ABOUT/CONTACT

William Cook


William Cook is a writer of the macabre (and non-fiction) from New Zealand, a small antipodean island group in the South Pacific. When not writing, he looks after two small daughters and designs book covers that are designed to scare the hell out of people. Having held down a multitude of jobs he brings to his writing a vast array of experience that translates to the page in the form of strange characters and situations that bleed horror. From slinging timber in lumber yards, cutting plastic film in a meat packaging company, making rat-poison and acid cleaning products, working on a prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpenteria, selling ads, and teaching English in Korea, to name a few of the roles he has performed - being a starving writer seemed like a completely viable occupation.


“This man is simply scary. There is both a clinical thoroughness and a heartfelt emotional thoroughness to his writing. He manages to shock as well as empathize, to scare as well as acclimatize, yet beneath it all is a well read intelligence that demands to be engaged. I loved Blood Related. Ordinarily I hate serial killer stories, but William Cook won me over. He is a unique and innovative talent.”

– Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Flesh Eaters and Dog Days


William received the rights back for his debut novel 'Blood Related ,' and re-released it early 2015. Writing it was a labor of love and took him roughly six years and it wasn't until he changed day-jobs that he had the time to bring it all together as a debut novel. The novel is about a disturbed young man called Caleb Cunningham, whose violent father is a suspected serial killer and mother, an insane alcoholic. After his father's suicide, Cunningham's disturbing fantasy-life becomes reality, as he begins his killing spree in earnest. His identical twin brother Charlie is released from an asylum and all hell is about to break loose, when the brothers combine their deviant talents. Blood Related is a serial-killer/crime novel told in a first-person narrative style from the killer's (Caleb's) point-of-view.


"William Cook is a dark author of terror and a master of the close up scene of realistic crime and acts of horror. There are a handful of new names in the horror field who cause a visceral reaction in the reader and Cook is one of them. He has his hand on the pulse of the macabre."
- Billie Sue Mosiman, author of Wireman

If readers would like more information on 'Blood Related', including bibliographical and background information on the extensive research and reading done while creating the novel, please visit: http://bloodrelated.wordpress.com/

William Cook is also the editor of the anthology Fresh Fear: Comporary Horror, featuring authors such as Ramsey Campbell, Jack Dann, Robert Dunbar, JF Gonzalez, Shane Mackenzie, Billie Sue Mosiman, and Charlee Jacob amongst others. 

William's current WIP is a sequel to 'Blood Related,' tentatively titled 'Blood Trail' and should be available by the end of 2016. This work deals more with the character of Detective Ray Truman, as he struggles with his own demons and his obsessive pursuit of Caleb Cunningham, the main character in 'Blood Related'. 

William is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction book, 'Gaze Into The Abyss: The Poetry of Jim Morrison,' (released in 2015 by New Street Communications) and the popular 'Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors.' Keep a look out for William's future publications, including more non-fiction, literary fiction, poetry and, of course, more psychological thrillers! Follow his Amazon Author page for new titles.

William Cook bids you well and hopes you enjoy his macabre offerings and that they may whet your appetite for more in the future.

Member of the Horror Writers Association, the Australian Horror Writers Association, SpecFicNZ & SFFANZ
  
Author Links

Amazon author page
Twitter @williamcook666
Facebook Friend Me
Facebook Page Like My Page
GoodReads Become a Fan
LinkedIn Connect With Me

The best way to contact William directly is via e-mail.

PRESS

To arrange an interview or discuss a feature, feel free to e-mail me.
I am available for personal appearances in New Zealand and Australia at this stage. Unless you're covering the bill . . . then I'll go anywhere.

RIGHTS/MEDIA INQUIRIES

Publishers, Media Outlets (film. online etc) and/or Translation Services (international and/or domestic), interested in the rights to any of my books, please contact William Cook via email in the first instance.


Further Endorsements

 "William Cook tells a gruesome story with a sense of authenticity that makes you question with considerable unease if it really is fiction, after all." Graham Masterton, author of The Manitou and Descendant

“William Cook - writer, poet, artist, editor. This talented man has no illusions about the horror that is human nature. His exploration of torture, murder and mayhem combines the scientific precision of a scientist dissecting a specimen with the creative flair of a sculptor working with words. Something tells me that he is just getting started and we’ll be seeing a lot more of his dark crafts in the future.”
– Anna Taborska, author of For Those Who Dream Monsters, director of The Rain Has Stopped, Ela, The Sin, My Uprising, A Fragment of Being
 
“William Cook is an uncompromising horror writer. Be prepared to slink down the underbelly of the world as visions are revealed that can't be unseen. Strong stomachs required here folks!”
- Rocky Wood, President of The Horror Writers Association and Stephen King biographer.

“A world-creator who fuses the psychosis of character with literary poetics, William Cook will disturb you, enlighten you, and entertain you.”
- Vincenzo Bilof, author of The Horror Show

“William Cook is an author to watch.”
- Mark Edward Hall, author of The Lost Village and The Holocaust Opera
  
“William Cook is a damn good writer. His style of writing and how he composes a story is exactly what horror readership is starving for and why horror movie fans should start reading him if they don’t already. They don't know what they're missing. His stories are part Tarantino in their brilliance, Thomas Harris in raw violence, and utterly William Cook in originality.”
- Nicholas Grabowsky, author of Halloween IV and The Everborn

“William Cook creates madness with the unsettling candor of yanking a hair out all the way to its root. He gets right to the point with a bloody scalpel edginess and an EEK Factor attached. I admire his darkness in drawings and savor the same startlingly macabre imagery in his verse and prose.”
- Lori R. Lopez, author of An Ill Wind Blows and The Fairy Fly

“William Cook knows horror from Fiction to Nonfiction, and he has a gift for blending the two genres seamlessly. You pray his fictional horror is not real, and hope his nonfiction horror is fiction. No matter what book of Cook's you read, you'll be hoping and praying. Here is Horror that you revel in with fascination and repulsion. William Cook has reinvented "Libertine Horror".”
- Anthony Servante, author of East Los and Killers and Horror: Ink Black, Blood Red




 

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