Posts Tagged ‘books’

2025 to 2026

Posted: January 5, 2026 in real life, writing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

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
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

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

Writing Seasons

Posted: March 30, 2025 in invisible girls, red walls
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

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

2024 in Review

Posted: January 1, 2025 in real life, writing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

Here we are again. The end of the year. The annual retrospective. It was another challenging year full of fresh hells but also peppered with healing and joy. Perhaps closer to balance than I’ve been in a long time.

Writing

After Followers, I did a lot of producing but not a lot of editing, querying, or publishing. This year, it finally caught up to me. I focused a lot on editing and critique group sessions and made it through my WIP stack (three books) at last! Then I even got around to submitting.

It paid off. Red Walls is under contract with Graveside Press, targeting a 2025 release. Invisible Girls also has a pending contract and potential 2026 release. (Working titles for both, of course).

Unfortunately, Savage Island (Savages #2) has only found rejection so far. The rejection was particularly crushing since Savages is my first and favorite book and the story is very close to my heart. In all naked honesty, it made me want to quit the entire publication pursuit. But I have worked through it and resolved to find Savage Island the right home.

As far as short stories, “Freaks” found a new home in The Horror Collection: Topaz Edition. More rejections on other stories, naturally, but I also had a couple more shorts picked up that will be released in the coming year.

2025 is shaping up to see new work from me out on the pages.

Events

I was quite busy with events this year. From vending to conventions to film festivals, it was horror year round.

I worked several different events, sharing a table with the delightful Mighty Quinn from Wyrd Wanderings. We paired my horror books and razor blade art with old medical texts and Uranium glass from his ghost hunting adventures.

My husband and I had a fantastic time volunteering at Colorado Festival of Horror, and I also spoke on multiple panels over the weekend.

We went to Telluride Horror Show, like every year. Only this year was different as we took our son fresh from the hospital with us.

I did talks and readings and saw a lot of horror movies. I danced and performed.

It was a full year, full of things I love.

Regular Life

Health-wise, this was a year of healing for me. After problems with medication and losing all my hair yet again, I got on a new regime that appears to be working. I have hair again, but more importantly, I am seeing improvement in my labs and symptoms that I have not experienced in years. I feel better. I might even say I feel like myself at times.

We had big traumas this year, but they were easier to navigate being physically stronger and more stable.

Many things were put into perspective for me this year. The most important of which is that, even on the worse day, I have a pretty damn good life. Worth living and worth appreciating.

So, while there are many broken things in the micro and macro-cosms, here we go into the next year.

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

Horror and Trauma

Posted: November 13, 2024 in horror, real life, writing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Horror is a genre about trauma. Whether it is the fictional trauma being inflicted on the characters or the zeitgeist of fear it confronts for us.

At Colorado Festival of Horror 2024, I participated in two panels on the horror genre and trauma. Both sessions were so compelling and cathartic for me that I needed to share some thoughts here.

Horror can be a way of coping with trauma both by ingesting it and by creating it. In both cases, horror allows you to interact with or process something scary or hurtful in a “safe” environment. You are on your couch; you know the screen or the page cannot really hurt you. You can experience all those emotions knowing how it will safely end. Not unlike exposure therapy.

For me, it is definitely that, but it is also more. The awful things I see in horror help normalize how I am feeling, make me feel less alone in my pain. Horror also provides a worse-er scenario, which helps me keep my reality in perspective.

People often have “comfort horror”, stories they revisit in times of stress or pain. From the outside, it may seem odd to find solace in something terrible. However, when you unpack the movie and discover what resonates with you, you will often find it hits on something personal. Maybe it lets you control the situation. Maybe it lets you re-experience things knowing how it ends. Maybe it shows you a character like you surviving or being vindicated. But something in that horror is a salve to your wound.

For the panel, I had to think about my comfort horror movies. And why they are therapeutic to me. I came up with:

  • Scream: Aside from this being my first horror movie and introduction to the genre, Scream definitely hits something for me. When I stopped to actually consider it, I realized it is the deceit, the betrayal. Sidney’s friends lie to her, work against her, try to hurt her, but once she figures it out, she survives. And kills them all.
  • You’re Next: The same as Scream, You’re Next introduces a final girl who is being lied to and used. Yet when she fights for her life, it is her intelligence that keeps her alive.
  • Revenge: Rape revenge is pretty self-explanatory. I usually find this subgenre very triggering (Irreversible, Last House on the Left, etc.). Yet this one was different. I attribute the distinction to the female filmmaker (Coralie Fargeat). After Jen is assaulted and left for dead, she returns almost supernaturally in her vengeance.
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street: Nightmares and night terrors brought me to the horror genre. Seeing scary things outside my mind made me feel more normal. There was comfort in not being alone, in seeing what my mind mapped every night on external landscape. Watching Nancy confront her nightmares and ultimately defeat them in a way I never have soothes me.

Reading horror hits me even harder. In the past few months, I have been crying my eyes out over multiple books. American Rapture by CJ Leede, I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones, Lone Women by Victor Lavalle, The Angel of Indian Lake (the entire trilogy) by Stephen Graham Jones, The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, Maeve Fly by CJ Leede… to name a few.

More than watching or reading, more than anything, creating horror is how I deal with my trauma. I have always written about my pain from journaling to blogging to essays to stories and books. It is more effective for me than any therapy I have tried (and I have tried many). Sometimes, the trauma is the inspiration, sometimes the thread, sometimes the whole damn story.

Tour my horror library with me:

  • How to Kill Yourself Slowly: The first thing I ever published. I wrote this satirical essay for a nonfiction class in college. All my trauma packaged up into one catty rant.
  • Savages: My first and perhaps my best book. Going to Iraq as a contractor deeply affected me. It changed how I saw humanity. I worked that out in this book.
  • “The Last Christmas Dinner” in Collected Christmas: A character based on my mother and maybe what she should have done one unappreciated holiday.
  • “After the Screaming Stopped” in Graveyard Girls: My post-partum story. This one was hard to find a home for. No one wants to look at how ugly and scary those new mother emotions can be.
  • “Personas” in Colorado’s Emerging Writers nonfiction: A deep dive into the many faces and roles of me.
  • “Under the Rapids”, Ink and Sword, Issue 4: I almost drown white water rafting when I was in my 20s. This story covers what I can remember.
  • “Awake” in America’s Emerging Horror Writers: West Region: I had hip surgery to repair a torn labrum. This story confronts how helpless I felt under anesthesia and after the operation.
  • “Hairs”, 96th of October, Autumn 2023: I lost my hair to Alopecia multiple times in recent years. In this story, I start there and make it oh so much worse.
  • Followers: Questioning how safe we are on the internet. This book has roots in online stalkers and one I briefly had in Iraq.

Not included on this list are works where I borrowed other people’s traumas. Their experiences served as inspiration for me, but hopefully my resulting work can be therapy for them.

“Hairs” and “After the Screaming Stopped” are the most literal examples of me writing out my trauma (aside from maybe Savages where I put myself in a story to change my mind about the world). In both, I took the literal trauma–severe hair loss and post partum depression–as the premise. Then I stretched it, elongated it into something grotesque and horrendous.

And at the end of both (of them all), I felt better. The trauma felt processed and exorcised.

I understand that horror is not for everyone. It is full of terrible things that can be triggering or make people uncomfortable. Even people who do enjoy the genre may not interact with it the same way. However, for me, I have found a way to make it therapeutic. It speaks to my traumas in their native tongue, soothing and hushing them so that I can claim more of myself.

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

Do They Have to be “Good”?

Posted: April 28, 2022 in writing
Tags: , , , , ,
2

Some recent reviews of my latest book Followers got me thinking… do characters have to be “good”? By this, I mean, do you need to consider the protagonist a good person or do you need to relate to or understand them to truly enjoy a book? Do they need to be the “good guy”? Do they need to do the “right” things? Do you need to see yourself (or what you would want to see in yourself) in them?

I think media has proven to us ad nauseam that flawed characters are compelling, from classic to modern literature (to movies, TV, video games, social media…). If characters did not make ill-advised decisions, how would we have conflict? But do we have to understand them? Do they have to be like us? Do they have to be sympathetic to be a successful character?

Where is that line?

Upon reflection, I find that I have mixed feelings on these questions (and the reviews). As a writer, I tend to avoid purely “good” characters. I don’t like good at all. I found my voice in creative non-fiction, and I am a deeply flawed person. That awareness of my flaws and defects translated to fiction. My writing is largely driven by the psychology and emotional experience of my characters, and for that to feel authentic, I feel compelled to include ugly truths.

In short, my characters aren’t real if they’re “good”.

I think real people are complicated and so too should characters be. I think they make awful decisions and mistakes. They hid and obscure unsavory parts of themselves. They behave in frustratingly human ways.

In Followers, I really pushed this idea. Sidney, my protagonist, is not a wholly sympathetic character. You meet her after she has ruined her marriage with infidelity. Then she soothes her insecurities by farming attention from online boyfriends. Did I mention she’s not the best mother either? Not savory characteristics but potentially real ones. Do Sidney’s flaws make her an unsympathetic character? Do the reader’s judgments of Sidney’s behavior color the rest of the story?

Sidney may be the most unsympathetic protagonist I have written, but she is not the first.

In Savages, my narrator is a whiny and traumatized reluctant apocalypse survivor. When she discovers a baby, she does everything possible to avoid caring for it to dodge her own painful memories. Who wants to root for someone who won’t help for a helpless infant?

In The Waning, captivity breaks Beatrix down slowly. The entire book is about her not reacting how she thinks she would, not fighting back the way she should. Her psychology and her will unravels. Can you keep fighting for someone who does not fight for herself?

In The Rest Will Come, online dating drives Emma over the edge, but she is obsessed with finding a partner and shallow in her pursuits. She tortures herself hunting for the perfect, hot, tall guy. Who wants the shallow girl to find the one and live happily ever after?

(Really selling my writing, aren’t I? haha)

All of these women, all of my protagonists are flawed if not fully unsympathetic. As a writer, I am drawn to them as my wounded little children. Their defects are what make them real and compelling to me.

Yet, on the other side of the page, as a reader, it is a different experience. Sometimes, a flawed character resonates with me perfectly and is brilliant. Yet other times, the character’s defects clatter against me off-tune, and it alienates me from the story. So… both? All of the time, a perfect or wholly “good” character turns me off immediately.

Perhaps the answer is empathy. Perhaps I tolerate the flaws and poor decisions and unsavory characteristics when I still empathize with the character. I do not even have to like the character, but I do need to understand and feel for them. Where is that line for me? I don’t necessarily know, but I can feel it when the book misses it.

Reading is a subjective experience. The same story and character can be read different by every single person. Every single person can prefer a different reading experience. I can think of many flawed and unsympathetic protagonists. Ones who have enthralled me and others who have irritated me. I wonder if my characters are unsympathetic to some readers or just not compelling enough to them to create the empathy necessary for those readers to go on the journey.

Is this a question of the wrong audience? Or should characters be universal enough to draw the reader into their world, seduce them into their flawed plight?

Ultimately, I would not change any of my characters. Sidney could not get in trouble with online stalkers if she wasn’t nursing her issues in cyberspace with terrible decisions. Emma could not find her homicidal tendencies if she did not suffer the consequences of shallow dating practices. Not only are my characters built on their annoying faults but so are the plots.

So what do YOU need in your characters? Do you need “good” people? Do you need to relate to and understand the characters to care about them? What makes a character work for you?

Who are your favorite unsympathetic protagonists? The best train wrecks from whom you cannot look away? If you like flawed characters, I clearly have a few to offer you…

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

Losing Myself in Media

Posted: April 6, 2022 in mini vlog
Tags: , , , , ,
2

Escapism! Losing myself in books and TV shows and movies.

As an update,
current read: The Fall (book 2 of The Strain Trilogy) by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro
current watch: FROM on Epix

Give me more. What are YOU reading and/or watching?

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

Crossroads

Posted: March 28, 2022 in writing
Tags: , , , ,
4

I find myself at a crossroads with my writing. Three options, three projects lay before me. Likely, I will eventually pursue all three, but each are deep and labor-intensive. I need to decide where to allocate my energy. I need to determine priority and select a focus.

The Not-Done Novel

After Followers, I quickly completed a new novel. And, for the first time, the story was not in the horror genre. Problematically, that left me completely disorientated on genre.

I drafted the book, revised it, worked it through beta readers, polished it. Then I decided it would be the first book I would query to agents to get published.

I got rejected by 50 agents. (Ouch.)

Clearly, something was wrong with the submission–either the query or the story, or both.

I decided the best way to troubleshoot would be to engage an editor, which, in hindsight, I honestly should have done before querying. I have worked with editors during the publication of all of my previous novels. However, this was my first editing experience pre-publishing contract.

The editor’s decimated the book I thought I was complete (a whole other post on that). To summarize: rewrite. Now, I am left with substantial substantive changes to make.

These proposed modifications present me with the opportunity to return to the world I built and the characters I created. I loved living in them during the initial creation and edits. I could break apart my story and puzzle the pieces into a new configuration. While daunting, I am inspired and challenged by some of these possibilities.

Ideas are perculating.

The Therapy Project

Last NaNoWriMo, I ventured into fan fiction to resuscitate my love for writing. I was able to locate my spark and also complete a short novel in the Scream universe.

The story remains where I left it after the sprinting first draft, so it is still quite raw. But now, what to do with it?

There will never be any formal publication. Do I let it wither and die in a file in some subfolder on my hard drive? Do I give it a polish and post it in serials on my blog?

My inclination is, of course, to release it. To do so, I would need time to clean it up and prepare it, especially through the lens of the latest chapter in the movie franchise. I also would love to have some art to post with it.

The Shiny New Toy

Shiny! So shiny. The new project is usually the most seductive and compelling.

I wrote about Scream in November to loosen my inspiration after all the rejection of my new novel (and life drama). It worked, and a new story idea surfaced between my lumpy grey lobes.

I have been massaging this story slowly over the past few months. Outlining and throwing down words when I feel like it. No pressure compared to how I usually work.

The story is not pouring out of me like some are want to do (Savages, “Freaks”, some of The Rest Will Come, “Malignant”, “Santa’s Workshop”…). However, it does take shape and flow nicely once I hit my stride. I am straddling between a planned outline and winging it. I know where I want to go, and the details are sharpening as I meander through the scenes.

I am allowing myself to establish the foundation in a broad stroke before painting in the finer points. This is how it always works, yet I am being more deliberate about skimming through the first pass this time, getting the basics established to build on. We will see how the strategy plays out.

The writing has been no pressure and pleasant. I enjoy building the world and forming the characters. Writing fresh is always my favorite part of the process. Obviously, this is the most appealing option, so equally obviously, it is the one least advantageous to pursue first.

The Direction

So which way to go? The arduous journey of reworking an entire book? The stalling edit that would yield a series of blog posts? The fresh and new story just getting started?

My heart, speaking based on what I enjoy the most, would say 1. new story, 2. fan fiction posts, 3. novel rewrite. However, my brain, considering what would be smartest and most productive or advantageous would say the complete opposite.

I think I have settled on the following (tentative) plan as a compromise, favoring the pragmatic brain:

  • Get to the next milestone in the new story
  • Outline the restructure of the rewrite novel
  • Restructure the rewrite novel and write new scenes
  • While rewrite novel cools, edit fan fiction novel
  • Post fan fiction novel
  • Edit rewrite novel
  • Return to new story

I get a little of everything I want and continue moving forward. Will it work? Maybe. Will I stick to the plan? Maybe not. But it is worth a try. It is better to have three options than none.

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 Rest Will Come and Followers

Posted: August 31, 2021 in mini vlog, the rest will come
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

The Rest Will Come and Followers (coming next month), what is similar between them? Online horror! In this mini vlog I talk about going from online dating in The Rest Will Come to online followers in Followers.

You can find The Rest Will Come on Amazon.

Followers will be released September 24th by Crystal Lake Publishing.

Christina Bergling

https://linktr.ee/chrstnabergling

Savages: Inspiration in the Darkness

Posted: May 12, 2021 in savages, writing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
4

Per my marketing plan (that I am trying to hold myself to), I am supposed to be writing a blog about my book Savages.

However, if I’m honest, my mind is like quicksand lately. Thoughts turn into holes that swallow and crush me until I can no longer breathe. Motivation and focus are figments I cannot seem to get my hands around. Whenever I seem to catch my balance, a hole in the bottom of my brain opens, and I am dragged below the surface again.

I am in this place for many reasons. Things happening in my life, my brain itself. This place is not new. I am a frequent visitor.

And perhaps these broken fragments of my mind do piece back together and relate to Savages. Savages started in this place, after all. The idea came from the darkness, blossomed in my hopelessness.

Sometimes, there is inspiration in the darkness.

Other times, like now, there is mental catatonia there. Lethargy. Detachment. Resignation. Overwhelm.

Yet Savages came from that terrible and wonderful balance when the darkness pinched and sliced and bled some brilliance out of me. I took everything awful I felt and tried to say something beautiful with it. Did I succeed? You would have to read it to decide.

When I read Savages (and I have and I have listened to the audiobook), I always feel the same swell of emotions that inspired and drafted the book. Savages will probably always be my baby, my first book and my first love. They are all still tucked right behind the words. I feel all the darkness soaked into the pages. So I’ll never be able to see the work objectively (as if the author ever could). It will always exist in the dark place for me.

I don’t know why depression and writing walk hand in hand for me. Mania and writing surely do not, though I would love to fuel my craft with that energy. There is just a certain point in the descent, a certain shade in the darkness where my mind unfurls and all the words pour down on me. Any deeper and it swallows and crushes me, but before that pain is some terrible sweet spot.

I have been asked if it is worth it, to suffer the pain for my art. On some days, curled up at the bottom unable to think, I would say no. However, on most days, when I hold something like Savages in my hand that was born from that darkness, I do not even hesitate. It is always worth it, and I honestly do not know how I would function without it.

If you want to read my dark baby, you can find Savages here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C2T88RZ/ I personally recommend the audiobook, but I might just love to hear my words in someone else’s voice.

(Apologies for the detached brevity. Hopefully, next month finds me more solidified in my efforts.)

Christina Bergling

https://linktr.ee/chrstnabergling

Older Entries