April, the month of mayhem!

Recently, a lot of things have been happening. I have joined the team at James Ward Kirk Publishing as Art Director and will be working with Mr Kirk who is publishing an anthology I'm putting together called Fresh Fear: Contemporary Horror, due for release around Halloween this year.

It is the first time I have edited an anthology and the process is quite challenging. Not so much in the proofreading and editing side of things but in the rigorous selection process that is the reading of all the wonderful stories that are still being submitted. The response has been better than I thought and the quality of the submissions is high. Writers who I have looked up to for years have been kind enough to reply to the submission call and lots of exciting up-and-coming indie authors have responded in kind.

In between these events I am putting the finishing touches on a new novel that follows on where Blood Related left off - yes, a sequel. Currently working on a novella for another anthology and a collection of poetry due for release sometime in the months ahead. So all in all, a busy but productive start to the year and I'm glad you readers are coming along for the ride.

If anyone would like a free kindle/pdf copy of any of my books to date, please leave a comment below or contact me via my Facebook page. Have a great April.

*****

If you write good quality scary horror, you may want to consider submitting to Fresh Fear - check it out.

Fresh Fear Anthology: Call for Submissions
I am putting together an anthology of quality Horror fiction due for publication Nov/Dec 2013 (print + Ebook). ‘Fresh Fear’ will profile international authors of Horror. There will be some established players and also representatives from the thriving indie scene.

Prerequisite: the stories must be original, previously unpublished and scary as hell!

It’s going to be published by James Ward Kirk Publishing and edited by myself (William Cook). The stories I’m looking for have to induce a sense of Horror/Terror in the reader – the kind of fear that makes someone keep reading but prevents them from sleeping! That is the main thematic criteria. Zombie stories are ok but only something special will be selected from subs. Psychological Horror is preferred. No explicit sexual abuse allowed.

Looking for short fiction between 3,000-8,000 words (neg.)
(No flash-fiction or Poetry)

The anthology will be available for Christmas so plenty of time to send us your best Horror stories.

Deadline: Submissions open (unless otherwise filled) until August 14, 2013
Standard terms and conditions apply. 

Please send submissions to freshfearantho@gmail.com

Put FRESH FEAR SUB in the subject line.
Double space, 2 spaces after a period, indent paragraphs, show scene break by a centered ***
don’t double dash — use the dash you want…
No headers, footers, or page numbers.
don’t underline for italics, use italics
Submit work as a Word Doc or RTF.
TIMES NEW ROMAN SIZE 12
put your BIO at the end of the story.

Contributor payment: US $10 per story + contributors copy (Ebook + Print) + discounted wholesale copies for cons etc.

Rights: First World English, Digital, Print, and Anthology.

Rejections/Acceptances will be announced electronically by the end of August, 2013 (if not before). Please include email address on bio.

Kind regards

William Cook + James Ward Kirk Publishing

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