Archive for the ‘red walls’ Category

Publisher Changes

Posted: December 23, 2025 in red walls
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Red Walls was my sixth published book. And by my measure, the most successful. In all transparency, I don’t have the exact sales figures for all of my books, but in what I can compare, it was my best launch and absolutely my easiest to sell in person. In the first six months, I distributed 100 copies myself (largely thanks to Horrid, Colorado Festival of Horror, and Horror Writers Association – Colorado featuring it). Maybe not staggering numbers but good for me.

It felt like after over 10 years of publishing books, I had finally caught hold of some of that loft I had been chasing. But, unfortunately, after just seven months, I had to part ways with Graveside Press.

I really liked Graveside Press. I loved their inclusivity and what seemed to be their mission. The editorial team did an amazing job of getting Red Walls cleaned up and formatted beautifully. Honestly, I am not on the inside of much of the drama. I know the entire editorial team left abruptly, and I know I never received statements or payment until I asked for my rights.

When the drama culminated and authors were offered the option to their revert their rights, I did not decide lightly. I am annoyingly and foolishly loyal professionally. I ultimately requested a statement and waited. When I still did not receive one, I took that as my answer and asked for my rights back to Red Walls and the yet unpublished Savage Island (sequel to Savages).

This is not the first time I have had book rights returned to me. Assent Publishing went under completely, returning my first took books (Savages and The Waning). I was able to publish a second edition of both with HellBound Books. This industry is saturated and tumultuous. Aside from the Big 5, it’s hard to tell who will make it and who is legit at all.

The entire thing is just painfully disheartening. As a writer, I ALWAYS have my doubts. Crippling, paralytic doubts. I always wonder if I should stop wasting my time (and TurboTax asks the same question every year). Between struggles like this and the flood of AI into the industry, I don’t know how many more rides I can take on this rollercoaster. I debate the cost/benefit analysis of getting published. Red Walls made me think I had got my answer.

Red Walls was released just days after I was laid off from my day job. With the success of its release, I sold those 100 copies, so I ordered 50 more. They arrived, after the revision of my book rights. I have a pile of books to offload for a book that is moving to a new home. After it’s rereleased, I’ll have to start over on sales, reviews, and contests.

I tried to participate in a 90-day novel writing challenge the past couple months, but I have been working on a sequel to Red Walls, so this drama has been very uninspiring and demotivating. I think I have found my way back into the story, but it was like pulling out my own teeth for a while.

But I am starting over with Red Walls. The editorial team from Graveside Press established their own new house: Dead Fox Publishing. My guts said that the book belonged with the team that brought it to life, so I moved Red Walls over there. The digital version is back online with print to follow shortly. It will look (largely) the same. Thankfully, the rights to the beautiful cover came with it.

The momentum is lost, but the book is not. The motivation is crippled but not killed. I plan to continue on: finish Red Walls 2, release Invisible Girls and Savage Island. Keep going, keep writing… but I needed to bitch a little bit about the journey first.

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

Releasing Red Walls

Posted: May 27, 2025 in red walls
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Every book release is different. For Savages, I had a new baby and a toddler. Followers came in the aftermath of COVID. Red Walls, my sixth and newest book, comes at a time of personal turmoil (and honestly, global turmoil but we’ll keep this blog in the microcosm).

The past few months have been an onslaught of traumas and complications. There’s no need to make a laundry list for sympathy. Suffice it to say, it has been enough. The Red Walls release, which I was very excited for after a few years and so much work, landed between tragedy and major stressor. Its joy was nearly eclipsed by the shadows.

I went through all the release motions. The posts, the newsletters, the giveaway. However, I didn’t get to experience and enjoy them as much as I normally would. I would have preferred to give them full attention and indulgence. But survival made demands.

Red Walls is the most beautiful physical copy of all my books, with gorgeous art, an alternate cover on the back, bloody graphics on the pages, and a hardback design. It seriously dazzled me when I finally got to hold it. That elation was a flare in the darkness before being smothered again.

I think Red Walls has also been my most successful release so far. I saw engagement and preorders and post sharing. I was able to secure a good number of ARC reviewers. I saw it out there in the world beyond me. It felt like more of the loft I have always been chasing.

And the reviews… They say to never read your own reviews, but they have been so good. People really like it! And that’s always the dream. More than sales or shares or whatever. The dream is true reader enjoyment. There is no way to gracefully articulate that feeling when a reader really sees your work and it hits with them just as intended. Bliss. Author crack. The dream.

These are all good things. These are AMAZING things. These are things I have been chasing for most of my author career. I just wish my life around me wasn’t drowning out these coveted things.

I want to focus on it; I want to wallow in it. Perhaps the clouds will clear soon enough to shine enough blazing light down to truly focus on it. If nothing else, this release will be memorable. For many reasons.

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

BOOK TRAILER: Red Walls

Posted: April 15, 2025 in red walls
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Red Walls may be my sixth book, but this is the first time I’ve commissioned a book trailer to go with one of my books. I have always wanted to, but I lack the skills (and the time).

LJ GrAphix did an excellent job and taking my minimal direction and creating something creepy and engaging. It’s exciting to see my story translated into another medium.

I AM SO READY FOR THIS BOOK TO COME OUT!

Family trauma + vengeance + scary house + MONSTERS

Watch it! Share it! Tell me what you think…

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

Writing Seasons

Posted: March 30, 2025 in invisible girls, red walls
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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