I'm T.L. West, an epic fantasy author with a lifelong obsession with lost histories and fractured myths. My debut novel, The Sea Queen's Shadow, is a story of a lost queen, a secret war, and magic forged in shadow and sea.
Why spend countless hours building a fictional calendar and language that only a few might ever see? Because this week, all that 'showing up' has started to pay off. I'm sharing a personal look at the 'why' behind the grind, and the first hopeful whispers of interest from people in the biz.
For a writer, sharing your work feels like putting a message in a bottle and tossing it into an endless ocean. A few weeks ago, I tossed that first bottle. This week, after learning more about the currents of the online fiction world, I decided to send a small fleet.
This week marks a milestone birthday for me. To celebrate, and as a huge thank you to my first followers, I'm sharing one of my story's "ghosts" - a deleted scene that reveals a pivotal moment from Catriona's childhood and her first lesson in trust.
On becoming a "ghost in real life," the chaos of creation, and why I'm writing an entire 55,000-word prequel novella for free.