William Cook

Well, I hope you all had a fright-filled Halloween and Samhain season this year. Halloween is a relatively new event in New Zealand cultural history and so the scares don’t come out en masse as they do in the USA. When I was a kid, my pals and I would make absurd effigies of ‘Guy Fawkes’ on November the 5 th . We’d stuff an old pair of overalls with rags and rolled-up newspaper and then push it around in a heavy-steel wheelbarrow, chanting “Guy! Guy! Money for the Guy. If you don’t have any money, then a smile will do. If you don’t have a smile, then God bless you!” Depending on who it was we’d usually give them this spiel, but if we didn’t like them we’d throw in a few other choice lines to give the chant a bit more pep. People would give us apples and lollies (candy) and sometimes loose-change and we’d all huddle round as the sun was going down and count our loot. If we had enough, we’d race down to the corner store (we call it a ‘dairy’ over here) and buy a swag of ‘Double Happys’...

Hi Folks Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts lately - some of you may know that I recently began my Masters in English Lit. program and it is proving to be the inevitable time-guzzler that I thought it would be! So, less fiction, more academic writing . . . Grrrrrr. Despite the time consuming factor, I am learning a lot as I go and it's valuable information which will hopefully benefit my writing. The topic of my thesis is: American Postmodern Serial Killer Fiction , and I'm analyzing the following select works - Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me , James Ellroy’s Killer on the Road , Brett Easton Ellis’s American Psycho , Poppy Z. Brite’s Exquisite Corpse and Joyce Carol Oates’s Zombie . Here's a slice of the intro - as you will notice, the style is not my usual pared-down prose . B ear in mind that this is the first draft, but you get the idea: "The vast body of published texts, which constitute the genre of serial killer fiction, reveal common narrative...

Some days, you wake up thinking the day will be much the same as the previous one  . . . and then you see that someone has liked one of your books enough to leave a positive review on Amazon or Goodreads et al. These days I live for. Not so much for the kudos and a back-pat (although, undeniably, an ego massage never goes amiss, when you're wondering if anyone is actually reading the stuff you've slaved over) but for the fact that someone has read something you wrote and enjoyed it. Bringing pleasure to my readers, even if it is a macabre fear-filled type of pleasure, is why I continue to write and I thank you for it. Yes, you - the reader. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your patronage and time and I hope that I can continue to surprise and satisfy you with my words. Here is the review in question that I woke up to today:     "5.0 out of 5 stars A Book You'll Read More Than Once!   January 18, 2015 by Mary Genevieve Fortier ...

A big shout-out to my readers and viewers of this website (hopefully you are one and the same *wink*), wishing you all the best for 2015 and beyond. This year is going to be a big one for me - for the first time in my short writing career, I have put together a publishing schedule. I know - Shock! Horror!  2015 publishing schedule is as follows: March - 3 x eBooks, 1 x print + eBook June - 3 x eBooks, 1 x print + eBook September - 3 x eBooks, 1 x print + eBook December - 3 x eBooks, 1 x print + eBook I've looked at my progress as an author and feel that this schedule is completely achievable (knock on wood) unless I happen to lose a limb et cetera. At least two of the print titles will be full novel-length works, one of which will be the sequel to my first horror/thriller novel ' Blood Related .' There will be a fresh collection of short fiction (horror-based, similar to ' Dreams of Thanatos '), a collection of non-fiction essays (related to art & lit...

Hi everyone. As it is fast approaching Christmas and the end of the year, I thought it would be a good idea to have a book giveaway for my readers (new and old alike). 2015 is going to be a busy year for me and I hope to be able to produce many more quality books that my readers will enjoy. I will also be branching out into new genre territory with a collection of scary stories for Young Adult readers, a collection of spooky stories for children and my first literary fiction novel. For those of you who like my adult horror, don't worry, there will be plenty more in the new year ahead. I also have a thriller novel and short-fiction series on the boil which, all going well, should be ready to release in the second half of 2015. In order for me to tell you when new releases, giveaways and other cool stuff is happening, please subscribe now to stay in touch. In the meantime - here is how to grab your freebie! The deal is: 1. Be one of the first ten NEW subscribers to this website ...

Nominations are now being accepted for the SFFANZ 2015 Sir Julius Vogel Awards (see below for link/details) and I have two books that are eligible for the ballot this year: Dreams of Thanatos: Collected Macabre Tales and Corpus Delicti: Selected Poetry . The nomination period will close at 8.00pm on 31st January 2015. The awards recognize excellence in science fiction, fantasy, or horror works created by New Zealanders and New Zealand residents, and first published or released in the 2014 calendar year. Anyone can make a nomination and it is free! To make a nomination please email sjv_awards@sffanz.org.nz .  Just copy and paste the following info (for one or both) into the body of your email: WHAT to Put On the Nomination For Dreams of Thanatos: Collected Macabre Tales ESSENTIAL Information This is to enable SFFANZ to verify and process the nomination. Name / Titl...

I try to read and review as many books as possible, especially from those authors who I have read previously and enjoyed. Many of the authors I have read have come by way of recommendation and in my opinion, there is nothing better for a writer than receiving fair, honest and appreciative (of course) reviews. Anyway, I really want to share this one with you guys as Vix makes some delightfully insightful glimpses into each of the stories in my recent collection, ' Dreams of Thanatos. ' After reading the review, maybe check out the collection but also, please, leave a comment below and recommend some of your favorite books. Would love to hear what other authors you guys are reading . . . Amazon Review:  ***** a great collection!   By Vix Kirkpatrick on July 21, 2014 Format: Kindle Edition Firstly I noticed the beautiful cover art and then noted at the back in the blurb that WC...

Recently I was interviewed by author and fellow countryman Tim Jones for his wonderful blog 'Books in the Trees' . I first met Tim whilst completing a creative writing course at Victoria University run by Science Fiction author Robert Onopa . Tim is a fantastic writer and I had the good fortune of being able to include his wonderful story 'Protein' in my horror anthology, Fresh Fear: Contemporary Horror . Please note that Tim is running a give-away for 5 e-copies of Fresh Fear so please visit his blog and follow the prompts to win a copy. Anyway, without further ado, here is the interview:   An Interview With William Cook William Cook was born and raised in New Zealand and is the author of the novel Blood Related . He has written many short stories that have appeared in anthologies and has authored two short-story collections ( Dreams of Thanatos and Death Quartet ) and two collections of poetry ( Journey: the search for something and Corpus Delicti ). ...

Hi everyone - time to update my publications page/s. I have recently added a My Books page where you can easily find a display of all my current titles. I will update this page as more come to hand. I am also preparing a new page especially regarding all the anthologies and magazines where my work has appeared (will do a new post when it is ready to go live). Both pages will have live links and excerpts to make it easy for anyone who wants to check out my work. A heart-felt thanks to all of those who have taken the time to read this website/blog and especially to those of you who have taken a chance on a newbie author and actually purchased my work. If you have read something you like please spare a moment and drop a review on the appropriate Amazon page - it really helps a lot to raise my profile and encourages me greatly to continue this crazy occupation and produce more work for you to read. Thanks again. William Cook BLOOD RELATED "Dark and deeply disturbing...