William Cook

Literary lists are common on the internet; recently on Facebook there has been a rash of ‘list your favorite’ authors, bands, movies, TV shows etc. I was recently asked to play the game whereby you list 15 of the most influential authors and poets you can think of. I played the game and listed my 15 favorites but it got me to thinking about why those writers influenced me and how. Usually, what I considered to be the ‘influential’ aspects of their respective writings were the aesthetic qualities of the work in question and the way in which it challenged me (intellectually). That is, the work influenced me because of the style and the author’s ability to craft a good story that left a lasting impression on me; the uniqueness of the story and the emotion and imagery it conveyed were also important criteria, as were the use of cadence and language to effectively grab and hold the reader’s attention from start to finish. As a writer myself, the question of influence also...

Very pleased to have secured another great review from the fine folk at ' The Horror Fiction Review .' Thanks to Christine Morgan (< make sure you check out her website) who gave a fair and insightful review of my latest collection - Corpus Delicti: Selected Poetry . CORPUS DELICTI by William Cook (2014 James Ward Kirk Publishing / 210 pp / trade paperback) "Poetry can just be so cool … language in a more freeform, flowing arrangement … imagery and evocation … the sound and rhythm of the words, and even the look of them on the page, as much an element as their meaning.  It can also be challenging, maddening, baffling, incomprehensible, and weird. Does it have to rhyme? Is it like a song, or not? How does it work? What is it? What does it do? What does it MEAN? Or, for that matter, DOES it mean anything? And so on. Vincenzo Bilof’s introduction to this collection sums up all that better than I can.  And then you get to W...

As the title above implies . . . for the full list please visit my 'Writer Resources' page here . Reblogged (and slightly rearranged, alphabetically) from Clifford Garstang's fabulous blog/site (see my 'Writer Resources page for link). There is also another excellent list/resource here at http://www.everywritersresource.com. Literary Fiction, Literary Magazines, Literary Fiction Markets, Writers' Markets, Writers Resources

Thought it was about time I gave a shout out to some of the publishers who've taken a chance on my work over the past few years; in particular, James Ward Kirk Fiction and Nicholas Grabowsky from Black Bed Sheet Books . Here is the complete list (including links) of anthologies in which my stories have appeared, in reverse chronological order. The title denotes the anthology name/title and the following title is the name of the story/poem of mine that appears therein. JWK Fiction Best of Horror 2013 - 'Return of the Creep'  Terror Train Anthology - 'One Way Ticket' Serial Killers Quattor - 'Pretty Boy' Memento Mori - 'The Kaleidoscope Kid'     Ugly Babies (Vol II) – ‘Conceived By Death’ Bizarro, Bizarro: An Anthology – ‘The Colony’ Songs For The Raven - ‘Til Death Do Us Part’, ‘Aspects of Infinity’ Four Ghosts – Dead and Buried (Novella) Splatterpunk Saints Antho...

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...

Recently I've had a few books of mine that I've given away for free. If you happened to download a free copy and can be bothered dropping a short review I'd really appreciate it. As someone who has been self publishing for nearly two years now (alongside traditional methods) I have yet to receive my first royalty check from Amazon! Shocking I know, but a true story nonetheless - so, any little review or feedback I receive is cherished and much appreciated as it helps make this whole lark worthwhile. Thanks to those of you who already have left reviews for myself and other authors. If there are any of you out there who would like a free e-version (Kindle,Nook, PDF) for review purposes of any of my titles, please comment in the section below or contact me via williamcookauthor (at) gmail (dot) com- visit my Amazon page here for details about my various titles. Enjoy the rest of your week.  William #books #reviews #indie