William Cook

Greetings. This post marks the end of three months of writing, editing, and formatting a new collection that brings together old and new stories. Psychological Horror Stories: A Collection of Psychological Horror Fiction for Adults is a 364 page collection of my best psychological horror stories. The collection is the omnibus edition of a 4-volume series and all covers are illustrated by artist and author, Jeffrey Kosh (see right sidebar for link). Some of the stories are from previous s eries, Serial Killer Thrillers , which have been rewritten/edited and are now included as part of this series ( Serial Killer Thrillers is still available as a single-volume) print/kindle edition collection). Psychological Horror Stories: A Collection of Psychological Horror Fiction for Adults Psychological Horror Stories: A Collection of Psychological Horror Fiction for Adults   is a collection of dark tales that deal with the horror inherent in the human psyche. Sometimes supernatural or macabre...

If you're a fan of good old fashioned thrillers or serial killer novels, here are seven reasons why you should give my novel, Blood Related, a read. Here are some reasons why you should buy this book: It's a bit different than usual serial killer thrillers. It has over 50 5/4 star reviews on Amazon. It has a bunch of endorsements from best-selling authors. It's formatted, edited and designed professionally. Both kindle and print editions are priced to sell. It's guaranteed to give readers the 'heebie-jeebies'! Did I mention that it's a really good price?  Here's the book description: Tough-as-nails Detective Ray Truman battles his demons as he tracks a family of prolific serial killers in this nail-biting psychological thriller. For over two decades, Detective Ray Truman has been searching for the killer or killers who have terrorized Portvale. Headless corpses, their bodies mutilated and posed, have been turning up all over the industrial district near ...

New release! Redux version for #kindle now available (UK & US links below). Print edition available also (please share this post ):    In Gaze Into the Abyss: The Poetry of Jim Morrison, William Cook examines Morrison's written work in all its beauty and complexity, providing rich insight into Morrison's influences, themes, and poetic vision. Iconic Doors photographer Paul Ferrara, who was also one of Morrison's best friends, says of the book: "No other rock poet went so deep into his soul. That is what separates Jim Morrison from the rest. Jim and his words were timeless and reached deep into those people who got it, turning them into worshipers. Even the new generations get it. This book by William Cook finally address the phenomena that was Jim Morrison the poet." Finally James Riordan, author of Break on Through: The Life & Death of Jim Morrison , says that: " Gaze Into the Abyss ... offers new and valuable insights into Morrison'...

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 all - as you may or may not have noticed I have not been posting much lately. Largely due to the completion of my Masters thesis, my fiction writing and posts have been on hiatus. Now, I am back but this time I thought I'd try something a bit different by opening up my site to some fellow authors. The first guest post I present to you is from fellow countryman and all-around good guy, Dan Rabarts. Dan is a writer of the dark stuff along with excursions into fantasy and further afield. Here he offers us an interesting perspective on his recent work as it relates to possible sources and origins of inspiration, found in the locale and characteristic anomalies of life in New Zealand. If interested, I myself discuss the 'dark' aspects of New Zealand literature here in a recent interview with fellow writer and Dan's co-author, Lee Murray. Give the below article a read and check out Dan's books via the links - you won't be sorry, he really is the real-deal and h...

Recently I received this great review for my serial-killer novel, Blood Related. Check it out and grab a copy if you like. Happy reading 😊 Review: Blood Related by William Cook Posted on March 20, 2017 by darkhallpress William Cook is a painter of impressions and moods, artfully rendering complex, authentic characters and weaving a twisted, darkly psychological narrative. In his exploration of the minds of a pair of prolific serial killers (those peculiar creatures of popular morbid interest), Cook introduces us to the Cunningham  brothers – products of a long hereditary line of aberrant, pathological behaviors. For Caleb, our central narrator, killing is more than a habit – it is an obsessive art form, personal and highly selective. His brother, Charlie, on the other hand, is a human wrecking ball – careening from victim to victim as he plans grandiose mass murders like a one man terror squad. Both present acute symptoms of v...

Hi all - well, what a year huh? I can't say that 2016 was a particularly good year on a global scale, as I'm sure most of you would agree. In fact the mounting evidence that the West is in a state of decline seems to be more evident now than ever before with world events taking some sad and bizarre twists. Despite all the doom and gloom and the changing face of international politics and global relationships, 2016 was, if not anything else, scarily interesting to say the least. The silver lining is that events certainly provided lots of fodder for potential stories.  My own year has been very busy, with the re-release of a few titles and the inclusion of a few stories in various anthologies. As a result of expired contracts and rights reversion, I am nearly pure 'indie' with most of my books now finding a home under my publishing imprint, King Billy Publications.  https://kingbillypublications.wordpress.com/ Book sales have been steady and, all going well,...