Recent Interview: Men in Horror: WILLIAM COOK

Recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Malina Roos for her very cool blog: How To Dismantle Your Life. Check it out.

Men in Horror: WILLIAM COOK

I first read William Cook a couple of years ago and was immediately enthralled with his writing and his style. The book I read was BLOOD RELATED. I loved it. It was intense, creepy, dark and twisted.   For some reason, my review of this book has disappeared from Amazon and Goodreads, so I dug it up and reposted it.  

"Be warned, this tale is not for anyone who dislikes gore and violence.

This is a brilliant tale of fathers and sons, serial killing at its finest and the legacy families create. Charlie and Caleb Cunningham are twins and serial killers, following in the footsteps of their father and grandfather.

The story is told through letters, news articles and from the points of view of the killers, the police and the doctors involved. All the pieces of the story are woven together beautifully through the the magical way William Cook has with syntax. Well worth the read....if you can stomach it."

William Cook

1.     When did you start writing horror?

I started writing horror stories (although I didn’t know they were horror stories) when I was about ten years old. The first one I wrote won a school competition – it was about a boy who gets lost in a strange desert where he witnesses giant heads falling out of the sky. He discovers that the heads are being fired out of a cannon by a voodoo witch-doctor who has somehow reversed the process of shrinking heads. I think I got the idea after watching King Solomon’s Mines and seeing the scary witch doctor in the movie. My first real horror publication was a story called ‘Devil Inside’ which was published in 2010 in Lee Pletzer’s Masters of Horror Anthology. Since then I haven’t stopped.

2.   Have you written in any other genre?

Yes, I have recently ventured into Science Fiction, Young Adult and even had a story published in a collection of children’s Christmas tales. I also write a lot of poetry – too much perhaps, and my first ever book published was a limited edition release called ‘Journey: The Search for Something’ way back in 1996.

3.  What makes you uncomfortable?

Bad reviews! Seriously though, I am not a fan of needles – absolutely hate getting jabbed, especially at the dentist when they use those syringes and stick them in the roof of your mouth etc. Bullies also make me uncomfortable and I quite often write about them. Usually really bad things happen to them in my books.

4.  Does your family read your work?

I deliberately don’t encourage them to read my (horror) books for obvious reasons. Although some of my newer work like the kid’s stories and science fiction I don’t mind as much. I’ve found it’s very true the old adage that the worst critics are family and friends – I don’t know why the hell it is but I can count the friends and family (you know who you are) who have bothered reading my books on one hand! I used to actively seek feedback on my writing from friends and family in the early days, but gave up when I realized any critique from such quarters was largely pointless as it was either biased or I could tell they hadn’t actually read the work in question. Sort of related to the question . . . I am working on a small kids book with my seven-year-old daughter who is a keen writer herself. She has written about ten pages so far of a story about zombies (don’t know where she gets that from!) and it’s really good. Obviously I’m biased (see above) but it really is good and I’m looking forward to publishing it for her when it’s finished.

5.  Does your writing make you uneasy?

Most of the time, no. However, it really depends on the subject matter though and I must admit to getting a bit nervous about some of my research subjects for stories. Not so much in the subject material but in what other people or readers will think of the finished stories. I am a bit paranoid about the NSA and their monitoring of certain taboo subjects that are common to the grist of the horror mill. Subjects like ‘terror’, murder and serial killers, for example, are common research subjects for horror authors and ‘red-flag’ search strings that are actively monitored by the powers that be. I used to feel uneasy when writing about topics (such as described above) but I think that I have largely become desensitized to the emotional effects of dealing with this material on a daily basis. Writing ‘Blood Related, my novel about a family of serial-killers, definitely made me pretty strung-out and slightly disturbed due to having to project the main character’s stream of consciousness on to the page via a first person narrative. Five years of my free-time went into this book and I researched just about every case of serial murder that I could find which definitely impacted on my psyche but paid off in the final presentation of the story. Suffice to say, I now have an encyclopedic knowledge of these weirdos whether I like it or not!

6.  Who would you say you write like?

I write like me of course! My writing style or ‘voice’ is a collage of influence and styles – everything from the way I learned to write at school, the accent of my written voice (a combination of UK and US spelling and theory), the authors I have read over and over again, and the evolution of my own style and development as a writer. I don’t try to write like anyone but I do try to write like someone who knows what they’re doing (hopefully). Over the past five years I have been intentionally writing in the (north) American vernacular and it was a decision that I worried about for a while but it largely came down to the way certain words were spelled and styled and now it is like second nature to me. My schooling was based on a U.K. education system and we were taught to spell and write according to the commonwealth rules and style-guides of the day. 

7.  Who are your favourite authors?

I have many favorite authors and it will be no surprise that writers like Stephen King, James Herbert, Robert Bloch, Robert McCammon, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe and Ramsey Campbell are at the top of the list. Over and above horror the authors I love to read again and again are Sherwood Anderson, Roald Dahl, James Ellroy, Colin Wilson, Charles Bukowski, Ray Bradbury, Peter Carey, Dostoyevsky and Thomas Harris. For a full rundown on my favorite books and authors, check out my list here: http://www.williamcookwriter.com/2013/08/favorite-books-list.html

8.  Who influences you as a writer?

I find that I’m not really influenced by people directly but that I am more influenced by the things that people create. Art influences me greatly in my writing, film and music particularly, but graphic art and, obviously, written works conjure up emotion and IDEAS that definitely inform my own work. Probably the biggest influences on me have been Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. King for his amazing and prolific output and superb writing style and advice (‘On Writing’ really changed the way I approached my writing), Bradbury for his simplicity and story-telling ability that encourages original and creative thought (his stories influenced my dreams for a long time) – a very inspirational pair. Ultimately though, without being too modest, I am my biggest influence. It is up to me to drive myself forward and to push hard with my writing. The outside world is full of influence and affectation, but at the end of the day, it is my will-power and my mind that allows me to sift through all the detritus and glean the remaining gems and pearls of wisdom and apply it to my own style and philosophy. One of the works I studied at University was Harold Bloom’s ‘The Anxiety of Influence’ and it really struck home with me. The central tenet being that writers (specifically poets in Bloom’s discourse, but equally applicable to writers in general in my opinion) are inspired by writers that have come before them and that this somewhat inescapable influence inspires a sense of anxiety in authors attempting to forge new and original works. I believe it is true to a large extent and I work hard to try and create work that is as free from the influence of other authors’ styles and subject matter as much as possible. However, when you write genre fiction, this is a nearly impossible task. No writer creates in a vacuum and for every style we have a representative genre (or sub-genre) and a group of influential writers and works at the helm of such literary movements, regarded as exemplars and pinnacles by which up-and-coming authors should somehow emulate to attain the same success. Unless an author doesn’t read, influence is unavoidable but, in my view, not necessarily a bad thing.      

9. Do you remember what your first horror book was that you read?

The Monster’s Room (or Pete’s Angel) by Hope Campbell introduced me to Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolfman when I was about seven years old. Loved it! The first real horror book I read was probably James Herbert’s The Rats at about eleven years old, followed closely by Shaun Hutson’s Spawn, Stephen King’s Carrie and Night Shift, and Robert McCammon’s Mystery Walk. Suffice to say by the age of twelve I was hooked on horror in any shape or form.

10.  How old were you?

See above. I used to watch Hammer House of Horror on Sunday nights with my Mum when I was eleven/twelve years old. Still cannot work out why mum used to let me watch those shows but wouldn’t let me listen to KISS because she thought they were ‘Satanic’! Go figure!

11.  Is there any subject you will not touch as an author?

Graphic descriptions of pedophilia are something I have no interest in portraying in my work. I have written stories about these creeps before but I feel it is unnecessary to portray the acts for any reason. Implication is far more subtle and effective than graphic description. I write horror that attempts to confront readers with their own fears, not make them sick in the process.

12.  What was the best advice you were given as a writer?

“If you want to be a writer, just write.” Pretty simple really, but a no-brainer (obviously). The best advice about writing I have read/received is Stephen King’s excellent memoir/writing guide – ‘On Writing.’ It is a wonderfully inspiring book for a budding writer, and more so for the writer of dark fiction. Highly recommended.

13.  If you had to start all over again, what would you do different?

I would begin writing as soon as possible, at any age. Self-doubt is one of the biggest killers to a writer’s self-confidence and career. In retrospect, I see that I could have had established myself as an author a lot earlier than I have if I had just given a go instead of doubting my ability and listening to naysayers who were mostly inexperienced or wannabe writers themselves. I would probably not restrict myself to genre fiction as I have up until now. I think I would have made more of an attempt to develop my story-writing skills in Science Fiction and Children’s literature. Oh well, tomorrow’s only a day away – still time to alter direction.

14.  How many books do you read a year?

Between twenty-forty books now that I have a Kindle. Before I started reading eBooks I’d probably only read ten books a year while I was writing. Before I started writing seriously I used to read about forty novels/books a year at least.

15.  Do you write every day?

In one form or another. I do a lot of blog posts and marketing which cuts into my writing time but I try and write at least 1,000 words a day. Life is very busy as I look after two primary school age kids when they’re no tat school and I have a couple of casual jobs that bring in a little bit of cash. Luckily I have a very supportive wife who earns a good salary and who encourages me with my work from home. Without her support, life would be very tough as a writer.

AUTHOR LINKS

Amazon author page

Website http://williamcookwriter.com/

Twitter @williamcook666

Facebook Friend Me

Facebook Page Like My Page

GoodReads Become a Fan

LinkedIn Connect With Me

Google+ Add Me To Your Circle

You can find this interview included in my most recent book, Hopeless (click on the image below to buy - only $0.99): 

A young girl must face her biggest fear – her father. As she struggles to protect her mother from the man who she once idolized, young Hope must confront her situation and the possibility that they may not get out alive. A fast-paced short horror story with a twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat. From the author of Blood Related and Dreams of Thanatos

Bonus Features: includes an additional short story and a recent interview with the author.

Warning: contains adult content + themes of psychological horror and domestic abuse. 

Interview, William Cook, Malina Roos, Men In Horror, New Release, Amazon, Kindle, #Amazon, #Kindle, Horror, #Writing

Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors #6 - Russell Blake

Today, I bring to you the last in the first run of the popular interview series:  Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors. This interview imparts a lot of valuable wisdom that serves as a nice summary to this series. Russell Blake is a best-selling self-published author who has steadily climbed the sales ranks since he embarked on his prolific career. From his bio:

"Featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, and The Chicago Tribune, Russell Blake is the USA Today bestselling author of twenty-eight books, including Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, Zero Sum, King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, Blood of the Assassin, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, The Voynich Cypher, Silver Justice, JET, JET – Ops Files, JET II – Betrayal, JET III – Vengeance, JET IV – Reckoning, JET V – Legacy, JET VI – Justice, JET VII, Sanctuary, Upon A Pale Horse, BLACK, BLACK Is Back, BLACK Is The New Black, and BLACK To Reality.

Non-fiction includes the international bestseller An Angel With Fur (animal biography) and How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time (even if drunk, high or incarcerated), a parody of all things writing-related.

Blake co-authored an action/adventure novel, The Eye of Heaven, with legendary adventure author Clive Cussler, to be released by Penguin in September, 2014.

Blake lives in Mexico and enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns.

Russell is a proud member of RABMAD – Read A Book, Make A difference."

Let's get into it, here he is, Mr Russell Blake:

You are a New York Times Best-selling author who has published most of your own work – can you tell us how you managed to get on the NYT best-sellers list? I.e. Obviously you sold a lot of books but what is it that you did to get on that particular list and receive that distinction?

I’ve been on the NYT and the USA Today bestseller lists numerous times, both co-authoring with Clive Cussler as well as with a few of my self-published efforts. I honestly don’t remember the first time, but I think it was a bundle I did that featured JET, which is also my biggest selling series.

  

Where do you get your inspiration from for your writing and for the way you brand yourself as an author?

I like to say it’s a combination of fear and desperation that drives the ideas, although the truth is that real life offers so many ideas the shortage isn’t in potential plots, it’s in the time to write them. I was a big fan of all the usual conspiracy thriller authors when I was growing up – Ludlum, Le Carre, Higgins, Follet – and so when I decided to try my hand at writing I gravitated toward what I read. I mean, I also love Tom Harris and Stephen King and the usual marquee names, but I cut my teeth on conspiracy/espionage thrillers, so that’s what I started with, and it later evolved into more of an action thriller thing, a la James Bond-ish fare. As to my branding, I struggled initially, because I wanted to avoid being pigeonholed as any one thing, but I quickly figured out that you need to be able to quickly summarize who you are for readers, as in, at a glance, or for many it’s just too muddled and they move on to something that’s clearer. As an example, Clive Cussler, you know exactly what you’re getting. Robert Ludlum, same thing. So I wanted to brand myself the go to guy for action thrillers, which is what I ultimately focused on. Ironically, I’ve written noir mysteries with my BLACK series, which does very well, and have tried my hand at everything from NA romance under the R.E. Blake pseudonym, to conspiracy fare like Umberto Eco and Dan Brown write, but what I think most identify the Russell Blake brand with is action thrillers, which is how I prefer it.

  

How important do you think non-fiction titles are to self-published authors hoping to enjoy best-selling status? I.e. Do you think that your non-fiction titles have helped your fiction sell and/or vice-cersa? 

 My non-fiction have done zero for my fiction. If anything, that was one of the early lessons I learned: target a genre with laser focus and establish yourself in that genre. Don’t dick around trying to be all things, be really, really good at one thing and become known for it, then, if you want, try branching out – but only after you’ve made your mark and are well established in your target genre. Don’t genre hop, don’t get distracted, and most importantly, make it very easy for your reader to know what they’re getting when they buy one of your books. You bounce around, you’re a question mark, and life’s too short for most to guess what you’re going to deliver next.

You are a best-selling Amazon author – can you pinpoint what it was that spiked your success to date? Apart from the writing is there anything that you can isolate that helped your books climb the ranks?  

Sure. I remember when Amazon’s Select program first came out in December of 2011, I didn’t participate in it for the first month, and then regretted the hell out of not doing so when I saw some of my buds hitting massive sales numbers after free promotions. So I put a book into the program in January, 2012 – The Geronimo Breach – and I want to say it sold five or six thousand copies after a free run, and pulled sales of my other dozen titles with it. For about six months there, it was like you could do no wrong with Select and a free run because of how the algorithms treated the free downloads, and you’d shoot into the top 10 on the Amazon store as paid after it was done. That visibility brought thousands of sales of a title, and because I had so many titles I could run a Select promo on, I was able to do a new title every three weeks or so and restart the cycle. By the time the algorithms softened somewhat, I’d already had ten or twelve bites at that top 100 apple, and the sales became self-sustaining as readers began trusting the brand to deliver what they wanted. But I think it really turbocharged when I released the first four installments of my JET series in Oct-December of 2012. It really went massive from that point on, and I remember spring of 2013 I was pinching myself at the sales figures every month. Those were truly the good old days.

  

For more of this fascinating interview, please visit Self-Publishing Successfully for full transcript.
 

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Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors #5 - April M Reign

Today we have a very special guest, best-selling author, April M. Reign.  This from her bio: April was born and raised in Southern California by her happily married parents. She is the oldest of three daughters and considers both of her sisters to be her best friends. Growing up, she was involved in many sports: softball, surfing, tennis, and Kenpo karate. Many weekends at the beach with her family included her father packing up the long boards and teaching all three daughters how to ride a wave. The activity that stands out the most for her is the thirteen years that she spent studying karate with her family. The family’s karate days remain as some of her fondest memories. Sports weren’t the only activities that she enjoyed. She played the accordion for twelve years and even played for Jerry Lewis kids fundraisers. During those years, she learned how to read and write music.
       Besides writing music, during her high school years, she also discovered her passion for writing words. At fifteen, she began writing poetry. By the time she reached the age of twenty, she was writing short stories, with no other intention than to get the stories from her mind to paper. At twenty-one years old, she married and shortly after, two handsome sons graced her life. When her marriage ended, she faced the long, difficult path of raising her two boys into strong, well-mannered young men. She took on the task with fervor. In order to support her children, she worked as a litigation analyst for ten years at a large company and began to pursue a career in law. After long hours in college and even more hours at the law library, while still raising her children alone, she realized that practicing law was not the dream that she wanted to live. She spent the next eleven years as a U.S. Customs Broker, working directly with the FDA and FWS, clearing international shipments into the country. While she worked full time and raised two adolescent boys, she also decided to follow her dream to write a book. A year later, Enticing the Moon was published. Since then, she has written more than 25 novels and several short stories, and has entered many writing contests, winning first place on several occasions. As an indie author, April M. Reign writes and publishes her own books. With the increase in her book sales, she was able to give up her job in the corporate world and pursue her dream of writing stories, which she hopes capture the attention and intrigue of her readers.

      And here she is, sharing much valuable information for those of you interested in the writers' life and Self-Publishing.

Where do you get your inspiration from for your writing?

Oh William, there are so many things that inspire me. A dream…a conversation or even a newspaper article can strike up my creativity. However, writing full time can be a lonely job. Therefore, I use my travel vlog, Uncovering California, as a major source of inspiration.

On my vlog, we’ve stepped into an abandoned insane asylum, ventured on a deserted [island] hike to a 1961 abandoned shipwreck, took on haunted cemeteries, and captured the abandoned, yet famous resort, The Salton Sea, where there were three inches of fish bones resting on top of the sand. One adventure to a 1700’s plantation in New Orleans gave us the opportunity to capture on film the same spiritual Orb in two different places on the plantation. It’s those adventures that thrust me into my deepest creative mode. 

Where do you get your inspiration for the way you brand yourself as an author?

This is such a great question because I think many people miss the opportunity of branding. I’ve come to realize that writing is the easiest part of this industry and being an indie author who wears many hats is the hardest.

So what is branding and how do I go about it?

Every successful business has a brand and it starts with that reliable logo that makes the consumer feel safe. Amazon, Apple, Mc Donald’s, and Best Buy among a plethora of others have that one logo that gives us, as the consumer, comfort while differentiating them from others that may sell the same service or product.

What does that mean for Indie authors?

It means that your branding should set you apart from the millions of other authors out there as well as give your readers a sense of trust and security when they pick up your books to read. And this is just a tiny part of branding.

When my readers pick up my books, I want them to trust in the quality and consistency of my work. When they see the AMR logo, I want them to get a sense of excitement knowing that my story will have action and intrigue.

Branding isn’t tangible. It’s a feeling, emotion and sometimes physical need provoked by your brand on to the consumer. I’m going to release some free pamphlets on branding and many other things when it comes to being a successful indie author. I encourage your readers to visit my website over the next two months to grab these important downloads that will take a writer from conceiving a story to writing the story to marketing and discovering success.  

Did you try to get publishing contracts for your books early on with traditional book publishers? If so, did you have any success there or if not what was it that made you decide to self-publish the majority of your work?

Originally, I did NOT try to get a publishing contract. What was a publishing contract? My once naïve mind thought writers like Stephen King and Nora Roberts only got things like that.

I’ve always been a writer but my first book, I wrote for my family. Having no idea how to go about obtaining a publishing contract, I used a vanity press to publish my book, so I could hand the paperback out to family and friends. After I wrote my second book, I discovered Amazon’s self-publishing platform. The first month that my book was live on Amazon, I made $90.00. That was an exciting time. The second month it had increased to $423.00 and by the third month, I’d reached an unconceivable amount of $1500.00.

Why would I go to a traditional publisher?

Because. Like every writer, in the early stages of our craft, we want validation by a company of people that may know more about the industry than we do. So, I submitted my third book to a mid-sized publisher. I got an email back stating they were interested, but they wanted me to re-work my first chapter. I cringed. That was the only chapter they had read so far.

I’d already had the taste of being my own boss, and being my own creative team. I thought long and hard and realized that whether they were right or wrong, I didn’t want to give up that side of my creativity. I wasn’t ready to turn over my work and have it torn apart (not in editing, I’m okay with that) in storyline, title or vision. I published my third book and watched my sales on the 6th month go from $2400.00 to $3600.00. This was a dream come true!

Why self-publish?

Self-publishing or traditional publishing is a personal journey. As stated above, you know which journey I chose and the reason why. I encourage new writers to consult themselves, their needs, their goals before making the decision. 

Once you have decided that self-publishing might be your route, what financial and artistic considerations should you keep in mind before you begin?

This is going to sound strange but I think it plays a big part in how successful you are as an indie author.

Are you a controlling person or are you able to let go of work and delegate?

Either one can be successful, but if you’re controlling and you go against your nature by letting go, you may spend most your time worrying if things are getting done right. With that said, if you’re able to let go, but you try and do it all, you may become overwhelmed with the various outlets you’ll need to know in this industry.

So, first, determine your personality. If you want to take on all the work yourself, you’ll save money but lose time. Let me say that again: YOU’LL SAVE MONEY BUT LOSE TIME! Keep in mind, in this business, time is valuable. When you lose time, you’ll have to set your writing aside to accomplish the other demands of indie publishing.

What needs to be done after the story is written?

·      Editor

·      Interior formatting for eBook

·      Book cover Design

·      Publish on various platforms

·      Promotional setup and planning

·      Interior formatting for paperback

·      Paperback book cover design

These are a few of the things that you can do yourself or outsource to a professional. Keep in mind, if you’ve never done graphic design before, your book cover will probably not look as professional as you want it to look. Also, editing is a must and formatting is important. As I stated earlier, remember branding.  You don’t want readers to see your author name and cringe because they know the interior will be completely off or the editing will be non-existent.

Your name. Your brand. Your decision.

Those free pamphlets I talked about will have a deeper list of duties as an indie author plus links to places where you can start to hire your team, or learn to do those things yourself. They will be on my website and launched over the next two months.

What do you see as your most innovative promotional strategy?

There are so many strategies that an indie author can use to promote their work. I don’t have a “most” innovative strategy because we’re in a very noisy world on Amazon and social media, so it’s been trial and error for me.

Some things have worked like a charm and others have left a lot to be desired. In the end, I’ve put together a list of those do’s and dont’s according to my years of experience. There is one amazing promotion that I did, which garnered 23,000 downloads in 4 days. It was a remarkable strategy that I will share with you on those free pamphlets I’ve talked about . . .
 
For more of this fascinating interview, please visit Self-Publishing Successfully for full transcript.

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Corpus Delicti - Poetry Collection, Critique by Anthony Servante

Recently, this very insightful and intelligent critique of my poetry collection, 'Corpus Delicti', was posted online by Anthony Servante. Please have a read and visit Mr Servante's wonderful blog for more interesting and thoughtful article and reviews.

Poetry Today February 2015

Featuring William Cook

Critique by Anthony Servante

Available here.

Just as Andrew D. Blacet represents the poetry of stream of consciousness, William Cook reflects the work of self-awareness, what the Romantic Poets called "sublime realization". Utilizing the form of a "journal" to capture his perspective, Cook escorts us through a prosaic journey "between birth and death", not so much "life" as the waiting period of consciousness as it develops only to die. Thus the title "Corpus Delicti", an allusion to a crime without the evidence of a body, or rather, a body of work without the evidence of existence. The book of selected poetry becomes that body, that proof of life, that self-awareness of being without beginning or end, or in Cook's words: "the realization of a truth about oneself...And this new knowledge of the soul — that there is no soul, no muse, no thinking heart . . . it is the worst truth I have ever had to bear". And so he shared his burden with his readers. It is our intent here to see how he does so in poetic deed.

If we read each of the poems as if they were each a breath the poet is taking and that each breath will lead to death, we can understand how William Cook has arranged his words for us to empathize with rather than understand. This is not a puzzle with one solution. It is more a prism with a sequence of colors leading to blackness or in this case the absence of color. It is more about the order of chaos rather than a "meaning" to life. We can call this empathetic reading a "subjective correlative", a personal reading unique unto each reader rather than a unified book of poems with a universal truth that we can all identify with. That is not the experience here. But allow me to delineate a bit to discuss the "objective correlative" from which I have altered my phrase to better appreciate its relevance and history given Cook's poetic rapport with the Age of Romanticism.

T.S. Eliot, poet and literary critic, developed the "objective correlative" in his criticism of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Simply, it is the evocation of emotion by its representation in the work (poem, play, painting, etc) or the corresponding "image" in the world to the word or symbol of the image. We write "my first puppy" and its corresponding emotion should be a nostalgically pleasant memory of one's own first puppy. And this definition worked fine for the Romantic critics, but today we must not trust to its universality. Not all people have pleasant memories of their first puppy. Some of us wept in terror when we were first introduced to this four-legged beast, while others suffered an allergic reaction. We understand what the writer intends when he writes of his first puppy, we understand the consensus, but we each have our own empathetic relationship to the term, namely, "I screamed" or "I sneezed" rather than I fell in love with the little critter. It is this personal correspondent with the image, rather than the intellectual understanding of it, that we call the subjective correlative. We want to find ourselves in the work, not the artist.

Corpus Delicti is a challenge to our emotions, not our intellect. To read it as an objective correlative is to detach oneself from the experience; to read it as a subjective correlative is to share Cook's experience with our own, for each individual consciousness is itself an object in the world just as much as a puppy or chair or poem. In Circle of Ouroboros, the poet points out this relation of the work to the readers,

And so the steps one makes towards the end

to quote a cliché

are aspects of the journey

the final destination relegated

to the ethereal realms of the unknown

the infinite possibilities that exist

outside of human consciousness (p 13).

To know the "unknown" is to know ourselves outside of human awareness, just as we understand Cook's realization of this "cliché" (that is, its universality). In New dawn prophecy, Cook expands on this alienating realization, 

What lies outside the heart and soul is restriction

that leads an arterial bypass past life’s true intentions (p 14).

How does one come to know one's self? Alone, one can only know alienation and solitude, but via others (friends, poetry, art, etc), we find our humanity, our individuality among the multitude. 

In Epiphanous vision, the poetry echoes the fallibility ("bullshit") of finding universal truths, whereas individual truths coalesce with others' truths,

nothing is as plain as it seems

when you put words to it

when you apply words to the world ...

perhaps of some consequence

to the greater scheme of things

(whatever that may be!)

‘truth’ that elusive quagmire

of common census

inferring evidence

that many, can make one reality

and that it is without variance

indisputable . . .

bullshit!!! (p 17).

"Without variance", there can be no universal truth. We vary as individuals and it is with variance that we find ourselves rather than a "greater scheme" (an objective correlative to reality or the world). 

Once William Cook has established this intent for the reader to experience, he delves into the workings of individual minds. In Terror is not my thing, Cook joins his experience with his readers, "It’s fear for all and all for fear" (p 22). In Dead Love, he is more specific in his emotive description, "My warm loving cadaver we are one, forever". The cadaver can be read as his lover or his own dead body, the vessel that his life occupies. This dualism (other and self) represents individuality as single being and collective beings, just as the reader and the poet become one through the "corpus delicti".

In Truth, Cook gives us a straightforward accounting of the universality of emotions: 

Truth is: hunger

pain/death

violence/dissolution

apathy/hope . . .

Anything

you want it to be.

I believe . . . (p 33).

The italicized "I believe" describes the poet's thoughts on "truth" after sharing with us those universal emotions that we all identify with in our own way (subjective correlative) while this belief also asserts Cook's own identity as its own subjective correlative. Very clever. Very forceful. Then in ironic reflection, Cook restates this truth in I who am no one:

I is nothing and

I speak for all of us when

I say that (p 34)

Ego is everything and nothing. All egos are also everything and nothing. But our collective empathy with this "truth" is the only truth we can realize. Much as the individual can be alone in a crowd, so too can he be the crowd. Cook teases us with this irony. Think of the illusion where the drawing can be seen as an old woman or a young woman. Which is it? Neither. And both.

The totality of the poetry of Corpus Delicti echoes that last sentiment, for the book is neither the work of William Cook nor our own reflections, but both. In this dark journal of self-realization, self-deprecation, and selfish irony, William Cook has given us the abyss that we stare into just as it stares into us. 

Get your copy here.

Anthony Servante, Review, Corpus Delicti, Poetry, Critical Analysis, Literary Criticism, critique,

Free E-Books For You - Amazon Kindle Giveaway Promotion

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In the tradition of EC Comics, The Twilight Zone and Tales From The Darkside, Devil Inside is a spine-chilling short horror story that will leave you wanting more. Graphic and descriptive, this supernatural tale winds itself around a disturbed young boy who discovers that when you make a wish, you better make sure you really want it. After all, monsters are sometimes real.

From Devil Inside:
“Jacob had no doubt as to what it was. It was the night-Beast under his bed, that lurked in his closet – the Beast that now raged before him, out in the light of day. It had escaped. ”

Recommended for mature readers. Horror, Violence, Supernatural, M15+
Short Story + 4 x Poems + Excerpt from Blood Related (novel).

“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

AMAZON U.S. - http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Inside-Horror-Short-Fiction-ebook/dp/B00B3OCVMC/ref=la_B003PA513I_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426801246&sr=1-11

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#‎FREE‬ (indefinitely) via AMAZON U.S. One Way Ticket

 

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One Way Ticket. Fast Train To Hell . . .
 
From the belly of the swamp issues forth a visit in the middle of the night from a force as dark and unimaginable as hell itself. Poor pig-farmer Abel Laroux, must battle the demons of his past as well as the nightmarish reality of the present, as he confronts a devilish visitor who has come to collect on an outstanding debt, inherited by Abel from his forefathers.

Bonus Features: Includes an excerpt from the author's novel, 'Blood Related' + the long poem 'The Temper of The Tide', in its entirety.

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