Shadows Beneath Cerulean: Amaris Emersleben Dives Into Myth, Music, and the Deep Sea

In Shadows of Cerulean, author Amaris Emersleben builds a vast underwater world where survival is controlled by access, power, and the hidden systems that keep a city alive beneath the sea. At the center of the story is Bead, a thief from the abandoned Deep Sea districts, where resources are scarce and survival depends on scavenging what remains of a broken system.

When an accident forces Bead into the wealthy Downtown districts of Cerulean, she sees an opportunity to change the fate of her people. Disguising herself as a researcher, she infiltrates the upper city with a dangerous plan: steal the blueprints that sustain Cerulean and return them to the collapsing depths below.

But the closer Bead gets to the heart of Downtown, the more the mission begins to unravel. What begins as a calculated infiltration becomes a layered emotional conflict, especially as she forms an unexpected connection with Song, a citizen from the very world she is meant to betray. Trust becomes unstable, loyalties blur, and the distinction between enemy and ally begins to dissolve.

As Bead uncovers the truth behind the city’s fragile infrastructure, she realizes the conflict is far older and more complex than she imagined. Beneath Cerulean’s surface lies a buried history tied to something vast and dangerous in the Deep Sea, something that threatens not just her home but the entire city itself.

Amaris Emersleben’s Shadows of Cerulean is a story of divided worlds, moral tension, and emotional risk, where one choice can determine whether a city falls further into darkness or finds a way to be made whole again.

“Shadows of Cerulean” began with a late-night drawing of a submerged city. Can you walk us through how that image evolved into a full novel?

Most of my ideas begin as a world-building idea, world-building is what drew me to writing initially. For Cerulean, I sketched an underwater city and began to outline districts. I was wondering what it would be like living in a district of the city that could be devoured by the deep sea at any time, and how it would affect the district and everyone living inside it. What began as a creative exercise evolved into Bead’s district, and the moment I realized she needed to be the main character in this story, “Shadows of Cerulean” was created.

You've had a career in music before turning deeply into fiction. How does songwriting influence the way you build narrative or pacing in your writing?

Songwriting demands that you convey your emotions, your messages quickly, and I'm trying to do the same thing when writing a scene. You're thinking about things like the way certain words sound next to each other, how to build the atmosphere you want to achieve with words. Ultimately, it's about making people feel something.

The relationship between Bead and Song shifts between tension, deception, and emotional connection. What was the most challenging part of writing their dynamic?

Bead and Song are characters who usually would never have met, despite both of them living in the same city. The Cerulean Bead lives in is a completely different city compared to how Song would describe it. The most challenging thing was how they would find a connection despite their differences.

The ocean in your work feels both beautiful and threatening. How do you approach that duality in your writing?

I think this is what makes the oceans so fascinating. Beneath the shallows and the beautiful coral reefs lies the brooding deep sea. Imagine staying in an apartment underwater - the views of the light slicing through the water outside would be incredible, but you would always be reminded of these depths lurking out there. Some might find it thalassophobia inducing, others would love it. I wanted Cerulean to feel like a place that would look stunning, but with the threat of the deep sea always present.

You've also worked in film and visual storytelling. Does that background influence how you visualize scenes on the page?

A lot, actually. I'm a visual thinking type and usually write down scenes and "see" scenes before forming them into chapters. I have a tendency toward ADHD, and my mind is usually churning out images all the time. Capturing these images and turning them into visuals for a story has been the fuel behind “Shadows of Cerulean” and most of my creative work. I don't think I would be as creative without it.

What do you hope readers feel or reconsider about the ocean after reading Shadows of Cerulean?

I remember opening this magazine with a report about kelp forests and the deep sea when I was a kid and being completely immersed in it. Underwater forests, vibrant shallows, bottomless deep-sea trenches… these submerged worlds captured my mind and were the thing that later inspired me to begin writing. With “Shadows of Cerulean”, I hope to inspire readers to fall in love with the oceans, and to protect these fragile ecosystems.

Was there a moment in writing the book where the story surprised you or shifted direction unexpectedly?

I really had thought Cerulean would just be a world-building project, maybe inspiration for a place in a future fantasy story. But once the story ended up revolving around the city, I realized that Cerulean wouldn't just be a backdrop to the story, but that it would become the story.