He finished a 90,000-word manuscript, typed "the end," read it back, and thought: that's shit. Then he threw the laptop to the end of the bed, walked away for a few weeks, and started the entire novel from scratch — no notes, no rescue job, just a clean slate. That book, The Devil's Tree, is now the one he's proudest of. This week's guest doesn't write in a quiet office with a closed door. He writes in the living room, next to the kitchen, with the washing machine running and kids walking through — and he's finished four novels that way.

Axl Malton is an award-winning UK-based author of dark fiction exploring the darker side of human nature, known for psychological tension and unsettling narratives. He started writing in lockdown with no publishing background at all, taught himself the industry through rejection letters and Stephen King's On Writing, and has since published with Wicked House. His new novel, Caelum's Lake, is out July 21st — a departure from his previous full-on horror, this time a psychological thriller about a grieving writer who discovers a lake that may be a doorway to the afterlife.

We get into how he decides a draft isn't working and has the nerve to bin it, why rejection eventually becomes "water off a duck's back," and how Caelum's Lake was written in hospital waiting rooms while his wife underwent cancer treatment. We also talk convention tables, why he still doesn't trust himself to self-publish, and the real-world lake mythology that inspired the book's central idea.

🎙️ What we get into:

• Why he scrapped a finished 90,000-word manuscript and rewrote it from nothing
• How writing in constant household chaos stopped bothering him — and what he'd tell parents who think they don't have the time or space to write
• The mindset shift that turned daily rejection into "water off a duck's back"
• Why his most recent novel took just 50 days to write, and what made it come out "fully formed"
• Writing Caelum's Lake from hospital waiting rooms during his wife's cancer treatment, and using fiction to process real trauma
• The real-world folklore of earthly doorways to the afterlife — Lake Avernus in Italy and similar sites — that shaped the book's central concept
• Why he still won't self-publish, and the specific kind of validation he says he needs
• What a publisher (Wicked House) actually does for marketing versus what's left to the author
• The convention table trick that gets people to stop walking past your books
• What's next: Here Lies the Devil, a companion novel to The Devil's Tree, and his approach to writing an "un-vampire" vampire

Links & Resources:

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There's a difference between scaring a reader and haunting one — and most horror writers never stop to think about which they're actually doing. Scaring is a jump on page 40. Haunting is the thing that's still in your head three weeks later. This week's guest has built his whole approach around chasing the second one, and it's changed how he writes, drafts, and even decides which books to write next.

Alex Hunter is a British horror author whose debut novel, The Harvest shot to #1 in free horror on Amazon. His new novel, The House That Screamed — a dual-timeline, found-footage haunted house story — released this week, and his third, a folk horror titled The Forest Remembers, is due in 2027. He's been querying and signing with small presses since the start, and has very deliberately never self-published.

We get into why he cut a two-thousand-word "clever" prologue to actually finish his first manuscript, how he went from a two-year, seven-draft slog to a twelve-week drafting process, and why hitting #1 on a free Amazon promo taught him to stop chasing downloads. He also walks through exactly how he cold-emailed an author for a blurb (and got a reply in ten minutes), and lays out the specific red flags that mean a small press is about to take your money instead of publish your book.

🎙️ What we get into:

• Why cutting a 2,000-word "literary" prologue was the thing that got him to the finish line
• His shift from a two-year, seven-draft first novel to a twelve-week drafting process
• The placeholder trick he uses to keep moving when a scene isn't working ("Chapter 10: something happens here")
• Why a #1 free Amazon promo taught him that quality beats quantity
• The deliberate trope-stacking technique he used to subvert haunted house clichés in The House That Screamed
• How he restructured a multi-timeline manuscript (news articles, scripts, emails) to plant breadcrumbs without cheating the reader
• The exact, low-key message that landed him a blurb from Bram Stoker Award winner Clay McLeod Chapman
• Why he's never self-published, and what he wanted from traditional validation instead
• Red flags in small press contracts — "author's contributions," rights grabs, and being charged to fix a typo
• Writing The Forest Remembers through grief, and why a brutal beta-reader response felt like a compliment

Links & Resources:

• Alex Hunter: https://alexhunterhorror.com
• Alex Hunter on Instagram: @AlexHunterWrites
• Clay McLeod Chapman (Bram Stoker Award–winning author)

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🖥️ Find out more: https://danielwillcocks.com/thewriterschair

📚 About Alex Hunter

The first child in his school year to be granted an adult library card, Alex Hunter borrowed The Rats by James Herbert and began dreaming of giving other people nightmares.

His debut novel, The Harvest, was published in 2025. His latest novel, The House That Screamed, explores how trauma can be packaged, commodified, and consumed. His third novel, The Forest Remembers, will be published in 2027.

Alex spends his time writing in the company of too many books and not enough daylight.

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Four years of ebooks, Amazon ads, and feeding the algorithm — and Dan is done with it. Not dramatically. Just honestly. In this behind-the-scenes episode, Daniel and his co-writer R.P. Howley take stock of where Devil's Rock Publishing actually is in 2026: four Twisted Tales novellas out, a charity anthology closing submissions, and a growing suspicion that the readers they've been chasing are actually paperback collectors who'd rather buy at a convention than click an ad.

This is a different kind of episode. No formal interview, no guest credentials. Just two people who talk daily, finally sitting down on camera to work through what's going well, what isn't, and what they're going to try instead. Rob is a marketing manager at a dementia charity, studying for his mortgage advisor qualification, waking up at 4am — and still co-publishing horror novellas. Dan is re-editing The Self-Publishing Blueprint for its 2026 update and relaunching The Writer's Room. This is what the indie author life actually looks like.

💀 What we get into:

* Why posting every day doesn't mean your followers are seeing it — and what to do instead

* How marketing a book and marketing a charity use exactly the same core principles

* The brutal economics of ebooks vs. paperbacks at events (and why in-person sales now make more sense)

* Why they accidentally built a series for paperback collectors while spending all their time on digital platforms

* The Hatching Season charity anthology — what they've learned from running submissions, and what "100+ entries" actually means for two people with no time

* Rob's testimony: what he got from writing sprints before he ever knew Dan properly

* The Twisted Tales series update: where books five and six are right now

* Why "can you just" are the two most irritating words in any marketing meeting

* The philosophy of not asking "what do I want?" but "what does the reader want?"

* What premium in-person experiences might look like — earrings, wax seals, experience boxes, and why none of it is happening right now

Links & Resources:

R.P. Howley: @rphowleyauthor (Instagram and Facebook)

Twisted Tales books: https://twistedtalesbooks.com

Devil's Rock Publishing: https://devilsrockbooks.com

Hatching Season submissions: https://devilsrockbooks.com/submissions

The Writer's Room: https://danielwillcocks.com/thewritersroom

Daniel's writer resources: https://danielwillcocks.com/writers

About Rob:

Robyn Howley has three requirements to function; black coffee in the morning, red wine in the evening, and writing in between.

He has the imagination of a six-year-old, the soul of a retiree, and dreams of one day making a full time income as a multi-passionate creative.

He currently lives in Southampton, England, and when he’s not writing, he’s nestled on his favourite reading chair, wine in hand, consuming books; podcasts and YouTube tutorials on all aspects of writing, publishing and entrepreneurship.

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