In What Was Meant to Fall: A Novel, three strangers stranded after a plane crash on a remote volcanic island must confront their pasts, their fears, and the unexpected connections that could change the course of their lives forever. Author Travis D. Ramsey talks to Book Glow about the novel.

What Was Meant to Fall begins with a high-stakes survival scenario—what drew you to the idea of bringing three very different characters together through a shared disaster?

I didn’t set out intending for the three characters to be drastically different — that happened naturally as I wrote them. I started this novel with nothing more than the story in my head. No outline, no timeline, barely any notes. The first notes I took were simply a list of names so I wouldn’t mix anyone up as the story grew.

What really drew me in was the psychology of people who go through shared trauma. I’ve always been fascinated by how humans respond when everything familiar is stripped away. I think books and especially Hollywood often get it wrong by assuming people immediately turn cruel or chaotic. In my experience, most people are genuinely good and instinctively try to work together. Sure, personalities clash — you’ll always have the dominant one, the quiet one, the jokester — but in real disasters, people usually rely on each other rather than tear each other apart.

The idea of this story had been living in my head for years: a survival story that doesn’t default to the Lord of the Flies model (great book, but not the only way humans behave). Conflict still exists, of course — it can’t be sunshine, rainbows, lollipops, and unicorns — but survival doesn’t have to mean savagery.

My first draft actually opened with the plane crash. After finishing it and stepping back, I realized the story needed more emotional grounding before that moment. Starting with Jackson’s story, then Sarah’s and Daisy’s, gives the reader a deeper connection to each of them. That way, when the crash happens, the impact lands harder. Structurally, it also made the narrative cleaner and more immersive.

Jackson, Daisy, and Sarah are all at very different points in their lives—how did you approach developing their individual backstories and emotional arcs?

Jackson’s backstory is a blend of the men I served with throughout my Navy career. His childhood, the teachers who stepped in for him, the long years in uniform, and even his role as an explosive ordnance disposal technician all come from real people I’ve known. EOD techs rarely get the recognition they deserve, and I wanted to honor that quiet strength. Some of the men who inspired him may read this book without ever realizing how much of their character helped shape Jackson. And if I’m being honest, there’s a little bit of me in him too.

Daisy and Sarah came together in a completely different way. I wanted Daisy to be quieter and more reserved, but still capable of intense emotion — someone whose strength shows through softness. Sarah, on the other hand, was always meant to be the spark: fun, witty, the kind of person readers grow attached to as the story unfolds. But above all, I wanted both women to be strong, loyal, and deeply connected — the kind of best friends who hold each other up no matter what.

Their emotional arcs were inspired by the women in my life: my wife, my mom, my sister, and the many friends who’ve left their mark on me. There’s a piece of each of them in Daisy and Sarah. Their backstories weren’t planned in advance — they came to me during a long walk one evening in Sicily, and I built them piece by piece as I wrote. There’s no grand design behind it; it’s just how my mind works. Sometimes the hamster jumps on the wheel, and the story takes off.

The novel explores both physical survival and emotional reckoning. Which of the two felt more central to you as a writer?

For me, the emotional reckoning was the heart of the story. Writing the physical survival elements came naturally — it’s straightforward to describe how to build a shelter, start a fire, or find ways to stay alive. Those details help set the scene, but they’re shared experiences. Everyone on that island is going through the same physical challenges.

Emotion is different. It’s personal, unpredictable, and often unspoken. People can be in the same situation and still process it in completely different ways. That’s what made the emotional arcs more central — and more challenging — to write. I wanted the survival elements to be grounded and realistic, but not so over‑explained that they took away from the reader’s imagination. The emotional journeys, though, needed a different level of attention.

For Daisy and Sarah, it was important to show them as strong, independent women who also know when to lean on each other — even when they’re at odds. Their friendship is a lifeline. Jackson’s emotional arc follows a similar pattern, but his journey carries the weight of what many veterans experience. His internal struggle is really the heartbeat of the entire book. The physical survival keeps the story moving, but the emotional survival is what gives it meaning.

Your background includes 26 years of global service in the Navy—how did your real-life experiences shape the tension, leadership dynamics, or resilience portrayed in the story?

That’s a great question — and honestly, one I never really stopped to analyze until now. When I wrote this story, I wasn’t following a blueprint or trying to weave in specific themes. I was simply telling the story as it came to me. But looking back, I can see that nearly every layer of tension, leadership, and resilience in the book is rooted in my real experiences.

The survival elements came naturally because they’ve been part of my life since childhood. My sister and I grew up camping deep in the Sierra Nevadas and later the mountains of New Mexico. Our parents spent countless hours teaching us how to build fires, make shelters, find food — you name it, it was a lesson in the Ramsey household. They had us convinced that one day we might just end up stranded in the middle of nowhere and need to survive off the land. In a way, this story has been in progress since I was five years old.

Then came the Navy. I spent 26 years surrounded by exceptional leaders and incredible sailors who shaped me in ways I’m still discovering. The calm-under-fire presence you see in Jackson — that steady, level-headed focus when everything around him is chaos — comes directly from the leaders I admired most. I watched men and women make clear decisions in impossible moments, communicate them with confidence, and steady everyone around them. That kind of leadership leaves a mark.

Resilience found its way into the story the same way it found its way into my life: through repetition, challenge, and necessity. I’ve been part of situations that didn’t just ask for resilience — they demanded it. And like most veterans, I carry both the strength and the scars that come with that.

But there’s another side to service that doesn’t get talked about enough. The military changes you. Sometimes in ways you don’t fully understand until years later. Many of us — myself included — walk away with parts of ourselves muted or reshaped. Emotion doesn’t always come easily. Vulnerability takes work. Relaxation feels foreign. The mind stays active, alert, scanning. Twenty-plus years of that doesn’t just switch off.

I tried to capture some of that in the story — not to make it heavy, but to make it honest.

And while the Navy shaped the man I became, the foundation was laid long before I ever put on a uniform. I was raised by a village of strong, loving, no-nonsense people who taught me lessons the world later reinforced. Without them, none of this — the career, the resilience, the writing — would’ve been possible.

So yes, the tension, the leadership dynamics, the resilience in the book… they’re all pieces of my life, filtered through fiction. I didn’t set out to write it that way, but that’s exactly how it came out.

The setting—a remote volcanic island in the South Pacific—feels almost like a character itself. What inspired this location, and how did you bring it to life on the page?

The island actually took root in my mind back in 2017 during a deployment. We were crossing the Pacific, and as we passed Wake Island, I remember being struck by how small and beautiful it was — this tiny speck of land in the middle of an endless ocean. I also saw aerial footage from an aircraft flying overhead, and that combination of real‑world views planted the seed.

At the time, I wasn’t sleeping well, and instead of counting sheep, I started imagining what would happen if I ended up alone on an island like that. How would I survive? What would I build? What would the days look like? Night after night, I fell asleep wandering deeper into that scenario. I didn’t know it then, but that was the beginning of this novel.

If you mix that with the books and films I’ve always loved, you can see how the island took shape. Swiss Family Robinson is still one of my all‑time favorites — the movie was fine, but the book is on another level — and that sense of adventure and ingenuity definitely influenced me.

Bringing the island to life on the page turned out to be much harder than I expected. In my head, the place was vivid, but translating that onto paper while keeping the details consistent was a challenge. I kept tripping over my own descriptions. Eventually, I stopped and drew a full map — the coastline, the cliffs, the camps, the shelters, everything. That map became my anchor, and honestly, I wish I’d done it from day one. Lesson learned for future books.

As for making it volcanic… well, why not? Volcanoes are cool, and I’m a bit of a geology nerd at heart. Don’t worry — the book isn’t a geology lesson. But I do have a story brewing about a Cascade volcano someday. Maybe that one will erupt into a novel too.

There’s a strong theme of “what remains when everything falls apart.” What does that question mean to you personally?

For me, that question cuts straight to the core of who we are when life strips away every comfort, title, and illusion of control. Real adversity has a way of revealing you. When the storm comes — and it will for almost everyone, sooner or later — you find out quickly whether you collapse into the corner or stand up and fight.

When everything is taken from you, what’s left? How do you act when the darkness descends? I believe those moments define the person you are at your core. Are you held together by possessions, routines, and reputation, or is there something deeper anchoring you? Do you take the hits, stand tall, and start fixing what’s broken in your life, or do you fall into the easy trap of blaming everyone else?

For me, the answer is simple: I refuse to let yesterday’s mistakes or hardships decide who I’m going to be tomorrow. You work every day to be a little better than the day before. That’s what remains when everything falls apart — the choice to rise, to grow, and to keep moving forward.

Writing this story gave me the chance to explore that through each of the protagonists. They lose almost everything except what they carried onto the plane, and I wanted to portray how real people might behave in that situation — not alone, but together. How they come to life on the island, how they respect one another, how tension and conflict naturally rise but don’t erase their humanity. I wanted to show not just how people can behave, but how they should.

And without giving away spoilers, that’s only half the journey. The real catalyst — the true answer to “what remains when everything falls apart” — is love in its simplest form. Love for your fellow human. Love for the family you choose. I believe family and relatives aren’t always the same thing; family is something we build, protect, and sometimes rediscover when everything else is gone.

Readers who’ve finished the book will understand exactly what I mean. My hope is that the story pulls them in until the last page, but stays with them because of what it reveals about resilience, connection, and the kind of love that survives the fall.

Daisy is a country music star navigating fame and vulnerability—what was it like writing a character from that world, and what did you want readers to see beyond the spotlight?

Writing Daisy was a challenge — and not just Daisy, but Sarah as well. I had plenty of “women don’t talk like that” moments from the people I trust, and finding each woman’s voice became its own adventure. Daisy is also a songwriter, which meant I had to become one too. Every lyric in the book is mine, and considering I’d never written a song in my life before this, I can only hope they aren’t too terrible.

I don’t have any personal connection to the country music world or to fame in general, so everything about Daisy’s public life came from imagination — just a small glimpse of what I pictured her world might be like. But the story was never really about capturing Nashville or Hollywood. It was about what happens when all of that is stripped away. When Daisy is stuck on an island with nothing but the clothes on her back and the people beside her, the spotlight disappears, and what’s left is the real woman underneath.

Her relationships — with Sarah, and of course with Jackson — were the heart of that exploration. Daisy steps into the diva role early on for obvious reasons, but I wanted readers to see far beyond that. Her softer side. Her intelligence. Her independence. Her brilliance. She’s funny, she’s sharp, she’s vulnerable, and she’s capable of deep loyalty. Readers get to watch her crack jokes, fall in love, get disappointed, and rise again.

My goal was to show that behind the fame and the image is a woman who is complex, resilient, and deeply human — someone worth rooting for long after the spotlight fades.

The story blends adventure, romance, and introspection. How did you balance those elements while maintaining emotional depth?

I’d love to say I went into this book with a master plan for balancing adventure, romance, and introspection — but the truth is, the balance came naturally and then sharpened during editing. In the early drafts, I could feel when something was off. There wasn’t enough tension at first, so I rewrote sections to raise the stakes. But once I did that, I realized I wasn’t giving readers enough emotional relief, so I rewrote again. That became the rhythm of the process: push, pull, refine.

At a certain point, it stopped being about what I wanted and became about what would give readers the best experience. I wanted them to feel the adrenaline, the tenderness, the quiet moments of reflection — but not all at once, and not in a way that overwhelmed the story. With the help of an incredible editor, I learned how to let each element breathe without letting any one of them dominate.

For me, it wasn’t about giving every genre equal weight. It was about pacing — making sure each scene carried the emotional truth it needed, whether that was fear, connection, humor, or heartbreak. If readers can feel the moment as they move through the story, then the balance is working.

You’ve described your writing as a way to connect, heal, and honor untold stories—what do you hope readers take away from this book after they turn the final page?

At its heart, I hope this story reminds readers that humanity should always take the front seat. And if someone reading this knows a veteran — or is one — maybe it helps them understand a little more about the weight people carry, even when they don’t talk about it.

But I’ll be honest: I didn’t set out to write a book with a message. The original goal was simple — to create a fun, engaging beach read that people could escape into. Somewhere along the way, the deeper themes and emotional threads wove themselves in naturally. Some of the moments in the book are inspired by pieces of my own life, but the story itself is entirely fiction, written to entertain and hopefully resonate.

If readers turn the final page feeling connected to these characters, feeling something shift in themselves, or simply wanting more of my storytelling, then I’ve done my job. And if they do enjoy this book, I’d love for them to follow me into the next one, Chances on the River, which I hope to release next year.

I also invite them to explore my two blog series — The Journey and Conversations with Mom. Those pieces offer a different side of my voice, but they come from the same place: a desire to connect, to share, and to honor the stories that shape us.

This novel marks the beginning of your second act as a writer—what can readers expect next from you?

Well, the very next thing I’m doing is buying a new desk chair — I sat down, it snapped, and I narrowly avoided an embarrassing tumble. So that’s how my second act is going so far.

On a more serious note, I’ve just started my first civilian job since I was eighteen, so I expect my writing rhythm to shift a bit while I figure out how to balance everything. But the good news is that I’m not starting from scratch. I already have my second novel, Chances on the River, fully written, and I’m about halfway through the first draft of my third, The Rose of Pirrera: A Sicilian Romance.

Launching my debut novel, What Was Meant to Fall, on May 26, 2026 — with the audiobook following shortly after — has been a whirlwind. There’s so much that goes into publishing a book, and most people never see the behind‑the‑scenes work it takes to bring a story into the world. It’s been exhausting, exciting, and incredibly rewarding.

My next novel, Chances on the River, will soon enter the editorial phase with Greenleaf Book Group. Set in the Arkansas River Valley and the rugged peaks of Buena Vista, Colorado, it follows the Cahill siblings — Cody, Ryder, and Katie — who run a river‑guiding business built around the wild beauty of the mountains. When a familiar face returns to town, old sparks reignite, long‑buried secrets surface, and the family is pulled into a mystery that threatens everything they’ve built. It’s a story about second chances, enduring love, and the courage to confront the past.

I’m also deep into The Rose of Pirrera: A Sicilian Romance, which is especially close to my heart because Sicily was my home during my final Navy tour. The story follows Hudson O’Brien, a former deep‑sea diver searching for meaning after the loss of his mother. A dart thrown at a map lands him in Aci Trezza, where he meets Angelica Pirrera — the fierce heir to one of Sicily’s most powerful families. As Hudson becomes entangled in the legacies of the Pirreras and the three other founding families, he’s drawn into a world shaped by history, loyalty, and old vendettas. From Catania to Marsala to the ancestral estate of Donnafugata, it’s a sweeping tale of love, legacy, and choosing your own future.

Outside of my novels, I’m writing two ongoing blog series: The Journey and Conversations with Mom. The Journey traces my life from childhood through my transition from Navy Chief Warrant Officer to published author — honest, reflective, and often pretty funny. Conversations with Mom is exactly what it sounds like: me capturing the unfiltered, comedic exchanges with my mom — or as I call her, “the diva.” Those pieces are some of my favorites because they’re full of heart and humor, and readers really connect with them.

So what can readers expect next? More stories, more heart, more adventure — and hopefully a sturdier desk chair.

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