The Sculptor Series by Christa Wojciechowski 💕 Guest Post, Series Tour, Freebie Offer and $20 Gift Card Giveaway 💕(Dark Romantic Suspense)

This blog post contains affiliate links. Click Here for details.

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

LITERARY TITAN GOLD AWARD WINNER

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

Art school dropout Ona Price is forced to clean up after a near-fatal overdose on a Manhattan sidewalk. While in recovery, she lands a job as the assistant to Antoni Azarov, the world-famous sculptor known as The Hands of God. Though he is difficult and brooding, his extraordinary talent reawakens Ona's passion for art, giving her life the meaning she so desperately craved. An undeniable attraction develops as they work together, but Antoni keeps his physical distance at all costs. When the predatory wife of a wealthy benefactor decides she wants the sculptor for herself, the monstrous secret that fuels Antoni’s art threatens to destroy all.

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

💕 Click on the image to learn more 💕

The Literary Titan Gold Book Award is bestowed upon books that exemplify exceptional standards in the presentation of original content. For both fiction and non-fiction works, this award appreciates the meticulous development of unique characters or subjects presented in an authentically engaging context. Whether it is an innovative narrative structure for a fiction book or a compelling argumentation in a non-fiction work, we value the ability to support fresh themes and ideas. The award also honors the craft of elegant prose, showcasing a talent for transforming simple words into compelling, beautifully constructed text. This prestigious accolade is our tribute to books that represent an extraordinary achievement in the literary world.

Azarov was one of the few artists who did life-size sculptures in clay. The process was tedious and risky, but the results were unreal. It was no wonder he didn’t want to deal with all the attention, and Oz was too technically challenged to sift through the cluttered inbox. More than once I found myself looking up through the crack in the door to watch the sculptor smoothing the clay in the shadow of Nina’s two ridiculously long legs.

Azarov had a look of concentration, but there was something else, like his soul was singing a song that human ears couldn’t hear. He handled the clay so lovingly and with complete purpose. He knew what it was supposed to do and what it could be. The studio was a church kind of quiet. I was afraid to breathe. I didn’t pee or take a cigarette break. I dared not interrupt the magic taking place by exiting my room.

“We’re done for today,” I finally heard him say. I waited for what I hoped was an appropriate moment before stepping out. Nina was pulling her clothes out of a rucksack in the corner and began to get dressed. She was so comfortable in her own nakedness. That’s what life is like in a supermodel’s body, I thought.

“I must go back to the city,” Nina said. “My car is parked in the lot on the other side in Lambertville. Ona, can you give me a ride across the bridge?”

“Sure,” I said.

Then Nina said something to Mr. Azarov in Russian. A farewell, I supposed. I walked with Nina out of the cavernous studio into the bright gray light of the November afternoon. I hit the key button to unlock the door, and Nina and I got into the car. I lit up a cigarette.

“Oh, can I have one of those?” Nina begged.

“You smoke?” She looked so pristine in the light of day. I felt reluctant to give her a cigarette. She was young, probably not past twenty.

“I am not supposed to,” Nina said. “Wrinkles and all of that, but it was a long day.”

I handed her the pack and pulled the car out onto the road.

“So you will be like secretary?” Nina asked in her charming broken English.

“Yes, something like that,” I said. “How long have you worked with Mr. Azarov?”

“Oh, I have known Antoni for two or three years now,” Nina said pulling her hair back into a ponytail. “I’m accustomed to him already.”

“What is it like working for him?” I was curious if he made everyone feel like hiding in a corner.

“It’s not easy,” Nina said. “Painful, and he is demanding, but once he starts working it’s okay. Even though he is looking at me, it is as if I am in my own room and he is in his own room.”

“He seems so serious.”

“He has had difficult life, but he is not a bad man,” Nina said. “Yes, he is quiet, and very far away. He is very far away from us. You understand?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess most geniuses are like that. They don’t have patience to mix with mortals.”

“Something like that.” Nina laughed.

“He must have a lot of girlfriends,” I suggested.

Nina scoffed. “No, as strange as it is, he is not receptive to women.” She let out a long drag, her mouth tightening into a bitter sliver. “Only his statues.” She looked down and brushed some stray ashes off her sweater. “That is all he cares about.”

I got the feeling that maybe Nina knew this from experience. “They are so sensual,” I said.

She scrutinized me and cocked her head. “Yes, we all fall in love with them. With him. But trust me. Don’t bother.”

“Oh, me? No, no, no. I don’t have a crush on him or anything.”

“Right,” Nina nodded and laughed mirthlessly. “Just take may advice, secretary, okay?”

Nina puffed in silence after that and I felt naïve in this new world of super models and famous artists. I realized I had begun smoothing over my Long Island accent without even consciously thinking about it. What did people like Azarov and Nina think of me? A middle-class girl, as statuesque as a concrete garden gnome.

We drove into the parking lot on the other side of the bridge. “That one.” Nina pointed to a red sports car squatting at the end of the row. She held out her hand, recovering her breeziness. “See you tomorrow then?”

“I hope so,” I said.

“Good,” Nina said with an enormous toothy smile. She strutted to her car, her long ash-blonde ponytail whipping in the wind.

I thought of Crime and Punishment and the Extraordinary Man, one born out of millions who lifts humanity. I knew I wasn’t a superior human being, and I didn’t need to test my theory. But a man like Azarov, peevish or not, was extraordinary, the first extraordinary person I’d ever met in my life. I’d end up in art history books if I kept my job with him. His Wikipedia would mention me. Antoni Azarov, the greatest sculptor of the millennia, owed his success to the tireless service of his assistant, Ona Price.

(Always double-check the price)

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.

The intoxicating finale to The Sculptor Series ...

After cheating death in New York, Ona Price's battle scars run deeper than her disfigured face. Antoni Azarov orchestrates a journey to jolt them out of their artistic dead zone. From the boozy streets of New Orleans to the sultry shores of a Caribbean archipelago, they explore forbidden desires, testing the limits of pleasure and pain.

No matter where their experiences take them, their personal demons hunt them down until their journey ends on a remote lagoon called the Darklands. Will their love survive the dark secrets that threaten to tear them apart, or will the Darklands become the ultimate test of their commitment?

Unveil the dangerous beauty of Darklands, where the human psyche unravels in a sensuous journey that will leave you breathless.

"Darklands is a hair-raising conclusion to The Sculptor trilogy. It reads like a David Lynch erotic fever dream that constantly veers close to the edge of nightmare, ending with a spiritual awakening of biblical proportions. I wept. Adapt this into a movie at once." —Joseph Sale, author of The Book of Thrice Dead

💕 Click here to learn more 💕

Read on ANY device, or try a Kindle eReader

(4 colors to choose from!)

💕 Click here to learn more 💕

What are common traps for aspiring writers?

I have experienced many pitfalls as an aspiring writer. In addition to my own mistakes, I run a virtual writing group of aspiring writers at the writersmastermindgroup.com and watch their journeys. I also work as a digital marketer and book promoter for aspiring writers and have seen the same patterns. The traps are many. I will list the top 3 here.

Not writing:

Most writers hem and haw, let self-doubt prevent them from writing. Many are not even aware that the reason they are not writing. Why is laundry and social media and checking our bank app suddenly is so important? We allow things in to take up space so we don’t have to fill the empty page.

Not preparing:

I wrote a post about First-Time Self-Published Writers’ Syndrome on my blog. I see many writers approaching their writing career with a “lottery mindset.” They scribble out a book, feverishly upload it to Amazon, and wait for overnight success. Sometimes, they don’t even wait for a professional edit or proofread. When they don’t wake up on the bestsellers list, they give up. It’s not because they aren’t good writers. It’s because they didn’t prepare. Book launches are important, and authors must plan months in advance to make them successful. Take your book seriously.

Not promoting:

Ongoing promotion is difficult for even the most successful and experienced authors. For introverts, it’s against all our natural instincts to self-promote. For extroverts, is still difficult to maintain the consistency of promotion to regularly sell books. But no one will know you or your book exists if you don’t put yourself out there.

I tell members of the Writers’ Mastermind to think of promoting as offering yourself instead of selling yourself. You worked hard. There are readers are waiting for your words. Speak your truth and they will find you.

Christa Wojciechowski is an American dark fiction writer who has lived most her career abroad. She is the author of The Sculptor Series, The SICK Series, and the founder of the Writers Mastermind virtual writing community.

Christa’s novella “Popsicle” (Crystal Lake) was a semi-finalist in Screencraft’s Cinematic Short Story Competition and second rounder in the Launch Pad Prose Competition. Her short stories have appeared in various publications and anthologies, most recently “Blood Sisters” in the Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas (Hex Publishers), “Observer Dependent Universe” in the Chiral Mad 5 anthology (Written Backwards), and “The Oasis” selected for the Chromophobia anthology (Strangehouse Books).

Christa Wojciechowski is an active member of the Horror Writers Association and editor at Gamut Magazine. She loves to play Chopin (badly) and sip Hendrick’s gin. When she is not reading or writing, she can be found wandering the world, collecting new experiences.