Guest Author Andrea Merchak of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Another first for the Scribbler!

Andrea is our first guest from Brazil. So happy to have her here for a 4Q Interview and she has kindly offered to share an excerpt of her work.

Andrea Merchak was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she still lives. She graduated in journalism and worked as a freelance journalist for a while. Currently, besides writing books, she creates book trailers and book covers for a living.

She’d have never thought of being an author until her sister came up with the idea. But ever since Andrea published her first book, she’s never thought of doing anything else other than writing.

Her debut novel, “Bloody Legends”, was so well-received by readers that it became a series with the release of the exciting prequel “Bloody Origin”. The Bloody Series is about a vicious serial killer who finds himself bored with killing only prostitutes and homeless people, so he creates themes to commit the most heinous crimes and satiate his darkest desires.

Andrea released a short story, “Deadly Senses”, as part of the horror anthology “Death & Pestilence” with other writers. Her latest release, “Crowley’s Cult”, is a blend of horror, supernatural, and erotica. She is currently writing “Bloody Puzzle”, Book 2 of the Bloody Series, and “Fragments of Horror”, a collection of 12 short stories.

Writing is her greatest joy, and Andrea will always find new ways to intrigue and scare the wits out of you.

4Q: After a visit to your website – https://author-am.wixsite.com/andreamerchak – I discovered your love for writing horror thrillers. Please share with us why you are drawn to this genre.

AM: To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if even I know what drew me to horror. But as far back as I can remember, I was always drawn to horror, since I was a young kid. I’ve always loved that feeling of dread that horror stories provoke. The darker, gorier, and scarier, the better. You can call me crazy, but horror is fascinating. It arouses all our senses. I love the adrenaline running through my veins, my heart beating fast, the suspense. I just love it! Though it’d be perfect if horror only existed in fiction, of course.

4Q: Please tell us about your latest novel and the excerpt you are sharing with us.

AM: “Crowley’s Cult” is a dark horror story with elements of supernatural, erotica, and mystery. Its protagonist, Zane, is a renowned painter who moves with his fiancée to a centennial building famous for its macabre history. Zane’s presence unleashes a dark shadow from the past. Past and present come together in a clash of sinister and bizarre happenings, taking the couple down a path of sex, murder, and violence.

4Q: Please share a childhood memory or anecdote with us.

AM: I have a memory from when I was about 4-5 years old. My sister and I used to wait until our parents went to bed – which by the way was where we supposed to be – to sneak into the living room and turn the TV on to watch old horror movies. But since we were both too young, we ended up screaming to our daddy to come turn on the lights because we were scared to death. Every single time, he used to scold us and try to convince us to go back to bed, but we always begged him to stay with us and watch until the show ended. It always worked. I think we can say this memory is kind of an anecdote, isn’t it?

Another memory just occurred to me. My dad had quite horror a collection of magazines on shelves in his home office. I used to spend a lot of time there when I was a teenager, reading them. I guess my dad would love my stories.

4Q: Every author or artist has that special “place” where we are the most creative, the sounds, the surroundings, etc. What is your work world like?

AM: My creative special place is inside my head. I know it may sound odd, but it’s true. I’m not able to turn my mind off. No matter what I’m doing, I’m always thinking about something. Sometimes I’m watching TV and suddenly an idea comes to mind. It’s usually not related to what I’m watching. I watch people on streets and places, and stories come into my mind. Again, they’re probably not directly related to them. I borrowed this trait for my Zane character. I found it interesting for his inspiration to come the same way as mine. Of course, there are times when I’m reading or watching the news and it inspires me in some way, but that’s not the usual case.

4Q: Anything else you’d like to tell us about?

AM: I’m currently writing “Bloody Puzzle” (Book 2 of my Bloody Series), and concomitantly short stories for my book “Fragments of Horror”. Visit my website and subscribe to my list to win an exclusive preview of a short story that will be part of this book.

Also, I’d like to thank you for the opportunity to be here and share a little about myself with all these amazing Scribbler’s readers. I hope you all enjoyed being here as much as I did.

An Excerpt from Crowley’s Cult – Part of Chapter 2.

(Copyright is held by the author. Used with permission)

A few days later, Zane’s in his art studio. It’s a large room with glass doors that he leaves open when he’s painting, even in winter. The view from there is spectacular. That part of the garden was designed from his own drawings. It has a stone-rimmed koi pond filled with beautiful carp of various colors.

Despite the incessant text messages and phone calls, he feels compelled to paint. He takes a palette and squeezes paint from a few tubes onto it. As usual, he positions the easel so that he can admire the view outside, though his paintings have absolutely nothing to do with what he sees.

At first, Zane feels strange. The feeling of being watched persists, and it bothers him. He starts painting, using mostly red and purple. The strokes come almost instinctively. As the painting takes shape, he feels a deep ecstasy.

Only a few hours later, the painting is complete. He’s astonished at how he finished painting such a large canvas in such a short time. Furthermore, he’d had no source of inspiration from which to paint. For the first time, Zane hadn’t seen the final image in his mind before starting to paint. He’d just painted what he was feeling without realizing it.

Zane looks more closely at the painting. Although the image can still be easily identified as his creation, the sexual content is so explicit that it frightens him. Suddenly, he senses a presence admiring the painting behind him, so close that he can feel the breath on his neck. Zane turns around so quickly that he almost falls off his seat. But there’s no one there.

He giggles nervously and feels silly for being spooked by his own imagination. But even though he’s alone in the house, he still has the feeling that there’s someone watching him.

As soon as he finishes painting, Zane feels exhausted and decides to take a shower. He enters the master suite’s sizable walk-in closet, a well-organized space. The two side walls are lined with shelves and drawers and, there’s a large island in the middle with compartments for underwear, fashion accessories, and jewelry. Here, the windows have sandblasted glass for privacy.

He’s reminded of the day Olivia moved in. How is it possible you don’t use even half of this space? I’m lucky, I can fill it all up with my clothes and shoes, she’d said. He looks around and smiles, remembering how he’d let her take control of the room.

Zane takes off his shirt and shorts and drops them on the closet floor as usual. In the shower, he decides to surprise Olivia later with a romantic dinner.

He finishes showering and returns to the closet. But while he’s getting clean shorts, he notices that the clothes he’d left on the floor are now atop the island. He’s puzzled, because he knows he has a ‘bad habit’ of leaving his clothes lying on the floor, as Olivia always reminds him.

He looks all around, trying to figure out what’s happening. Then his cell phone rings, startling him. His mysterious caller comes to mind, making him uneasy. He dresses quickly and answers the call. But it’s Wes.

“Hey, I was almost giving up,” says Wes. “Too busy to answer calls from your friends?”

“I was in the shower.”

“Take your cell in there from now on, so you can quickly answer when I call,” Wes says as if he were giving an order. But then he laughs.

Zane’s distracted for a moment, thinking again about the dirty clothes on the island.

“Zane? Still there?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I’m dressing while I’m talking,” he says, not sure why he lied.

“Okay. So, I’m calling because the guys are planning to go to a new club…”

Zane interrupts his friend. “I can’t. I already have plans for tonight,” he says bluntly.

“Okay. Next time then.”

They chat a little longer, and when they hang up Zane forgets that the clothes weren’t where he’d left them.

Thank you, Andrea, for being our guest this week and sharing your thoughts and story. For those interested in Andrea and her novels, please follow these links.

Website – https://author-am.wixsite.com/andreamerchak

E-mail – merchak.andrea@gmail.com

Twitter – @AndieMerchak https://twitter.com/andiemerchak

Amazon Author Central – https://www.amazon.com/author/andreamerchak

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/AndreaMerchak

Book Bub – https://www.bookbub.com/profile/andrea-merchak

Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/user?u=15997405

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AndreaMerchakAuthor/

Links to the books:

Bloody Legends – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q1ZUE7C

Bloody Origin – https://www.amazon.com/Bloody-Origin-Prequel-Andrea-Merchak-ebook/dp/B06XHLH6KW

Crowley’s Cult – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F6C5B55

Death & Pestilence – https://www.amazon.com/Death-Pestilence-Anthology-Various-Authors-ebook/dp/B06XKCT4DM

A huge Thank You to all you fabulous readers that make the Scribbler so much fun.