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There are so many unusual-yet-cool events in an author’s life. I remember the first time I saw cover art for Traitor’s Blade, the first time I got notes back from the inimitable Jo Fletcher (picture a word document covered in red ink), the first piece of physical fan mail…there are a ton of these moments and they’re all wonderful.

One I never really expected was to see actual merchandise based on my books. That changed with I was approached by the very nice folks at USBMemoryDirect who said they were interested in creating some new designs based on novels and asked if I was interested.

So we talked back and forth a bit, experimented with designs, and finally settled on the ones you see above. Since the Spellslinger series deals with strange and esoteric playing cards, it was only natural that the USB keys should follow suit (hah – see how I worked the word ‘suit’ in there? Who says I’m not a real writer…)

We wanted to keep these as something special, so they aren’t for sale. My lovely publishers at Hot Key Books have some for contests and special events, and I have a few as prizes for when people are kind enough to come to my readings.

It’s such a strange thing to see your book cover on a USB key, and such unexpected fun. So, thanks to Taylor Chastain at USBMemoryDirect for bringing a little more spellslinging magic into the world.

Note: I originally wrote this for OpenBookOntario.com back in 2014.

How do you keep your plot moving forward?

This question tends to hit writers in the second act of their novels. The challenge isn’t so much about adding events to the story as it is about creating a sense of forward momentum and increasing urgency. With each plot thread the reader needs to feel that they are moving inexorably towards an end that will answer the questions posed by the book’s first act.

In my own writing this happens through two concurrent forces: the protagonist’s gradual loss of control over their world and the reader’s increasing understanding of it.

In the second act of Traitor’s Blade, Falcio struggles harder and harder to find a way to stop the conspirators who are destroying his country, but his efforts only seem to push victory farther and farther away. This isn’t just about ratcheting up the action or throwing more bodies (figuratively or literally) on the ground – it’s about slowly breaking down Falcio’s sense that he can ever win. At the same time, the reader is coming to understand why things are the way they are; why the conspirators are succeeding.

Plotting this way allows the two forces to work together until it finally becomes apparent to the reader that your protagonist’s goal – whether victory, or love, or even survival – is forever beyond their grasp. For me, as a writer, that’s the end of the second act.

The third act is about a fundamental change in the main characters – they become aware of what the reader has already figured out – and they find it within themselves to make the sacrifice that will heal the world around them, even if it means their own physical or emotional destruction. The climax of the story may be happy or sad, redeeming or damning, but however it ends, the book answers those questions that made you want to write the book in the first place.

Remember back (way back) to before you could find anything you’d ever seen or heard on the Internet? You know, when you listened to a song on the radio and had to hunt high and low to find the album in a store? Or when you found a new series of books but couldn’t the third one in the series? I first read Keith Taylor’s book Bard when I was a teenager heading on an ill-advised solo camping trip (wearing a rather uncomfortable leather jacket and carrying a tent with holes in the roof and missing pegs.) A number of things went wrong on that trip that resulted in being cold, wet, tired, and huddling in the dark to avoid a group of drunk and stoned teenagers. But from the moment I started reading Bard all of that disappeared and I was transported into a world of music, magic, and swashbuckling. Tailor’s love and depth of knowledge about his subject was remarkable and the chronicles of Felimid Mac Fal soon became some of my favourite stories. So, happy ending to my camping trip, right? Not so fast…

Flash forward a few years and I’d found and read Bard II, III, and IV. It looked like the series was over and though I wasn’t happy about it, I could live with it. But the series wasn’t over–Keith Tailor had written a fifth book! Joy and jubilation! The only problem was that I soon discovered the book was only published in the United Kingdom. Okay, fine, now I have to order from the Brits. No problem – they like Canadians. Unfortunately, the book went out of print too quickly and no one had copies. I couldn’t find any North American library with a copy and it wasn’t feasible to borrow one from across the Atlantic.

The Internet is supposed to fix all these things, isn’t it? Everything accessible all the time? An endless cornucopia of delights waiting to be purchased by anyone with a credit card and a web browser. So I start searching and, sure enough, eventually I find someone’s dog-eared copy of the book available for purchase for only $125. That’s right, they wanted one-hundred-and-twenty-five dollars and shipping. Part of me wanted to buy it anyway, but the thought of rewarding someone’s needless greed (none of the money would have gone to the author) prevented me.

Of course, an obvious solution presented itself: who needs to actually buy and ship a physical book? I mean, that’s so 2010. These days it’s all about the e-book, right? Wrong. None of Keith Taylor’s books are available in digital editions. I actually wrote Mr. Taylor himself and he kindly checked to see if he had a copy around but alas, no luck there either.

A couple of weeks ago, the literary gods finally smiled on me and a copy appeared at a very reasonable of $15 USD plus shipping. The day I came back from my vacation it was right there waiting for me in a Trans-Atlantic shipping envelope. Finally, after all these years I’m reading Bard V and learning the final fate of Felimid Mac Fal. The funny thing is, after all these years, my tastes have changed and it’s not the type of book I’d buy anymore, but there’s something wonderful about searching for a lost book and one day finding it.