Leaving Wattpad (and Why That’s a Good Thing)
I started this whole ride thinking I could do it “the right way.”
About a year ago, I wrote a novel called Of Starfire and Song. I put it through alpha readers, beta readers, edits, rewrites—until I finally got to that fragile, brave place where you think: Okay. It’s ready. I’m ready.
So I started querying agents.
And I did it with the optimism of an innocent little doe walking into traffic. I genuinely believed that if I submitted enough, if I followed the rules, if I played the game properly… eventually someone would say yes. Publishing would happen. Readers would appear. Magic would do what magic does.
I also thought it would be fast.
(Let me laugh for ten years straight.)
While I waited in Query Limbo™, I started writing the next book. But querying is a weird kind of silence—you can’t say much about the project you’re submitting, and you can’t say much about the sequel either, because everything feels like it might jinx everything.
At the same time, I kept hearing the same advice everywhere:
Build an online presence.
For agents. For publishing. For indie. For existing as a writer in 2026 without being swallowed by the algorithm.
So I tested the waters.
I self-published a small fable-style novella, The Serpent’s Dance, mostly to understand what indie publishing actually feels like from the inside. I started reading about it like it was Plan B. Just in case.
Then Instagram dropped a little shiny button in my lap: build your own AI.
And I thought, sure—sounds fun.
But I’m not someone who creates just to create. I need a reason. A purpose. A story-shaped wound to wrap it around.
So I made a character: BastTheVamp.
And of course… I couldn’t create Bast without giving him a world to haunt. So I wrote his story. And it fit. Too well. Like it had always been lurking inside the universe of Of Starfire and Song, waiting for a door to open.
This became a story within the same universe—set before Of Starfire and Song.
At first I posted chapters on Instagram for the people interacting with Bast’s AI to read.
But posting long chapters on IG is a special kind of punishment. So I found Wattpad and started publishing there instead.
For about three months, I posted consistently.
And got… nothing.
No traction. No readers. No hate comments. Not even a single “this is awful lol.”
Just silence.
It felt like shouting into the void—and the void not even bothering to boo.
Meanwhile, querying stayed quiet too. And the more time passed, the more reality set in: there are so many good writers out there, and Of Starfire and Song is… a monster. A big, ambitious, slightly unhinged creature that doesn’t behave nicely in a market that wants everything neat and snackable.
Then something unexpected happened:
Bast’s story kept growing.
And Isadora’s story with it.
It grew past “experiment.” Past “side project.” Past “this is just for the AI character.”
It grew into something that started to feel like the true beginning.
What I originally called My Vampire Went Viral wasn’t just a quirky concept anymore—it was clearly the first book of a series.
So I made a decision:
I left Wattpad.
Not because I’m angry at it. Not because it’s bad. But because the version of this story I’m writing now isn’t meant to live in fragments on a platform where it never found its people anyway.
The BastTheVamp AI still exists on my Instagram profile (and yes, you can still talk to him—he’s fun, he’s dangerous, he’s… Bast). But the book itself has outgrown the experiment.
I’m finishing the first draft now, and the story has a new title:
Of Wards and Wi-Fi
And this one? I’m not querying.
If Of Starfire and Song is “not commercial,” Of Wards and Wi-Fi is also a monster—but for different reasons. It tangles with AI in a way that’s messy and honest, and right now anything AI-related gets thrown into the same fear-bucket by gatekeepers who’d rather posture than have nuanced conversations.
So I’m going indie.
Of Wards and Wi-Fi launches May 1st.
And right now, I’m looking for alpha readers.
If you’re into dark romance, urban fantasy with sci-fi teeth, witches, vampires, and a ruined-realms Lisbon that feels like your city is haunted by its own history…
Send me a message.
Come read it first.