Christa Wojciechowski's Blog, page 2

Giveaway–Book Gift Box

Hello all,

I had a few extra author copies of Oblivion Black and Hierarchy of Needs and thought, why don’t I send them to readers?

So, I’m running a quick summer giveaway. I am putting together two gift boxes, each will contain paperback copies of books 1 and 2 of The Sculptor Series plus some other little goodies.

The 2 winners will be announced Friday, July 7th, 2023.

ENTER TO WIN

To enter, click here.

*******

The post Giveaway–Book Gift Box appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

Art Beyond Words: Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel was a French sculptor born in 1864. Despite her disapproving mother, Camille was able to pursue her artistic career with the support of her father. In a time where women sculptors were rarely seen, Camille carved out a unique place for herself in the history of art. Tragically, she was largely unknown until after her death and much of her work no longer exists.

Her story is a tumultuous one. She apprenticed under Auguste Rodin and began an affair with him. According to Wikipedia’s article on Camille Claudel, “She acted as his model, his confidante, and his lover.” But Rodin would not leave his wife. After having an abortion, Camille stopped the affair, but she had already been kicked out of her family’s house for being immoral. Later, her father passed away and she had little protection from her family, who were seemingly out to destroy her.

Camille Claudel (left) and sculptor Jessie Lipscomb in their Paris studio in the mid-1880s

~

Camille suffered mental breaks and paranoia. She ended up destroying much of her own work. This enabled her mother and brother to request she be committed to a psychiatric facility. She spent the rest of her life confined—thirty years—in an asylum. Her remains were thrown in the facility’s communal grave, lost among strangers forever.

The Waltz

~

If you take a look at Rodin’s work, you see how these two artist lovers may have inspired and influenced each other. Debussy was also smitten with the sculptress, who no doubt, was unlike other women of the time. When looking at her portrait, you see a wild-haired, genius, brimming with passion, a young woman who railed against societal norms and paid dearly for it—a tragic story of love, madness, and extraordinary art.

Vertumnus and Pomona
Camille Claudel (1864-1943)

~

Camille Claudel’s bust of her lover and mentor Auguste Rodin

The post Art Beyond Words: Camille Claudel appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

Updates: The Sculptor Series

Hello friends. I hope all is well in your corner of the world! Things have been busy here. It’s hard to believe the last time I posted was in November 2022.

First, I want to thank all who left reviews for Oblivion Black and Hierarchy of Needs. The response to this series has been amazing! I am deeply touched by how readers felt about the story and can’t wait to release the ending. A huge shout out to my ARC team and Book Sirens followers for all their insightful reviews. You guys keep me inspired!

Unfortunately, the release of the third and final book in The Sculptor Series will be delayed for a few months. I have taken on a job with my husband’s start up, as well as running the Writers’ Mastermind, and managing author platforms for my digital marketing clients. I’m blessed with all this work, but it has cut into my writing time.

So, here’s the update—Book 3 (Working Title: Darklands) is complete and through its first rewrites. It still needs editing, proofreading, and its beautiful cover that, I’m thrilled to say, Lynne Hansen will be designing again!

To those of you who preordered Book 3—First, thank you. And second, I’m sorry, but I have to cancel the June 2, 2023 release date. Kindle will allow me to move the date ahead 30 days (July 2, 2023), but I need more time than that. You will receive a notice from Amazon that the order is cancelled and issue you a refund.

The new release date will come with the cover reveal in September 2023.

If you haven’t left a review yet for Book 1 or 2 of The Sculptor Series, I would love to know your feedback on the story. Please click here for Oblivion Black and here for Hierarchy of Needs. Scroll down till you see “Write a review” and drop a few lines.

Thanks to all, and feel free to comment/reply with your questions or thoughts.

May the muses be with you,

—Christa

The post Updates: The Sculptor Series appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

Feast on Your Life

We look outside for people, places, sensations, and objects to fulfill us, but at the end of the day (or our lives) we will be solely with our selves. So why wait till then to come home to your very own soul?

I told my nephew the other day, when he didn’t want to be alone, to become his own best friend. It’s much more than the self-love trend all over the place right now. We must strip away everything, and come to know ourselves on the most intimate level. The year’s end is the perfect time to go inward and examine all we’ve experienced (bad or good), how we’ve changed, and how our lives are richer for it.

This poem serendipitously came my way and captured the feeling perfectly. It is by a poet named Derek Walcott, and I wanted to share it with you as I wish you a holiday season full of love and wonder.

As he so beautifully says, “feast on your life.”

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott

*****

Painting: Still Life with Fruit and Carafe, c. 1610/1620, Pensionante del Saraceni

The post Feast on Your Life appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

COVER REVEAL ~ Hierarchy of Needs

COVER REVEAL ~ Hierarchy of Needs

Hello dear readers,

I’m ecstatic to show you the new cover for Hierarchy of Needs, the second book in the sculptor series. It’s coming out on Kindle November 15th, 2022. You can preorder your copy on Amazon right now.

Thanks to all who left their reviews for the first book, Oblivion Black. I am incredibly grateful for all the support.

You can see what people are saying about Oblivion Black here.

If you haven’t left a review and received a free Advanced Review Copy, please take a minute out to leave your thoughts here.

And now, drumroll please …

I present to you the cover for Hierarchy of Needs, designed by the monstrously talented Lynne Hansen.

Hierarchy of Needs – The Sculptor Book 2

When self-destruction is the only way out ….

World-famous sculptor Antoni Azarov, and his muse, Ona Price are ripped apart after a shocking act of violence sends them into their own personal hells.

Trapped in Manhattan, Ona faces her most treacherous enemy, her addiction to heroin, while a dangerous new man claims her desire.

Antoni, an artist defamed, is hellbent on saving Ona before she destroys herself. What he doesn’t know is if she wants to be rescued.

Meanwhile, death haunts them on every corner as a vengeful crime boss called Warlock devours the city, poisoning its addicted population with a flesh-eating drug.

Amid this chaos, Ona and Antoni must struggle against their darkest selves to find a way back to each other—or else give in to the darkness forever.

The propulsive sequel to Oblivion Black, Hierarchy of Needs is an intoxicating exploration of the paradox of love, the chokehold of desire, and the deadly thrills of the underworld. This second book in The Sculptor Series will leave readers fiending for more.

Order Hierarchy of Needs

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Paperback coming soon…

The post COVER REVEAL ~ Hierarchy of Needs appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

4 Disturbingly Talented Female Authors

SICK Part 1 (now Afflicted-Sick Book 1) will be re-released by Raven Tale Publishing soon. After the first edition, one of my readers found it so off-putting, they could not continue with the series. This, she told me, was a compliment. So what made me choose to write dark fiction?

Dark fiction chose me. The story of John and Susan Branch in The Sick Series was literally transcribed from a nightmare. As the series continued, my writing style deepened, and I noticed exploring dark themes impacted me (believe it or not) in a psychologically healthy way.

Dark fiction teaches us the most about ourselves. It’s a dimension where our shadow self feels safe to step out of us so that we can see it as a whole and examine it. It’s a place where we can’t shy away, laugh it off, and pretend it’s not there. Dark fiction is Jungian shadow work while wearing a protective cloak of a story.

I am constantly seeking like-minded authors to appreciate and learn from. Here are some of my latest discoveries if you care to explore our shady human psyche with other female writers who fearlessly tread the dark.

4 Disturbingly Talented Female Authors Mary GaitskillVeronica

This not a new book, but it stands up decades later. Veronica is a swirling journey through Alison’s life as she goes from humble beginnings to high-fashion model, to middle-aged woman with hepatitis and a bad shoulder. In the maelstrom of almost hallucinogenic recollections of her decadent past and vivid observations of her present, is the friendship with a woman named Veronica.

Their relationship is a strange mix of love and something ugly, as Alison’s feelings of superiority wrestle with her loneliness and desire to connect. The end is so heartbreaking, I could barely stand the pain. It ends on a hopeful note, though. Life, just life—messy and beautiful.

The way Gaitskill vivisects human emotion and psychology is freakishly detailed and hyper-realistic. Her writing may be too much for some. At times, I wanted her to let up for a paragraph or two to take a breath, but if you can stick with this book, it is so worth it. It is not horror, but the emotional brutality makes it more horrific than any gore or violence. Thanks to Richard Thomas for recommending her work to me.

The wind is strong now. I’m afraid it will pick me up and throw me off the ridge. I picture falling, breaking on tree branches and cracking my head on the rocks below. I picture a tree branch falling on me and pinning me. How long would I lie there before someone found me? Night would come. The softness and greenness and moving stillness would make an immense fist and it would close around me. Bugs would come. I would die. Animals would come. Bugs and animals would eat me. I would rot and disperse. The dispersed flesh would travel down into the ground in tiny pieces, burrowing in the dirt, deeper and deeper. I would cease to be an I and become an it. It would get eaten by bugs, come out their assholes, and keep going. It would come to the center of the earth. The heat and light would be like hell for a human. But it would not be human. It would go on in.

And this …

I imagine being in a hospital bed, holding my dying, unfaithful lover in my arms. I imagine feeling the beat of his heart, thumping with dumb animal purity. Once, when I was working in Spain, I went to a bullfight, where I saw a gored horse run with its intestines spilling out behind it. It was trying to outrun death by doing what it always did, what always gave it joy, safety, and pride. Not understanding that what had always been good was now futile and worthless, and humiliated by its inability to understand. That’s how I imagine Duncan’s heart. Beating like it always had, working as hard as it could. Not understanding why it was no good. This was why Veronica got into the bed—to comfort this debased heart. To say to it, But you are good. I see. I know. You are good. Even if it doesn’t work.

*

Sara TantlingerTo Be Devoured

During the 2020 lockdowns, I read so much that most stories from the period become foggy and blend. But To Be Devoured still haunts me. Now that I finally have begun blogging again and can share it with you, I look on Amazon and it’s out of print! I’m hoping that means it’s going to be re-released soon because it’s one of my favorites.

To Be Devoured is about a woman named Andi who becomes obsessed with vultures and begins to crave putrid flesh. If you’ve ever smelled a ripe carcass, then the thought of putting rotten offal in your mouth is enough to traumatize you. But the story goes much deeper than that, into her traumatic past and a ravenous preoccupation with her girlfriend. There is a scene with a feminine hygiene product that you probably shouldn’t read in public because your mouth will gape open. Things get pitch black, graphic, and downright disgusting, but it’s threaded with poetic beauty and meaning and explores many of my favorite themes.

Ugly birds drift in slow, lazy circles, but I shouldn’t judge for what is simply in their nature. Every body is a waiting carcass to them, a future meal to be enjoyed—they don’t care about aesthetics. They take care of it, strip away the decayed flesh from bones like a ravenous, sacred obligation, sharing the duty with pulsating maggots and buzzing flies. A voracious feast of the dead, purging rot and liquified tissue from the skeleton until advanced decay claims everything, giving the remaining nutrients back to the soil, to nature. The way Mother Earth intended. Nothing wrong about it.

And later…

What does it taste like—dead flesh? Do the bodies haunt the vultures after they consume the carcass? If I eat a human’s meat, do they live on inside me forever? Humans eat cooked ham, steak, venison, and more all the time. All those dead cows, chickens, pigs, fish—they become meals. Their bodies digesting inside another body. Bones and organs, blood and marrow, absorbing and taking what each part needs to survive. It’s cooked, preserved, safe.

I would never guess that after weathering COVID, Sara Tantlinger would publish my short story, The Oasis, in her Chromophobia Anthology. Recently, I came across an old review of TBD by Steve Stred (also a huge talent) on Kendall Reviews that also mentioned Sick (which thrills me to no end!)

*

Samantha KolesnickWaif

I had insomnia one night and started browsing Amazon suggestions. The title Waif popped up. My interest was further piqued when I read the description, which made such an odd contrast with the Victorian-looking cover.

Angela is a disenchanted wife who, by bizarre circumstances involving her husband and a stranger who becomes her sexual obsession, ends up working in an underground plastic surgery and porn ring.

I thought I was a in for a slow burn of deviant self-discovery that would help me drift off to sleep. Instead, Waif kept me awake for hours more. I was unable to put it down.

This book is propulsive and outrageous. Intermixed are moments of such recognizable honesty and insight into unsettling parts of oneself, that you flinch. I love books that reveal truths about us, and this one flashes them like a strobe light, especially the darker aspects of being a woman. Combine that with lurid and horrific situations you hope you can banish from memory.

Some characters’ motivations seeemed contradictory, but not enough to trip me up. If you aren’t squeamish, there is so much to appreciate in this book above the hardcore. At its heart, it is a love story, one with beautiful, brash writing and a hopeful end.

Yet now I looked at him, so pitiable and ill-postured over his coffee, which he said now hurt too much to drink warm and instead had to drink it either room temp or slightly cold. He’d taken to hiding his once hairy thighs, too, which now had strange inflamed pockmarks where the hairs used to be. I caught him picking at one once when he thought I wasn’t looking. He picked at it so long it bled. And then he’d brought his finger to his mouth and had smelled his own blood. It made me embarrassed to witness it, like I had caught some private moment of a dying animal.

Final thought: Don’t read it before you go to bed unless you want to stay awake until it’s done.

*

Chelsea G. SummerA Certain Hunger

Look out, Patrick Bateman. Here comes America’s new psycho with an even more refined palate. Introducing Dorothy Daniels, food critic and burgeoning serial killer.

I haven’t finished this book yet, but wow. If you want to tag along for a journey with an intellectual psychopath Hannibal Lector a la femme fatale, this is the book for you (a book I would love to have written). The prose is toe-curling, and much like Mary Gaitskill, unrelenting.

Dorothy tells us her story from her prison cell, taking us through her first lovers, her strange cravings, and how she finally crossed the line into full blown murderer. An undercurrent of gender-angst makes it a little less scary than it would otherwise be. If it’s social commentary, we don’t have to take it seriously, right? Good thing, or we’d be disturbed that we’re enjoying it so much.

Here’s a little taste for you:

We women have an emotional wiliness that shellacs us in a glossy patina of caring. We have been raised to take interest in promoting the healthy interior lives of other humans; preparation, I suppose, for taking on the emotional labor of motherhood—or marriage; either way, really. Few women come into maturity unscathed by the suffocating pink press of girlhood, and even psychopaths are touched by the long, frilly arm of feminine expectations. It’s not that women psychopaths don’t exist; it’s that we fake it better than men.

And this powerful statement …

The main thing that youth has going for it is porpoise-tight skin. Raw, wide-eyed newness is meaningless. Nostalgia for knowing nothing is asinine; you can’t recapture it and you don’t want to relive it. Better to sing a song of experience with your burning tiger’s heart.

A Certain Hunger is more fun than America Psycho and not so bleak you need to see a psychiatrist afterward, but it’s dark enough that it will get to you if you don’t take breaks between courses.

Bon appetite!

*

Next on my TBR list of disturbingly talented female authors…

Tender is the Flesh, Agustina Bazterrica

Bones and All, Camille DeAngelis

Look at Me, Jennifer Egan

Boy Parts, Eliza Clark

Hysteria, Jessica Gross

The New Me, Halle Butler

Acts of Desperation, Megan Nolan

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh

What are the most disturbingly talented female authors you have read?

Please share your suggestions below.

The post 4 Disturbingly Talented Female Authors appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

POPSICLE Cover, Release, Plus Amazing News

On February 7th, 2020, I signed my first contract with a publisher. Bloodshot Books gave me a shot with Popsicle, a novella I had written in 2018 (probably the weirdest thing I have and ever will write).

Little did we know that, within a few weeks, COVID 19 would paralyze the world and continue to do so for time indefinite…

So today, I’m thrilled to announce that Popsicle has finally been released. A huge thanks to Pete Kahle from Bloodshot Books and to Don Noble for the incredible cover.

Also, thanks to titan authors Jerry Stahl and Richard Thomas for their blurbs.

You can now buy the eBook or Paperback format on Amazon.

But there’s more.

Some of you may remember that while this book was on hold, it made the semifinals for Screencraft’s Cinematic Short Story Contest for 2021.

This year, I entered the Launch Pad Prose contest and am thrilled to announce that Popsicle has made it to the 2nd round of judging. Winners have gone on to work with Ridley Scott and Showtime.

Here are a few words from some of my favorite writers about Popsicle:

“Popsicle is a wild ride—funny, visceral, unsettling, and oddly hopeful. Take Palahniuk and Cronenberg, mix in some Jeremy Robert Johnson, and a splash of Philip K. Dick and this is what you get. Christa Wojciechowski is one of my favorite emerging voices, taking chances on the page, as she writes startling original stories that are impossible to put down.”

Richard Thomas, author of Disintegration, Breaker, and Spontaneous Human Combustion

“Demented comedy, flat-out horror, criminal thrills that would make Tarantino blush, Christa Wojciechowski’s Popsicle has it all. This is the kind of book you won’t just dig, you’ll yank friends and loved ones out of their chairs and shove it in their faces and demand they read. Popsicle is the real deal. Get it while you can.”

Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight

About the BookBRAIN FOG

Andre only values people as far as he can use them to feed his addictions. But when he emerges from his most recent bender and finds himself gnawing on another man’s head in a New York sewer, it might be time to seek help. Cannibalism, whether intentional or not, is a gigantic red flag. But first … Where is he? How did he get there? Who is the man he is eating? And not least of all, why the hell are his pants down?

BRAIN DRAIN

To top it all off, Andre soon discovers that someone has surgically implanted a cybernetic device in his neck. Sure, it’s cool that it allows him to virtually access the internet with his mind, but the fact that it shorts out his brain and shuts him down at the worst possible times is a major design flaw.

BRAIN DEAD

Frightened and horrified, Andre is determined to uncover what events led up to his grotesque meal in the sewer. Starting with his social media posts, he pieces together the missing weeks and retraces a sordid drug-fueled odyssey. Bizarre memories surface. He rediscovers long-buried feelings of guilt and regret, especially regarding his ex, Astrid. Tangled within those memories is the key to this mystery, and if he doesn’t hurry and discover what happened, his brain will fry.

Buy Popsicle now!Amazon USAmazon UKAmazon CA

The post POPSICLE Cover, Release, Plus Amazing News appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

It’s About Time

My attempt to slow down the perception of timePhilippe de Champaigne’s Vanitas (c. 1671) is reduced to three essentials: Life, Death, and Time (Public Domain)

Time is a slippery thing. It’s hard to grasp the concept of time as it is to grasp time itself. How can we hold on to something that’s for the most part beyond our understanding?

As we each spend more time on Earth, our perception of it shrinks. At first, it’s by small degrees. Then suddenly, a year seems like a few months. It’s frightening, disorienting, and it seems the harder we try to hold on to it, the more quickly it slips through our fingers.

I grew up pre-web and remember having to be home to answer a phone call. We had to drive to Blockbuster to rent a movie and go to the library to look up random facts. As teenagers, we spent endless hours “hanging out” and talking. I spent my afternoons zoning out to music in my bedroom. For us today, it would seem a drag. But how I would love to feel time drag today!

Undoubtedly, our constant interaction with the internet is the number one culprit in this acceleration of the perception of time. It’s no secret we are overstimulated. Our human brain could never have prepared for this onslaught of information. Even my ten-year-old nephew is reduced to tears when he can’t fit everything he wants to do in a day. How tragic is that!

My upcoming novella, Popsicle, is about this epidemic of cerebral overload. I had been working as a digital marketer for many years and noticed how excessive exposure to the internet was not only making me agitated and restless but also making the day slip away in what seemed like hours. Most of my clients were podcasters with one or more episodes a week. I was a hamster on a wheel of endless deadlines, always in a rush to get to the next show done so I could experience a brief moment of accomplishment before the cycle began again.

We only have one life, and mine felt like a runaway train, hurtling toward its end. I had difficulty enjoying a quiet moment and always felt I had something I needed to do. I had taken to speed reading and forgot how to read at a normal, leisurely pace. I had become accustomed to listening to audio at 1.5 or 2 times the speed to transcribe shows faster, so I also got into the habit of listening to audiobooks and my favorite podcasts faster. Everyone chattering like chipmunks. It was insanity!

Last year, I was let go by my podcast clients. Even though I missed the income, it was the best thing to happen to me. I was burning out and had forgotten how to have fun. Luckily, we didn’t need two incomes in our household at the time, and I could work at a minimal level. I thought, hallelujah. Now I will get off the crazy train and catch my breath.

I stopped my obsessive, super-detailed to-do lists. I laid off goal-setting (of course time seems to go faster with that eternal dangling carrot in front of you!). I stopped posting and commenting on social media. I let go of everything. And I let go some more. I watched all the balls I was juggling drop.

It wasn’t easy. I had to ignore the impulses to do the next thing I thought I had to do and wait for what was most important to surface from the muck.

Meditation, journaling, and reading were prioritized. I forced myself to periods of doing nothing. Have you heard the saying that goes something like, you’re not a human doing, you’re a human being? I practiced being okay with just being. I planned more unusual activities and new experiences, including those in The Artist’s Way.

I knew it would take a while to adjust to my newfound freedom. The strange part was, even after months, time still seemed to pass too fast. I expected to feel like I was in an eternal lazy summer break afternoon. I was disappointed when the days still seemed too short. And I accomplished little. This realization was both disappointing and freeing.

Through the Waking Up App, which has been life-changing, I listened to a talk by Oliver Burkeman about his book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. What he said turned my mindset about time managment upside down. We only get 4,000 weeks of life on average, if we’re lucky enough to live our full lifespans. How do we fit in “all the things”? This was the most crucial issue in my life, and I bought the book straight away.

Does this book reveal the magical method to organizing your days and to-do lists so that you’ll get everything done?

No. I will tell you right now that it does not. Quite the opposite.

What it does give you, in very stark realistic terms, is the fact that we’ll never get done all we want to. That we’ll never “be on top of things.” That we don’t ever get any time back. And it’s up to us to decide what to do with our most precious and few hours on this earth.

For me, personally, this meant to stop spending idle time on the internet. Stop reading books that have little depth. Stop consuming digital junk. Turn off movies and shows that are shallow and stupid instead of waiting for them to get better and wasting a lovely evening mildly entertained. To let the house get a little dirty so I can focus on stuff that matters (also, hire a maid). Let my business get a little messy. Let go of answering ALL the emails. Absorb people when I’m talking to them, giving them my full attention, reading what’s behind their words and behavior instead of reacting to them. Not taking anything for granted. Being happy with what I have instead of waiting till the someday when everything is perfectly in place to enjoy life.

This is it.

Right now.

So, in a way, my experiment failed. I did not succeed in slowing down my perception of time in a significant way. But, knowing that it’s impossible and accepting this dismal reality frees me to stop worrying about how to fit everything in and feeling guilty whenever I don’t. I’m off the hook! It has helped me realize that, each minute, I make the micro-decisions that will determine the fullness of my life.

I have gone back to my to-do lists, though now they are much shorter and include more calls to my family or emails to friends I most care about. I am going back to full-time work to provide for my future self, and I’ve set new goals—loose goals that leave room for serendipity to work its magic.

It’s not the mythical work-life balance I idealized. It’s learning to adapt to life in a way that’s most beneficial for me personally and as part of the world. To work with the flow of the universe instead of trying to stubbornly steer everything in the direction I think it should go (because, what do I know, right?). I am now more aware of when and how I am wasting time and stop myself as soon as I get sucked into something that doesn’t enrich my life in a positive, useful, or enjoyable way.

So when you catch yourself mindlessly scrolling through TikTok, playing games on your phone, or reading inflammatory, vapid content instead of participating in your life, stop and think:

What’s the next most important thing to do?

What would I do if this was my last day on Earth?

What matters most to me and is this helping me with that?

Suggested content

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Time Management for Writers (Exclusive Writers’ Mastermind Video Course)

The Waking Up App

The post It’s About Time appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

Free Gift—plus updates for Oblivion Black, Chromophobia, and more

Hello dear readers,

Things have gotten quite busy this year. It’s as if all the seeds I planted during the 2020 lockdown have begun to sprout. I don’t want to drown you in details, so I will just do a quick run through of the latest news.

New Short Story for You!

I’ve released a new free short story for your enjoyment. It’s inspired by the death of Rudolph Valentino and the women who attempted the unthinkable at the news of his untimely death. You can download it for free by clicking here.

*****

Chromophobia Paperback Available

My story, “The Oasis,” has been published in Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror . It is edited by Sara Tantlinger. She is a Bram Stoker Award-winning poet and author one of my favorite female horror writers.

Visit her blog to enjoy a roundtable discussion with all the women horror writers involved in the project.

The reviews from the big guys are quite exciting!

“Extraordinary tales of terror that are as grim as they are delightful.” — Kirkus Reviews

“… clever, unsettling stories … push the boundaries of conventional horror.” — BookLife Reviews

The eBook will be live shortly. You can order your paperback here.

*****

Shadow Atlas wins the Colorado Book Award

Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas won the Colorado Book Award for Best Anthology. This beautiful book includes a stunning array of talent, and I’m lucky enough to be among them with my story, “Blood Sisters.”

If you ordered a copy, you know the obvious care and work that Hex Publishers put into this beautiful curiosity. You can show your support by leaving a rating and review here.

*****

My ‘A Happy Moment Podcast’ Interview

I appeared on my first podcast with Writers’ Mastermind member, Dan Markowski. I talk about what drives my stories, the transformative power of dark fiction, and my limited understanding of NFTs (which I want to understand so badly)! Click here to listen!

*****

Oblivion Black is right around the corner

If you saw my last post, you will know that I had to move the publication date for Oblivion Black to Monday, August 8th.

If you’re on my Advanced Review Team, this means you have a bit more time to finish the book and jot down your thoughts on it. I won’t make the official announcement of the release until 8/22 to give the ARC team plenty of time to leave the reviews. You can leave your review here whenever you’re ready.

The first review came in from Book Viral yesterday, and I’m thrilled it has received 5 stars! You can read Book Viral’s full review for Oblivion Black here.

*****

There is more to come (did I mention Popsicle and the re-release of the SICK series?), but I will stop here for now. I just wanted to share all the exciting news! Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support.

My next posts will be about the transformative power of dark fiction, and my experimental attempt to slow down the perception of time.

Until then, hit reply and let me know your thoughts.

—Christa

The post Free Gift—plus updates for Oblivion Black, Chromophobia, and more appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.

COVER REVEAL ~ Oblivion Black

The cover for Oblivion Black is here, and it is an absolute masterpiece. A massive thanks to Lynne Hansen for her brilliant work! I could never have come up with such a beautiful, fitting concept and aesthetic for this book. This story is about the transcendent power of art over the pull of darkness, and Lynne’s cover captures this perfectly. Once you read Oblivion Black, you’ll also notice Lynne has cleverly incorporated little hints from the story.

Note: the release has been moved to Monday, August 8th.

Those of you who’ve preordered will have received a notice from Amazon.

If you are on my ARC team and received review copies through Book Funnel, good news! You get some extra time to read the book and write your review.

I apologize for the delay, but organizing and synchronizing everything for launch has been a challenge. I hope to nail down an efficient book release system that I can share with my fellow authors in the Writers’ Mastermind in the near future.

In the midst of this book release, reality is alarming. Panama is in upheaval. What began as road blockages and peaceful protests against rising costs, low wages, corruption, and a generalized frustration, has escalated into violence and chaos. Food and gas shortages plague the country. Transportation is locked down. We are fortunate to be safe and have resources close at hand. We’re praying that the citizens and the government can find a resolution soon.

In the meantime, the show must go on. Take care and look for Oblivion Black on 8/8 (Psst… You can preorder here).

The harder you try to escape, the more darkness pulls you under.

Art school dropout Ona Price is forced to clean up after an embarrassing overdose on a Manhattan sidewalk. While in recovery, she lands a job as the assistant to mysterious Antoni Azarov, the world-famous sculptor known as The Hands of God. An undeniable attraction develops as Ona becomes the muse of his greatest work, but Antoni keeps his physical distance at all costs. When Sonia Orlyk, the predatory wife of a wealthy benefactor, decides she wants the sculptor to herself, the secret that has bound Antoni to his art threatens all.

Oblivion Black is a lush transgressive fairy tale with the Gothic appeal of a Brontë novel. Fans of literary fiction, romance, and thriller books will appreciate this intense dive into existential confusion, intoxication, eroticism, and beauty.

Thanks for reading!

~Christa~

The post COVER REVEAL ~ Oblivion Black appeared first on Christa Wojciechowski.