William Cook

Hi again, today I'm pleased to bring you the second interview in what is proving to be a very popular interview series - Secrets of Best-Selling Self-Published Authors. Today's interviewee is none other than the inimitable, best-selling U.K. horror author, Matt Shaw. His Amazon Author's page describes him as thus: "Matt Shaw is the published author of over 50 stories. Although known as being a horror author, he also enjoys spending time in other genres too - something he had always planned to do in order to have at least one book, in a wide collection, which would appeal to people from all walks of life. Shaw was first published in 2004 with his horror novel Happy Ever After - the first of his books to reach the number one slot on Amazon and the first of his books to use his trademark style of narrating the stories through the first person perspective. An extremely prolific writer, Matt Shaw is continually writing as well as keeping up to date with his reader...

Hi everyone - hope you are all well and enjoying life as much as possible. For those of you readers who sometimes wonder what all the hullabaloo is about self-publishing vs traditional publishing, this is the first in a series of exclusive interviews with best-selling self-published authors. The interviews will pretty much reveal all you need to know (plus more!) about why some authors choose to publish their work independently (as opposed to traditionally). For authors (and prospective authors) thinking of self-publishing, or wondering similar questions, I hope that this series of interviews will offer you some valuable tips and advice from these best-selling self-published authors, that you can use to navigate and hone your own adventures in today's exciting digital publishing world. Without further ado, let's kick it all off with this fantastic interview with best-selling author Mark Edward Hall. Where do you get your inspiration from for your wr...

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...

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...

Taking a stupid 'selfie' is harder than it looks. After three shots, I settled for the top one and posted it at HorrorSelfies.Com - the new initiative from the Horror Writers Association of which I've been a member now for nearly two years. Come and visit the website - lots of cool prizes to win. Playing the game . . . ‪ http://horrorselfies.com/william-cook/ #‎ horrorselfies‬ #HWA