Writer's block doesn't exist. That's not a provocation for the sake of it — Jasper Bark will tell you exactly who invented the term (a Freudian analyst who blamed it on potty training) and why the only cure for not writing is, stubbornly, to write. Anything. A laundry list. A page of you yelling at yourself. The words come.

This week Daniel sits down with Jasper Bark — author, former freelance journalist, stand-up, performance poet, and the mind behind Crystal Lake Publishing's Bark Bites Horror imprint. Jasper has written for franchises owned by DreamWorks and New Line, ghosted other people's voices for years, and then had a long dark night of the soul (and too much whiskey) when his wife pointed out she'd never read a single thing that sounded like him. Finding his own voice is where the real story starts.

The conversation runs from the brutal economics of the modern indie author (why he dresses as an Egyptian god at conventions) through the terror of self-censorship, the joy of throwing away a third of every sentence, and the sixteen-year journey of his new novel Harmed and Dangerous — a Southern Gothic thriller that began as a rejected comic pitch and finally arrived as a book he no longer cringes to hand over.

💀 What we get into:

• Why "writer's block" is a made-up excuse — and the one technique that breaks it every time
• How to actually find your voice when you've spent years writing in everyone else's
• The real reason no one ever has "editor's block" or "plumber's block"
• Why turning off every notification you own is the only writing advice that survives time and attention being your scarcest resources
• The shift from author-as-freelancer to author-as-artisan-trader — and what it means for how you sell
• Why cutting 30,000 words from a 120,000-word draft feels like scoring a winning goal
• How a song about Gary Gilmore's eyeballs seeded a paranormal Southern Gothic thriller
• Why horror is a healing, cathartic genre — and the two sectioned readers who proved it to him
• Plot vs. pants: when to outline and when to let the story drag you
• The "deathbed self" trick for beating procrastination

Links & Resources:

Jasper Bark: www.jasperbark.com

Crystal Lake Publishing https://www.crystallakepub.com

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

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📚 About Jasper Bark

Jasper Bark is infectious - and there’s no known cure. If you’re listening to this then you’re already at risk of contamination. The symptoms will begin to manifest any moment now. There’s nothing you can do about it. There’s no itching or unfortunate rashes, but you’ll become obsessed with his books, from the award winning collections 'Dead Air' and 'Stuck on You and Other Prime Cuts', to cult novels like 'The Final Cut' and acclaimed graphic novels such as 'Bloodfellas' and 'Beyond Lovecraft'.

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Dan Howarth didn't set out to write a novel about far-right violence tearing communities apart. He set out to write what he knew — the north, the landscape, the idiotic magnificence of men — and the wound was already open. Lion Hearts is the book that nearly broke him during the writing, nearly got him an agent three times, and has now landed him on the 2026 British Fantasy Award shortlist for Best Novel. Sometimes the book that costs the most is the one that matters most.

Dan Howarth is a British author of gritty northern weird fiction published under his own Northern Republic Press. His work sits at the intersection of place, folklore, and the social fault lines running through contemporary Britain. In this conversation, he and Daniel dig into writing location with precision rather than excess, the case for the novella as the perfect literary form, what indie publishing actually costs (financially and creatively), and why knowing who you are as a writer takes longer than most people think.

💀 What we get into:

- Why Dan writes British, specifically northern British, horror — and how place becomes character in his fiction

- The screenwriting lesson that changed how he edits: if you can't say it in two lines, say it better

- Character passes vs plot passes — Dan's practical approach to keeping voice consistent across multiple POVs in Last Night of Freedom

- How both Territory and Drone accidentally became novellas, and why he thinks it's the perfect form for both writer and reader discovery

- The case for traditional publishers taking novellas seriously — and why Eric LaRocca's Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke is the proof of concept

- Three to four years into running Northern Republic Press: what he'd tell his earlier self about brand identity, cover consistency, and knowing what you stand for before you publish

- Lion Hearts — the BFA-shortlisted novel that's not quite horror, not quite crime, and is one of the most politically raw things he's written

- Why being indie means the book you couldn't place anywhere is also the book that gets you on award shortlists

- The practical realities of self-publishing: proofreading, cover design, budgeting, and why there's no excuse for an unprofessional book in 2026

- What's next: another novella, The Beacons, and a pipeline of four or five books already queued up

Links & Resources:

Dan Howarth website: https://danhowarthwriter.com (verify exact URL)

Dan Howarth on social media: @DanHowarth20

Northern Republic Press: https://www.northernrepublic.co.uk

Paul Stephenson / Hollowstone Press: https://paulstephensonbooks.com/

Vicky Brewster: https://vickybrewstereditor.com/

https://danielwillcocks.com/writers

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🎧 Listen on your favourite app: https://pod.link/1829723468

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

📚 About Dan Howarth

Dan Howarth is a British author of gritty Northern Weird horror fiction with a strong focus on societal issues and tinged with folklore and the supernatural.

He is the author of Last Night of Freedom, Lionhearts (which was recently shortlisted for Best Novel in the 2026 British Fantasy Awards), Territory, his new novel Drone and the short story collection, Dark Missives.

His short fiction has been published in numerous places including Weird Horror Magazine, Chthonic Matter Quarterly, The Other Stories podcast and Motives Unknown: New Northern Crime from Dead Ink Books.

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Kayleigh Dobbs turned up to her first horror convention too nervous to speak to anyone, accidentally called Ramsey Campbell "Mr. Ramsey," and somehow came away with a fire lit under her that she hasn't stopped feeding since. Four years later, she has a short story in a Bram Stoker Award nominated collection, heads on semi-regular cake-and-coffee trips with Tim Lebbon, and is a well-revered reviewer of indie horror.

Kayleigh is a writer, proofreader, and the founder of Happy Goat Horror — a review website and YouTube channel dedicated to horror fiction with a particular focus on indie publishing. In this conversation, she and Daniel dig into what horror actually is and why it matters, the community that makes the genre unlike any other, the complicated relationship between reviewing and writing, and why the most important thing any writer can do is write the book only they could write. Plus: an unexpected Britney Spears confession, a defence of the word "fuck," and a recommendation you almost certainly haven't heard of.

💀 What we get into:

• Kayleigh's origin story — from metal-loving teenager secretly bopping to Britney, to discovering indie horror fiction barely four years ago through Chillicon and Sinister Horror Company
• Why horror conventions feel nothing like fan conventions for film and TV
• The Tim Lebbon tangent: how a chance ask at a convention became a semi-regular cake-and-coffee friendship, and why Kayleigh thinks he deserves to be far more widely known
• Joe Hill's articulation of why horror makes sense of a senseless world
• Horror as the genre that does the most for empathy: representation of women, queer voices, Latinx horror, and why the stats on female directors in horror vs romance will surprise you
• The origin of Happy Goat Horror
• Indie vs traditional: what Kayleigh actually sees as a reviewer who reads across both
• Why authenticity on the page is something readers can feel
• AI, trends, and the only real defence a writer has: writing the most authentically human book they can
• Kayleigh's novel she's determined to finish, a nonfiction project she's keeping firmly under wraps, and learning to stop being horrible to herself about productivity

Links & Resources:

• HATCHING SEASON: https://www.devilsrockbooks.com/submissions
• THE WRITERS ROOM: https://www.danielwillcocks.com/thewritersroom
• Happy Goat Horror: https://happygoathorror.com / https://www.youtube.com/@happygoathorror
• Tim Lebbon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u99-ttJBeus&pp=0gcJCSgLAYcqIYzv
• Jonathan Janz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNzvZpwubQo&t=2908s
• Jamie Flanagan Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6e-Jgykckc
• Joe Hill Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU2iM1LIDw8&pp=0gcJCSgLAYcqIYzv
• Writer Resources: https://www.danielwillcocks.com/writers

Subscribe to The Writer's Chair

If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow writer.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@willcocksauthor

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

📚 About Kayleigh Dobbs

Kayleigh Dobbs is a writer and reviewer based in South Wales, with a focus on horror and comedy/horror. Her micro-collection The End, an apocalypse themed book of shorts from Black Shuck Shadows, was a 2024 Imadjinn Award Finalist for Best Collection. Her short story "TBR" is included in This Way Lies Madness, an anthology from Flame Tree that is currently a Bram Stoker Award Finalist and British Fantasy Award Finalist. She has a Masters Degree in Scriptwriting, though her focus shifted some years ago to more bookish formats, and she freelances as a proofreader and editor.

Kayleigh runs Happy Goat Horror, a review website and YouTube channel for horror fiction, with a particular interest in indie horror fiction. On the YT channel, she posts reviews, themed lists, rankings, and creator interviews. Recent interviewees include screenwriter Jamie Flanagan and author Joe Hill.

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