Hi Jon Cocks, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Oltobooks : Tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Jon Cocks : I am a retired secondary teacher of Drama and English from South Australia. Over my working life I wrote plays for students and one in 2015 that led to writing 'Angel of Aleppo, a Story of the Armenian Genocide'. I am married to an Armenian woman (since 2010)
Oltobooks : What are your ambitions for your writing career?
Jon Cocks : I want to get 'Angel of Aleppo' out into the sunlight as a well-read novel that highlights the Armenian pain at the 1915-23 Genocide remaining unacknowledged by the Turkish successors to the Ottoman Empire perpetrators. I want to make the book into a movie to increase the power of its message.
Oltobooks : When did you decide to become a writer?
Jon Cocks : When I was in primary school
Oltobooks : Why do you write?
Jon Cocks : Because I have something to say
Oltobooks : What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Jon Cocks : The injustice of the Armenian genocide
Oltobooks : Where do your ideas come from?
Jon Cocks : Externally, when there is an obvious issue like the genocide. generally, they come from lived experience. I love comedy and Monty Python. My humour is influenced by the Pythons.
Oltobooks : What is the hardest thing about writing?
Jon Cocks : Persisting
Oltobooks : What is the easiest thing about writing?
Jon Cocks : Being in the zone, when the ideas and words are flowing
Oltobooks : If this book is part of a series, tell us a little about it?
Jon Cocks : 'Angel' is a standalone story of one woman's journey through a terrible event. It highlights injustice, it calls for action but it is ultimately a story about the healing power of love.
Oltobooks : What are your thoughts on writing a book series?
Jon Cocks : I have not thought about it in depth, other thn entertain an idea for a time-slip series, after I gain some success for 'Angel'.
Oltobooks : What is your favourite positive saying?
Jon Cocks : Today is a new day
Oltobooks : Where can you see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Jon Cocks : Better known, healthy and a bit wealthier
Oltobooks : What advice would you give to your younger self?
Jon Cocks : Don't smoke, drink less, exercise more, focus more on writing, avoid procrastination,
I sat so merry in my abode
Loving hands around me
I dreamt of such glorious days
One day i would see
I remember the day I left
My room
I closed the door behind me
One quick look again
Then walked away
The room which would always remind me
The glorious days I had dreamt
I did merrily spent
How little did I then know
Life turns on a dime
My room is now not as it was
When I closed the door
Behind me
My room now is a prison
But not how one would invision
It is one of sorrow and grief
Sadness burns into the bare walls
I catch my breath
And weep
Why did thou'st doth betray?
The room which once embraced me
I ask with riddled heart
Jagged and torn
Which wicked riddles have I thus sought?
I sit still
I am now my room
No dreams as once before
I age before my open door
In my room long ago
I sat merrily in my loving abode
Loving hands did hold me
All gone
My room and myself
Now one
Two thrust to be together
Forever
Alone