Fiery Pen

Writing has a progression to it. Sometimes, in the best of circumstances. An inspiration becomes an idea. That glimmer is developed into a story. Maybe it gets scaffolded into outline, or maybe it pours out onto the page. A story starts with a draft. Then there are edits and more drafts and more edits and still more drafts and edits. Feedback comes in to polish off the rough edges. Then it is ready for querying and submitting. And if all the steps flow together harmoniously, maybe, just MAYBE, finally it sees publication (which incidentally includes more editing.)

COVID and its aftermath were my season of inspiration and writing. Undoubtedly, the best stages of the entire process. Creation and expression and riding the high of possibilities. And in this particular instance, escapism.

At the end, I had three novels and a bushel of shorts. The yield imprisoned me in over a year of edits (literal hell), followed by months of submitting and querying (hell adjacent depending on the result).

BUT, with all that behind me, I am moving into the next season: RELEASE (another pretty awesome season). The next year or so is going to see my works finally climbing out from the shadows and into the light of the world.

Red Walls

Followers was released in 2021. It has felt so long since I released a book. Four years might not be an eternity, but in publishing (and half of the rest of life), it has felt like it. I am ready to be back at it!

Red Walls is graphic, gory horror with an emotional heart, portraying family trauma as it both unites and almost destroys a family. Plus a scary house! Plus monsters!

I felt like it was time to do a real, full length monster story rather than just shorts. I also have been accused of being soft for horror, so I pulled no punches with the carnage.

Graveside Press is releasing Red Walls on May 9th, 2025, but you can preorder it now.

Horror Shorts

Spliced in with my novel flow, I always manage some short stories. I have at least a couple coming out on the horizon and can only hope more get picked up.

Find “Smolder” in the upcoming Don’t Ask, Ghosts Tell coming from Tundra Swan Press in June 2025.

Find “Break a Leg” in the upcoming Twisted Horrors coming from River Gardner in summer 2025.

Invisible Girls

“Do you ever write things that aren’t horror?” Not until now! Invisible Girls is my first non-horror novel. Dystopian feminist world burning so pretty close but still.

I will officially branch into another genre when Invisible Girls is released by Hybrid Sequence Media in 2026.

I have been waiting so long for this season, reminding myself it would come on the other side of slogging through edits and submissions and rejections. And at this current point in time and history, I need a light to focus on, something that feels good. If nothing else, I want to land on the bedrock of being a creator and putting art out into the world. Fucked up as the world may be.

Christina Bergling

https://linktr.ee/chrstnabergling

Like my writing? Check out my books!

• Red Walls – When Talia’s parents go after the monsters who hurt her, they never expected real monsters.
• Followers – You never know who is on the other side of the screen. Followers is a mystery and thriller that blends women’s fiction with horror.
• The Rest Will Come – Online dating would drive anyone to murder, especially Emma.
• Savages – Two survivors search the ruins for the last strain of humanity. Until the discovery of a baby changes everything.
• The Waning – Locked in a cage, Beatrix must survive to escape or be broken completely.
• Screechers – Mutant monsters and humans collide in the apocalyptic fallout of a burned world. Co-authored with Kevin J. Kennedy.
• Horror Anthologies