An Interview with Talya Love

Talya Love writes dark, character-driven fantasy for readers who crave depth without indulgence. She is currently working on The Veilborn Saga, a dark fantasy about unity, power, and what it costs to stand whole in a divided world.

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What inspired you to start writing this book?

I have always been drawn to stories where the main character doesn’t get it right. They make mistakes, wrestle with moral uncertainty, ask difficult questions, and demand answers. When they are knocked to the dust, they get back up again, not because of some sustaining magic – though that never hurts – but because they choose to. Because they decide continuing forward is the point.

To me, what defines a person isn’t the absence of failure, but the sum of their mistakes, trauma, losses, and the decision to stand again anyway. That message of hope transcends belief systems and religions, resonating with readers who recognize a piece of themselves in the struggles.

So I sought to write from that place. From my own messy life full of mishaps and mistakes that formed me into someone who will continue to mess up and make mistakes, but maybe with a little more insight than the version of me that existed months or years ago.

Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The Veilborn Saga has always been Veilborn. I finished chapter one and just felt it in my bones. There’s room for multiple books under that main title and I know I have at least three in the works already.

Describe your dream book cover.

I have a symbol that I designed by hand and I would love for that to be the top third of the page with the title underneath. The background would be a stunning image from space with gold glimmer subtly throughout. I’d love a simple gold border, and gold painted edges of the book’s pages.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Cinematic orchestra songs with deeply emotional highs and lows. Marcus Warner is great at producing such songs.

What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?

I have only read the Bible through this process. I can’t read other fiction or my storylines and prose get muddled by what other authors write because I’m impressed with them and want to emulate them. That’s not a bad thing, by any means. But I had very specific vision and goals for this story and need to stay in my own realm until it is completed.

I definitely google random things as needed (for instance, the scientific implications of a world cast on to its side by an angry creator, forcing the moon into a perpendicular orbit in relation to the sun).

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I used to work in schools with special needs children. I loved behavior analysis and used to dream I would complete a doctorate level study.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

Tolkien and CS Lewis are my greatest inspirations. The depth of the universes they created, the richness of storytelling, and the ways the messages of hope are inspired through the story rather than preached to the readers are what inspired me most. You want to be like your favorite characters because you grew with them through the course of the story. A piece of you was found inside of them, and you recognize your own potential because of how far they go to become someone new, not always whole, but always stronger.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I love writing in coffee shops with noise cancelling headphones and plenty of caffeine!

What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?

Study story structure, literary analysis and writing, and how to organize your scenes by beat. Develop these skills early and editing becomes easier.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

I hope they see a girl who was unsure of herself, unwanted and scorned, and watch how she becomes an unstoppable force through a series of messy decisions that ultimately lead her to ask the hard questions: What really matters the most? What world view am I going to hold tight to and invade my future decision-making processes? Is it guided by a place of trauma influence, or is it from a place that names reality and the consequences and allows that to be the driving force for a new, but imperfect version that accepts failure as learning, not the end?

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Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.