Hello and welcome!

Hello lovely readers and friends,

I decided that maybe it was time to finally start a newsletter. In here, I’ll have updates on book stuff, upcoming author events, pre-order campaign fun starting soon (yay!!), and probably some behind-the-scenes about my writing and life. Right now, I plan to post once or twice a month, so if that sounds interesting to you, then maybe hit that subscribe button at the bottom of the page :)

About Me

In case you didn’t know much about me yet, I’m Christina Ferko. Hi! I’m an author of young adult horror with my debut book, THE DARKNESS GREETED HER, coming out February 3, 2026 with Sourcebooks Fire and I’m so excited about it!

Besides my day job as an author, I live in Maryland with my husband, two kids, and too many (according to my husband) animals. I love sweet coffee, tattoos, fall weather, romantic K-dramas, and have rewatched Community more times than I can count.

(Occasionally, I dabble in art too, like this family portrait I drew)

Interested in finding out more about my debut YA horror? Here ya go!

In this atmospheric sapphic horror, a troubled teen is sent to a remote therapy camp in the Appalachian wilderness, where she must unravel a mystery of deadly occurrences as she battles harmful visions of her abusive father, sinister motives, and a lurking monster.

Penny’s abusive father is dead…but she still hears his voice in her head, encouraging her to hurt those around her. She can’t go to school or be around her friends or even draw with a sharp pencil without her intrusive thoughts urging her toward violence. Desperate to get a handle on her OCD, she agrees to spend the summer at Camp Whitewood—an exclusive therapy retreat in the woods.

She feels optimistic when she arrives. The other girls all have their reasons for being there, which makes Penny feel a little less alone. But then she starts seeing things that can’t possibly be there: the gold watch her father was buried with, his favorite whiskey spilled on her cabin floor...a terrifying figure she calls the Shadow Man looming at the foot of her bed. Penny thinks she is losing her mind, but when a girl goes missing, and is later found dead, it’s clear that whatever is happening at Camp Whitewood isn’t all in her head.

As the hallucinations become increasingly intense and more girls wind up dead, Penny must work with whoever is left standing to figure out what is real before the Shadow Man uses their traumas against them and claims their lives.

You can find THE DARKNESS GREETED HER on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble*, my local indie Park Books**, and more!***

*Use promo code ‘Midnight25’ online at Barnes & Noble and get 25% off the pre-order!

**The first 50 pre-orders done through my local indie, Park Books, will receive a special vellum page insert of custom character art, along with book swag like bookmarks and stickers! I’ll also be signing and stamping (with a custom-made TDGH stamp) copies purchased through Park Books! (And if you’re local, be on the lookout for information about a book launch event coming in February when TDGH is released!)

***I’ll be having a pre-order campaign starting soon with a form to fill out so that anyone who pre-ordered and wants to, can get The Darkness Greeted Her swag like stickers and bookmarks. I’ll also have bookplates for any copies of TDGH that I can’t sign and stamp in person.

Praise for The Darkness Greeted Her

The Darkness Greeted Her is a perfect Gothic horror, where trauma has a physical form and it’s hunting girls. Rich with queer and mental health rep, Ferko’s love letter to survivors is beautifully written from start to finish, and I can’t recommend it enough! — Jamison Shea, author of Roar of the Lambs

Jamison Shea is an amazing YA author of spooky stories also and I can’t recommend their books enough! Find them here!

What I’m doing now.

The Darkness Greeted Her is done. Like, done-done and out of my hands and ARCs are out in the wild and people are starting to those early copies and review it. (This is both scary and also so exciting!)

Book 2 with Sourcebooks is drafted, but revisions/edits aren’t starting yet, so in the meantime, I plotted out an adult horror (Midnight Mass meets Archive 81 in a fungus cult horror idea) that I’m hoping to start drafting soon! I might need people to yell at me to actually work and not procrastinate though. Does anyone else have a hard time starting a new story and end up just staring at that blinking cursor on a blank page or just me?

Thank you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my first newsletter and I hope you’ll stick around! If you’d like to know more about me, you can find me mostly on Instagram or at my website!

If you’re a writer or a reader, want to share a little about what you’re working on or reading? I’d love to hear from you!