Changing the Tides: A New Map for My Message

Hello everyone!

For a writer, finishing a book is a strange and quiet thing.

There’s no fanfare, no parade. Just a moment, often in the middle of the night, when the final sentence settles like dust on a long-forgotten relic. For years, The Sea Queen’s Shadow was my private treasure, a secret whispered to myself in quiet hours. It lived in notebooks, in half-dreams, in the margins of my life. The idea of sharing it felt like putting a message in a bottle and tossing it into an endless, unknown ocean, hoping that one day, it might wash ashore on a friendly coast.

A few weeks ago, I tossed that first bottle into the sea.

I began posting chapters online. It was terrifying. Vulnerability wrapped in pixels. Every view, every comment felt like a miraculous sign of life from a distant shore. Each one was proof that my message hadn’t been swallowed by the waves. I wasn’t just writing anymore; I was being read. And that changes everything.

But I’m learning that being an author isn’t just about sending the message. It’s about learning the currents. It’s about becoming a cartographer of your own journey and understanding the tides of readership, the winds of platform algorithms, and the hidden reefs of self-doubt.

This past week, I’ve spent hours exploring the online world of serialized fiction. I’ve discovered new coastlines and communities I never knew existed, like the passionate fantasy readership on Royal Road. This is a community where stories are devoured with the same fervor as ancient legends. It’s a place where readers hunger for depth, for magic, for mythic resonance. And it’s a place where stories like mine might just find a home.

That discovery led me to a new strategy.

Instead of sending one bottle, why not send a small fleet?

So this week, I took another huge, heart-pounding leap. I launched The Sea Queen’s Shadow on a new platform, posting the first act all at once: a “chapter dump,” as it’s called. It’s a bold move, designed to make a bigger splash, to catch the attention of readers who binge and crave momentum. It felt like setting sail into a storm without a map, trusting that the story itself would be my compass.

And strangely, it reminded me of the two core philosophies in my own book.

On one hand, you have Commander Killian, a man of singular, honorable purpose. He sets a course and never deviates, believing that truth lies in constancy. On the other, you have Catriona, a survivor, a shape-shifter of circumstance, taught by an outlaw that sometimes you must rewrite the map entirely to survive.

This is me, trying to be more like Catriona.

It’s about being brave enough to change the plan. To pivot. To trust that there’s more than one shore worth reaching. That sometimes, the storm itself reveals the stars.

Thank you for being here! Thank you for reading, for all of your e-mails and Facebook messages you’ve sent back across the waves. You are the distant shore I hoped for. And I’m so grateful to have found you.

All the best,

T.L. West