FEATURED WORK

The Tides of Change

The Birth of People Power in the Marianas

Some stories refuse to stay unfinished.

An upcoming novel by Kelvin Rodeo

More than a decade ago, I started writing my first novel.

It was a story about Saipan. About young people discovering that the world they inherited does not have to be the world they leave behind. About corruption, belonging, citizenship, political silence, and what happens when ordinary people finally decide that enough is enough.

Then I lost it.

For over ten years, the unfinished manuscript sat trapped on a broken external hard drive alongside years of old writing, music, artwork, and pieces of a younger version of myself that I thought were gone forever.

Then the files were recovered.

And suddenly, The Tides of Change was alive again.

Now I'm going back to finish the story I started all those years ago.

Join the Road to Release and follow The Tides of Change from recovered manuscript to finished novel.

ONE TEACHER. A HANDFUL OF STUDENTS.

AN ISLAND READY TO ERUPT.

Follow the journey from lost manuscript to finished novel.

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Development updates • Early excerpts • Behind-the-scenes stories • Character reveals • Release news

Jordan Luis Salas Dela Cruz teaches history.

But he has never been particularly good at teaching his students to simply accept it.

A Marine Corps veteran who has returned home to Saipan, Jordan has watched corruption become routine, political families consolidate their influence, and generations of island residents learn that sometimes the safest response to injustice is silence.

Inside his classroom, he teaches something more dangerous:

History changes because people change it.

When Jordan's refusal to remain silent puts his career on the line, his students refuse to remain silent too.

What begins with a teacher's suspension becomes a petition.

The petition becomes a walkout.

The walkout becomes a movement.

And before long, students who were supposed to be studying history find themselves making it.

Across Saipan, a generation begins asking questions that powerful people would rather leave unanswered. Their movement spills beyond the walls of Marianas High School and into homes, streets, public assemblies, political institutions, and eventually an island-wide confrontation over who the Commonwealth belongs to and what kind of future its people are willing to accept.

Because change rarely arrives all at once.

First, there is a ripple.

Then there is a wave.

And eventually, the tide comes in.

A NOVEL ABOUT THE MARIANAS,

WRITTEN FROM WITHIN THEM

The Northern Mariana Islands rarely appear in American fiction.

When they appear in the American imagination at all, they are often reduced to beaches, battlefields, military strategy, tourism, or a tiny dot somewhere in the Pacific.

The Tides of Change begins somewhere else.

It begins in classrooms.

In family conversations.

In political arguments.

In the complicated question of who belongs.

It lives among young people trying to understand the society they inherited, teachers wondering what education is actually supposed to accomplish, families carrying memories they do not always discuss, workers and residents trying to build lives on uncertain ground, and ordinary islanders confronting institutions that can seem far more permanent than any individual standing against them.

At its heart, this is a novel about education as liberation, youth mobilization, political corruption and silence, citizenship and belonging, generational responsibility, and the extraordinary power ordinary people discover when they stop believing they are powerless.

It is political.

It is personal.

And despite everything its characters endure, it is ultimately a story about hope.

Not the passive kind.

The kind people have to build.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

I thought this book was gone forever.

I began writing The Tides of Change while I was in college.

It was my first serious attempt at writing a novel, born from many of the questions about politics, identity, justice, and the Northern Mariana Islands that had already begun following me into adulthood.

I never finished it.

Eventually, the manuscript disappeared with an external hard drive that stopped working. Years passed. I wrote other things. I created other projects. I became a different writer and, in many ways, a different person.

But I never completely forgot this story.

Then, more than a decade later, in what I can only describe as a true MIRACLE, the drive suddenly started working again one day.

There it was.

Jordan.

Nathan.

Hannah.

Mike.

Kyle.

Chris.

Saipan.

The classrooms, arguments, marches, mistakes, hopes, and unfinished revolution I had left behind.

Reading it again was strange.

I could see everywhere that the writer who started this book was younger than the writer reading it now. There were things he understood differently. Things he had not experienced yet. Questions he knew enough to ask but did not yet know how to answer.

And that is exactly why I don't want to simply rewrite his story out of existence.

I want to finish the conversation with him.

The Tides of Change is becoming a collaboration across time between the writer I was and the writer I became.

The bones of that original story are still here.

Now I'm finally going to discover where the tide takes it.

FOLLOW THE NOVEL AS IT'S BEING BUILT

This isn't a preorder page.

Not yet.

The Tides of Change is still in development, and I'm inviting readers into the process before the finished book exists.

Join the email list and you'll be among the first to receive updates from the road to release, including:

📖 Writing & Development Updates
Follow the manuscript as I revise, expand, and finally complete the novel.

✍️ Behind-the-Scenes Notes
See how a story written by my younger self changes when revisited more than a decade later.

🌊 Early Excerpts
Read selected scenes and passages before publication.

🏝️ The World Behind the Fiction
Explore some of the history, politics, culture, and questions about the Marianas that inspired the story.

🎨 Cover & Creative Reveals
Get an early look at artwork, design concepts, character material, and other pieces of the project as they develop.

📣 Release Updates
Be among the first to know when the manuscript is finished, when publication details are announced, and when the book becomes available.

THIS STORY STARTED YEARS AGO.

You can be here when I finally finish it.

Somewhere on an old hard drive, this novel waited for more than a decade.

Maybe I needed those years too.

I started The Tides of Change as a younger writer trying to imagine what could happen if enough people on a small island stopped accepting the idea that nothing could change.

Now I get to return to that question with years of life, research, writing, and a much deeper understanding of the islands that inspired it.

I don't know exactly what the finished novel will look like yet.

That's part of what makes this journey worth documenting.

But I know what has survived from the beginning:

A teacher who refuses to stop asking questions.

Students who discover their own voices.

A community discovering its power.

And an island standing at the edge of change.

If that sounds like a story you want to see reach the shore, come along.

Follow the journey from lost manuscript to finished novel.

First Name *

Last Name

Email *

Development updates • Early excerpts • Behind-the-scenes stories • Character reveals • Release news

FOLLOW THE ROAD TO RELEASE

No spam. No daily inbox invasion. Just meaningful updates as The Tides of Change moves from a long-lost unfinished manuscript toward publication.

THE TIDES OF CHANGE

A novel in development by Kelvin Rodeo

A ripple becomes a movement. A movement becomes a wave. And eventually, the tide comes in.

The options below will be updated with proper links as they become available for purchase following the novel's publishing.

Amazon Edition

Kindle • Paperback • Hardcover

Order directly through Amazon and choose the format that works best for you.

Signed Author Copy

Paperback • Hardcover • Personally signed by Kelvin Rodeo

A premium signed edition shipped directly from the author. Perfect for collectors, supporters, and members of the CNMI community who want a more personal connection to the project.