Posts Tagged ‘book’

2025 to 2026

Posted: January 5, 2026 in real life, writing
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Well. It has been another year. An eventful one at that.

I published Red Walls (twice) in addition to a couple shorts. I did book signings and events, presented at Colorado Festival of Horror again. It was a wild ride, overshadowed by a lot of grief and stress.

I gave up New Year’s Resolutions a while ago. I was never good at keeping them anyway. At some point, I switched to selecting an intentional word. A goal theme for the year. I have used “healing” and “simplify” in past years.

This year, I’m going with reset.

I chose reset because largely I want to start over. For the past 5ish years, it has felt like one thing after another. The pandemic into severe health issues into half a year of unemployment. There hasn’t really been a break or recovery, and I have been trying to cram in life around the struggles and traumas.

Last year, I lost. I lost people. I lost my job. (That doesn’t even include the everything else that has been happening in the larger world.) And through the grief, I just kept swimming.

This year, I need to make some decisions. What happened with Red Walls has me very in my head about writing and being an author. I thought Red Walls was finally progress on my author journey, but having to start over with it makes that feel less real. I find myself questioning if I should keep fighting my way up this hill.

I had a great time doing so many events and selling books this year. Yet, I don’t feel inspired to pursue more of it. Have I really changed, or is this depression (symptom: loss of interest or pleasure in things once enjoyed)?

I have read some amazing books lately. But instead of leaving me inspired, they make me realize that I will likely never attain that level. Is that imposter syndrome or an honest assessment?

All these feelings could easily correlate to depression and burnout. Or they could be a genuine indication that it is time to put the aspiration down. It’s an odd conversation to have with two books coming out in the next year or two and another book and short story currently in draft.

I don’t know how to stop. I don’t know what I want. Beside a reset.

I think I need to stabilize my foundation before I can assess clearly. I was able to take a breath and rest over the holidays, and many things bubbled up and unraveled in that space within me. If I can be healthy and employed, if there can be a moment between traumas (though the world does not seem poised for that AT ALL), maybe I can give myself that reset.

I begin 2026 ambiguous, confused, and undecided. But I am choosing to rebrand that as flexible. I am choosing to draw an arbitrary line through the bullshit construction of time. Everything before is past, and I am resetting myself from it for everything now and after.

At least that’s the 2026 aspiration.

In general, I don’t tackle current events on this narcissist blog endeavor. However, I admittedly feel uncomfortable posting “normal life” stuff (books, signings, performances, etc.) in the face of such a global shit show. I feel compelled to provide some context.

In my teens and early 20s, I was utterly lost. I honestly do not know how I survived. I spent those years in a blur of pain, trauma, mental illness, substance abuse, and self-destruction. Looking back, I have always resented squandering my youth that way. In hindsight, I understand I didn’t know how to do anything else, but that doesn’t change how I have always felt about it.

I apply this to the current doom all around me. I could (very easily) let it consume me, fall apart beneath it. But then I give it all this time. I deny myself joy for things I cannot control or influence.

Instead, I try to do both.

The doom affects me. It scares me, worries me, devastates me. But I try to continue sucking out what marrow of life I can in its shadow. Maybe even more because of the shadow.

It feels weird to be happy when the darkness is all around, but I also find that the darkness gives more reason to appreciate any light. Joy is resistance, and they can’t have mine.

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

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

New Book Announcement!

Posted: October 8, 2025 in savage island, writing
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I have exciting news. Some of my favorite news as an author. I HAVE A NEW BOOK UNDER CONTRACT!

My new novel, Savage Island, will be released by Graveside Press 🎉

Savage Island is a direct sequel to Savages, picking up where that book left off. Savages is my first (and favorite) novel. I was often asked if I was going to ever write a sequel to Savages, but I always said no. I wanted to leave the story on the bittersweet open note.

However, inspiration turned me into a liar because Savage Island hit me like a ton of bricks. I tumbled back into that world just as easily as I had the first time. I love this story and these characters.

I can’t wait to show you what’s next for Parker and Marcus at the end of the world.

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

Whirlwind

Posted: September 3, 2025 in real life
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I extroverted HARD last weekend, put myself out there (literally) at events across Colorado. Between dance performances and book events, there was no shortage of artistic expression for me.

I started with the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo. I have performed at the fair with a dance collective for a few years now, usually with my duet partner. Unfortunately, my partner is recovering from surgery, so it was a solo endeavor this year.

Despite later internet backlash (don’t get me started), the show itself was a delight. My children so rarely get to see my perform (as they are not old enough for bars and clubs), and since they both helped me with my KPOP Demon Hunters dance, I was thrilled for them to see it onstage.

Then, I hit an author milestone: a Barnes & Noble book signing. Red Walls is the second of my books to be carried by Barnes & Noble, but Followers came out on the heels of the pandemic, so I never did in-person events for it.

I know Barnes & Noble is one of many book retailers out there. Yet, somehow, it felt validating, like a rite of passage in my author journey. Traffic was relatively light while my table was up, and I don’t know that I found my target audience in Boulder, but I talked to people and sold a few copies. So I call it a success!

On the heels of the signing, I sprinted back from Boulder to Colorado Springs to perform again in the annual Inappropriate Recital. My children helped with my makeup so I could present “My Idol” once again.

I explained my love of KPOP Demon Hunters in my last post. Finding a metal version of my (maybe) favorite song on the soundtrack then collaborating with my children on look and choreography made it all the more fun.

I also got to perform with a new troupe in a fusion of styles, neither of which I am very fluent with. So it presented a fun challenge.

Every time I take a break from the stage or deprioritize performing, I miss it. I guess I can’t quit it.

But whew, that was a lot of putting myself out there (and driving) in a 48 hour period. I go through a rollercoaster of emotions with these sorts of activities. The excitement and anxiety of preparation, the thrill of connection and expression (and positive reception), the drop of the thing finally being over. Call it exercise for the upcoming Colorado Festival of Horror weekend!

I have a stacked schedule of panels and signing and volunteering at CoFoH this year, so I better get my stamina up. This autumn was scheduled by a very optimistic, motivated, and employed past me. I’m hoping to skid into the end of the year still sane and intact.

Until then, enjoy a compilation of my performances of “My Idol”:

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

New Novella

Posted: November 4, 2024 in writing
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October was a hell of a month. And not in the normal spooky, festive way. Sure, we crammed in a yard full of skeletons and Telluride Horror Show 2024 and horror movie bingo amidst the traumas, but it was truly a struggle.

All of that to excuse the fact that I am woefully behind in providing an update.

I have a new novella (working title: Red Walls) under contract with Graveyard Press for publication in early 2025!

When parents seek revenge against the monsters who hurt their daughter, they never expect real monsters.

I am thrilled and excited to be working with this new publisher and also to finally release a new book out into the world. It has been far too long since Followers.

During COVID, I wrote until I had a backlog of three manuscripts, so I have been in editing hell since then. This is a huge step toward unburying myself from that period.

Additionally, the crowd-funding anthology I was accepted into made their goal, so that book will also be coming out soon. I also have a short appearing in another killer KJK Publishing anthology coming in the new year.

I have more related news that I will release when it’s official. Stay tuned…

Christina Bergling

https://linktr.ee/chrstnabergling

Like my writing? Check out my books!

  • 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

Surviving 2023

Posted: January 2, 2024 in real life
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I would open by commenting on what a rollercoaster of a year 2023 was. However, saying that four years in a row now takes the impact out of the sentiment. 2023 was a lot, but it appears this is just the tone since 2020.

Last calendar year concluded with me freshly hairless and mired in autoimmune and medical issues. That adventure devoured a lot of this year too. However, I saw progress in treatment and coping, shifting it from something smothering me to something standing menacingly beside me.

I have hair regrowth. I don’t feel like shit every moment I’m awake. Gladly, I take these victories.

In all honesty, health issues and other losses were consuming for a long time. Writing and even more the business of being an author took a backseat to survival.

And much of it was survival. More so than I was willing to acknowledge at the time. On the other side of the storm, I can truly see how dark the clouds were.

Yet I still accomplished things. Part of it was therapeutic. The rest might have been compulsion.

I did get published this year:

“Hairs” is a special piece. I poured in all my Alopecia pain and trauma and made it horror (as if it wasn’t already). It was cathartic, and I needed it.

What I want, however, is another published novel. Not this year. I have three novels written–in various stages of editing. This is largely because I escaped into writing. I lived in the story then plunged into the next without a breath or a glance so I didn’t have to feel my life.

Again, survival.

With this editing backlog, I did skip NaNoWriMo this year. Since I was more functional by November, I repurposed the time for editing–NaNoEdiMo. It was ridiculously more challenging to quantify content reviewed and reworked versus pages written. I set my goal to go through two of my WIP novels–and I made it!

That progress leaves Invisible Girls ready for final polish (though I still have doubts about querying it), Monster Lane (for which “Opportunity” is a prequel) ready for critique group, and Savages 2 next in line.

Nothing may be “done”, but the progress must be acknowledged.

Now, I find myself torn. I want to write new works (I have a short and a novel knocking at my brain), but I need to get these WIPs out. And I’m not very good at alternating between the tasks.

I just end up with three unedited novels.

Perhaps the largest accomplishment of 2023 is that now, finally I feel capable of working again. I wrote, and I edited. Next, I can find my way back querying and promoting.

I had to set much aside and give myself a lot of grace to make it through the last year (+). What I find now is the optimism to be able to do more than just survive.

Christina Bergling

https://linktr.ee/chrstnabergling

Like my writing? Check out my books!

  • 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

The Drawer

Posted: February 1, 2023 in writing
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For the first time in my career, I am considering putting one of my stories in the drawer.

The drawer is a metaphor writers use to describe where they put unfinished manuscripts, incomplete stories, and abandoned books. It is where you put the works you have given up on. Works go stale in the drawer, if they ever see the light again.

I love the novel I have on the chopping block. However, I am concerned that my intentions will not come across properly and that will undo the book. In my mind, the story works, but my faith on whether it will do the same in the world is shaky.

The intention of the book, what I think the story is about is exploitation. The many levels and layers of exploitation. Female exploitation to include suppression and forced prostitution. Racial exploitation like colonization and slavery. Family exploitation like abuse.

I did not feel I had the knowledge or license to tackle historical fiction or even fiction about these issues set in the real world. I definitely do not know enough to capture the experience, and I lack the generational experience. It’s not mine.

However, large parts of my story are influenced by these things. I have reactions to them, and I have things to say about them. So I created a fantasy world very similar to our own, where I wasn’t trying to capture how people felt in real world events but instead having them react to events I concocted. I wanted to be in control so I wasn’t trying to walk in the skin of real people. But what I created does mirror the real world–and not subtly.

My protagonists aren’t “white” because I didn’t want a white savior story. The core of the story is two young girls, socially invisible and powerless in a corrupt place.

However, colonization and slavery are in my narrative in hopes of paining how evil and perverse the exploiters are. The same with how they treat the girls and anyone unlike themselves. I won’t bother to deny that the people and situations are modeled after the real world, a real past I did not live.

Such is fiction.

I have struggled with which details to lift and how to personify these people. I didn’t want to make them purple or some true fantasy color. I didn’t want to invert the skin color of our world, as if to say it would be the same if the shoe was on the other foot. I also didn’t want to avoid racial differences as if I was shying away.

I have thought about all these things, debated all these things in my mind. I just don’t know how I want to approach them while still expressing my story. It took root in my mind for a reason, and I don’t want to lose it in an attempt to tread softly.

My doubt is that the text and its interpretation will not match my intentions. I fear it will come across as appropriating. My definition of appropriation is taking experiences or cultures for your own benefit. Trying to get published and sell books definitely would be to my benefit.

But if topics become off limits, how far away is that from censorship? Can parts of fiction belong to people? Can we always infer the writer’s social commentary? I know what my statement is, but it can never read that way to everyone. Where is the balance?

Of course, I have the deep seeded desire to be told I’m a good white person, that I’m different that all the bad ones. But I know I’m not owed that, that no one is obligated to pat me on the head and pacify me. This internal debate here is not me asking permission; this is me trying to process things “aloud”.

Between being a woman and often working in sectors still dominated by men and trying to explain racial inequity to my mixed children, this idea was born. With no intentions or agendas. Yet in this stage of revisions, I have to evaluate the novel from other points of view.

Christina Bergling

https://linktr.ee/chrstnabergling

Like my writing? Check out my books!

  • 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
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