How Van Life Inspired If Found, Do Not Return
It all started with an instagram post about van life and turned into a dream of writing novels on the road. One simple post became the inspiration behind If Found, Do Not Return, my romance novel that took a left turn away from my normal fantasy genre.
I don’t talk much about this book since it’s a standalone, but it’s still one of my favorite creations because it ties together a lot of things I enjoy — minimalism, small town romance, and an IT nerd who falls in love with adventure.
Right before I wrote this book, I came across a van life instagram post and I immediately decided I was going to sell all of my things and buy a van to live in. Of course, I was still in grad school at the time so that wasn’t really something I could do, but then I had a different idea. If I couldn’t live it, why not write it?
The entire romance plot came to me in an instant. I saw my heroine Remy, a brilliant girl weighed down after being forced to return to the small town she tried so hard to escape. I saw Lucas, the hometown boy who doesn’t shy away from Remy’s dreams but still wants to be part of her life. And I knew Maddox would be our mysterious stranger who offers a hand to Remy when she needs it most.
If you’re unfamiliar with If Found, Do Not Return, there was actually quite a bit of research that went into this romance. The town itself is fictional, and never explicitly named, but there are several locations where our characters travel that I’ve either been to before or I researched via Google Street View. Many of the forests that our characters visit are places I’ve been to before. Some of them I’ve even camped in, though sadly not with a renovated van. One day…
The other research I had to study was the actual building of a van. There are a lot of construction minutiae and regulations that are required to operate a van turned RV. I studied floor plans and different materials to build with, I studied electrical systems to include for the vehicle (solar panels are a pain!), and I even researched how to have a water system for running sinks and a shower in the van.
On the bright side, my family owns a tractor salvage (that’s where Lucas and Remy work) so I based that entire warehouse and junkyard on my family’s space. I think that was the most fun, since I could draw on some of my memories from childhood where my brother and I would run around and play games between the tractor parts, climb shelves like Remy, and play with the tractors!
There are also some other features that I pulled from my life:
Maddox has two cats (Stormy and Parky) who are IRL my cats, and even have the same personalities
His home in California is based on the home I grew up in
The park Remy frequents in Kansas actually exists just down the road from where my Grandma lives
Remy’s minimalist life is #lifegoals, but at the time of writing, I had so few things that I could fit all of my possessions in my Camry and move wherever
The IT system Remy builds for the salvage was an IRL project I started when I was in grad school. It soon turned into a pitch charting app (because I didn’t feel like importing all of my family’s tractor part records from paper into the computer)
Before anyone asks, the only characters based in any way shape or form on real people in my life are Remy (me) and the cats
It’s really fun to look back on one year of having this novel in the world. I loved writing it and sharing some new storytelling techniques, and I loved branching out and writing a bit of romance instead of fantasy! Plus, it was fun to live out my van life dream through a book. Hopefully one day I’ll get to share my adventures with you in real life.
You can read If Found, Do Not Return and learn about van life builds, small town romances, and traveling the country! Check out a small gallery below of all the places (and cats) that inspired some of the locations in my book! Yes, these are the places I’ve visited.
