Why I Finally Started Writing Fantasy Romance
I didn’t set out to create Velmarra.
In fact, The Sheltering Vow came to me almost by accident.
I was chatting with some author friends one day, and our conversation turned to our bestselling series and what we loved about them. At the time, my bestselling series as PJ Fiala was Lynyrd Station Protectors: Trafficking.
Then someone brought up the idea of writing fan fiction of our own stories.
Fan fiction of my own books?
Well, that was interesting.
And I knew almost immediately which series I’d choose.
What If I Took a Story I Loved and Added Magic?
I’ve wanted to write fantasy and paranormal romance almost from the beginning of my writing career. I’d thought about it plenty of times, but I’d always managed to talk myself out of actually doing it.
This conversation gave me a completely different way to think about it.
What if I took the heart of one of my own stories and reimagined it in a fantasy world?
My mind immediately went to Saving Shelby, the first book in my Lynyrd Station Protectors: Trafficking series.
And suddenly I could see it.
A mageless aunt is grieving the death of her sister. She knows something is terribly wrong, and she’s deeply afraid for her niece and nephew.
So she does the only thing she can think to do.
She steals them away.
She has very little money. She has no magic. Her heart is broken. She’s frightened. And she’s trying desperately to protect two children she loves from an evil she doesn’t fully understand.
That emotional foundation already had everything I love about telling a story.
Family. Danger. Love. Fear. Courage. Protection.
But then I added magic.
And everything changed.
Suddenly, There Was Velmarra
Once I began imagining that woman surrounded by magic she didn’t possess herself, the story started opening up in ways I hadn’t expected.
What did it mean to be mageless in a world where magic existed all around you?
How vulnerable would you feel?
How would power work in a society where some people possessed abilities others didn’t?
And what would happen when this frightened, grieving woman, who had already risked everything to protect two children, found herself caught in something much larger than she ever imagined?
That’s when writing it became so much fun.
I wasn’t simply changing names and adding a little magic to a story I’d already written. A new world was beginning to form around the emotional seed of an old one.
Velmarra was becoming real.
One Story Wasn’t Going to Be Enough
And then another thought hit me.
Why stop with one?
If The Sheltering Vow could grow from my own imagined fan fiction of Saving Shelby, what would happen if I did the same thing with the rest of the series?
Suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about writing one fantasy romance anymore.
I was building an entire series.
The stories could begin with emotional foundations I already loved, but magic, bond mates, new dangers, new characters, and an entirely different world could take them somewhere else.
That realization was incredibly freeing.
I’d spent years wanting to write fantasy and worrying about whether I could.
Apparently, I just needed to stop standing outside the door wondering what was on the other side.
I needed to open it.
The Beginning of Maeve Hart
That’s how The Sheltering Vow became more than a story.
It became my entrance into Velmarra.
And eventually, it became the beginning of Maeve Hart.
There’s still plenty of the storyteller I’ve always been in these books. I love suspense. I love danger. I love capable women and protective men. I love characters who have to fight for the people who matter to them.
That didn’t disappear when I started writing fantasy.
I just got to add magic.
And oh my goodness, has that been fun.
I sometimes wonder why it took me so long to finally write the stories I’d been thinking about for years.
But maybe I needed to write all those other books first.
Maybe I needed one particular conversation with author friends.
And maybe I needed to look at a story I already loved and ask:
What if there was magic?
That question opened the door to Velmarra.
And now that I’m here, I can’t wait to show you what’s waiting on the other side.
Come With Me to Velmarra
Maeve Hart is just beginning, and I’d love to have you along as I build this world. Join my newsletter for stories from behind the books, glimpses into Velmarra, book news, and a little magic delivered to your inbox.