MAY WE PLEASE THE SEA is a dystopian sci-fi about a girl on the flooded world’s only surviving island, sent out past the atoll into the forbidden ocean to find the sea gods and save her starving village. What she finds instead is an underwater research station full of other humans — and they have their own plans for survival.
I’m releasing all of Act 1 here, a chapter every Saturday, with a Director’s Cut video every Tuesday.
Now, here’s how that came about, and why it’s taken me six years →
🌊Yoo-Hoo! I’m Caroline. 🌊
Six years ago, in 2020 (a week before COVID shutdown), I quit my cushy tech job at LinkedIn to revise the YA underwater dystopian sci-fi novel I’d written late at night at the office, called MAY WE PLEASE THE SEA. After two years of revising, I signed with the agency behind The Hunger Games. Heck yeah! 🙌 Proof that my big risk had paid off!! We revised together for another year, and then…..she dropped me. Oof.
I rewrote even more. A second agent offered representation. The agency behind Ender’s Game (another heck yeah! 🙌). I said yes, we started editing together, and it was fantastic. I liked her, she GOT it!
Then, the contract came. It was problematic. The agency wouldn’t fix what was wrong with it, so I walked.
That was 2024. I was too hurt with my first book to even look at it, so I focused all of 2025 on writing a second book, MOONSHOT. I started sending it out to literary agents, and then, I realized something….
💁🏼♀️ The Pattern in My Life (aka About Me)
This is what I realized. But first, a quick resume:
I studied Economics, Computer Science, and Mandarin at Harvard, then moved to Hong Kong, where I worked in finance and earned a CFA (the finance equivalent of business school). My dad died unexpectedly from a heart attack, so I moved back to the US to be closer to family. That led me to San Francisco, where I worked at LinkedIn doing operations and data analytics.
Not so authory yet, eh?
Well, when I was stuck in this waiting period for my 2nd book in 2024, refreshing my email to see if a literary agent wanted it, I realized something.
When I wanted to work in China after college, I was told to get a job in NYC Finance first, THEN transfer. “That’s how it’s done.”
Instead, I traveled to Hong Kong for a month during my winter break and set up interviews with alumni, arranged a 1-month junior summer internship (in addition to my upcoming NY finance internship at BlackRock), then landed a full-time job in Hong Kong straight out of college.
When my dad died and I was considering switching into Tech in the US, I was told to go to business school to help me pivot.
I tried to write the “Why Business School?” essay and thought, this is silly, why don’t I at least try first? I moved to San Francisco without a job, interviewed, and got hired at LinkedIn. (To note: I ONLY got the one job. Only one person was willing to take a risk on me. LOL, “Asia Finance” was the “risk.”)
When I wanted to write a book, I was told to keep the job and do it on the side.
Well, I did listen to this…for the first draft. But once I’d written it, I was hooked. I quit the job, gave myself one year to go all-in, and I got literary representation by an epic agency for the very first novel I had ever written. How amazing!! (Minus the getting-dropped part).
Have you recognized the pattern yet?
Every time I was told to take the “proper step”, I skipped it and went straight to the thing.
And that worked.
But somewhere in the last two years, I lost my momentum. I stopped writing and started waiting…for permission, for approval, for something beyond my control.
I quit my job in 2020. It’s been six years, I have two books, and I’m no longer waiting for permission.
🌊 So here’s what’s happening
I’m self-publishing MAY WE PLEASE THE SEA.
Not yet, though. Because I sent it to an author whose books I love, and he came back and told me it was one of his favorite books — and then said it should be four of them.
He’s right. My agent kept telling me cut, cut, cut, attention spans are short, while my beta readers had been telling me the opposite for years: more, more, more.
So it’s going to become four books. Same story, same flooded world, same girl swimming out past the atoll — just aged up, with room to breathe and a world as big on the page as it is in my head.
Which means more revising. And every other time I’ve done that, I’ve disappeared behind a closed door.
Not this time.
🔦 I’ve opened The Cave
The version of MAY WE PLEASE THE SEA that exists right now is the exact manuscript that won over two literary agents. Nobody outside of them and a handful of beta readers has ever read it.
I’m releasing all of Act 1 (what will become the new Book 1) over a 9-week sprint.
🌊As a free subscriber, you get:
📖 The First Half of Act 1 (Chapters 1–5)
The opening story arc, delivered straight to your inbox every Saturday morning.🎧 Chapter 1 Audio
Press play on your morning walk, your commute, or while doing dishes, and hear me read the opening chapter.🎥 The Chapter 1 Director’s Cut Video
The first one’s free, and it’s the best introduction to how my brain works. I pull out the research notes I haven’t opened in six years to explain how a shark tank in San Francisco, a sunburn in Mexico, and a Mandarin word helped shape this book.
🔦 Ready to Go Deeper? (Inside The Cave)
If you join me in The Cave, you unlock the complete experience—built for readers who want the full story, ocean-obsessed nerds who love research rabbit holes, and doers who want co-working accountability.
📖 Don’t stop halfway.
All ten chapters through the Act 1 finale, where the story takes a massive, irreversible turn — plus the full author-read audiobook.
🎥 Come backstage with me.
All ten Director’s Cut videos. The freediving course where I held my breath for two minutes, the YouTube video I watched six times to learn what a conch call sounds like, the sun clock I researched for far too long and then deleted entirely. Six years of obsessive research that sometimes shows up in the book as a single sentence, or never makes the page at all.
⚡ Build momentum together.
Twice-weekly live co-working sessions during the 9-week sprint. I revise, you work on your own big project. Cameras on, mics off.
· Tuesdays 4:00–5:00pm PT / 7:00–8:00pm ET
· Thursdays 9:00–10:00am PT / 12:00–1:00pm ET💬 Private chat & AMAs.
Hang out in our subscriber chat, plus two dedicated Ask Me Anything threads during the sprint. I answer in text and voice notes.
$9/month or $90/year
🐠 Want to Become a Big Fish? ($250 / year)
For supporters who want to sponsor the independent creation of this multi-book universe, get direct 1-on-1 access, and back this experiment.
🔦 Full Access to Everything In The Cave
All 10 chapters, the complete audio edition, all 10 Video Director’s Cuts, private chat, AMAs, and weekly co-working sessions.
🧠 A 1-on-1 Brainstorm & Strategy Session with Me (60 Mins)
A private Zoom call to untangle whatever you’re working on. We can map out your career strategy, optimize your Notion/workflow setups, or brainstorm your book, business, or social media. (Keep it for yourself or gift it to a colleague, family member, or friend!)
💌 A Piece of Snail Mail
A handwritten thank-you note delivered directly to your physical mailbox expressing my gratitude for supporting this experiment.
$250/year
Whatever level you land on, thank you for being here. I spent six years working on this book alone, and it turns out doing it alongside others is significantly better.
🌊❤️,
Caroline
P.S. if you know someone who’d like this — a reader who loves the ocean and dystopian, or someone slogging through their own big project who could use a room to work in twice a week — send them my way. Word of mouth is basically the whole marketing plan over here.
