was a story in there somewhere, and that I wanted to write it in my Grandfather’s memory.”
The real-life themes that John has personally experienced are very clearly incorporated in the book. John explains, “Angela discovers early on in the book that she has cancer and that her worst fears are coming true. It sounds quite morbid, but actually the book is designed to explore our relationship with death and, in some ways, come to terms with it.
July 2016 | Phonebox Magazine 73