Motive Games is a new book release from author Lisa Taylor, formally of Yorkton.
"This is my first novel," said Taylor who was actually born in Winnipeg, but her family moved to Yorkton when she was four-years-old, and she stayed in Yorkton until after graduating from Yorkton Regional High School in 1986.
"I had tossed around the idea of writing an adult mystery, early on -- I'm a big fan of Golden Age crime lit -- but then my oldest son was attacked at school by another kid, with the result that his arm was completely dislocated. We were living in rural Ontario at this time and had to make multiple lengthy trips to the Children's Hospital in Ottawa in the following week. It was a low point for the family in general, and my son in particular. To help pick everyone up, during our drives I said, 'Ok, let's see if we can work out an interesting plot, involving technology, for a murder mystery.' It got their brains focused on something more positive and soon it was clear to me that I wanted to write the story for my boys (then aged 11 and 13). I told them I'd set it in the video game industry, because they were big video game fans and because as part of my job, I'd visited a number of game development studios and interviewed many game animators about how they were using my employer's/client's technology."
The idea was born, but the writing process would still take time.
"With all that was going on in our lives, and because I had a lot of research to do, I picked away at that first draft for probably a year and a half," said Taylor, who now resides in New Zealand. "The most difficult aspect was having to learn how to write fiction: both the mechanics, what type of layout do publishers want, what's the standard for dialogue, etc., but even more so the techniques around point of view, narrative voice, pacing and so on. I was also a stickler for correct details, so I went to Montreal and checked out all the areas of the city where I was planning on setting the story. I chose Montreal because Ubisoft, one of the big names in game development had just announced they were going to start building the world's largest game development studio in Montreal."
While targeted at younger readers, Motive Games is at its heart a mystery novel.
"The story begins with the protagonist, Phil, finding out that his dad is being trashed in an online video game forum," explained Taylor. "He's really mad about this and we soon find out why: his dad had been found dead at the bottom of an outdoor stairway a few months before. The reason these kids are trashing him is because he (Dad) had been in the way of a sequel to their favourite first person shooter (a violent video game) being released: he'd been one of the original makers of the game, but he left the company that made it with some of the key IP (intellectual property) rights. The reason he left, we find out from Phil was that the video game had been linked in the media to a shooting spree at a Toronto high school."
And that is where Taylor also uses the book as a forum for a look at the ethics involved in the video game industry.
"With a lot of the gaming world hating Phil's dad for walking away with the rights to the game -- so the sequel couldn't be made -- and lots of people outside the industry hating him for his involvement in a violent game that contributed, in their opinion, to someone going on a shooting rampage, there's a lot of people who may have wanted Phil's Dad dead. Phil has been aware of this, but it takes this latest attack on his dad to get him serious about investigating Dad's so called accident," offered Taylor.
"That investigation takes him into Motive Games, his dad's two-year-old game development company where he starts to put the pieces together. Over the course of the story he makes some important friendships, explores some tough issues; video game ethics, the possibility of life after death, the nature of heroism, with the result that he not only figures out the 'who, what and why' of the murder, but also comes to a point where he's ready to move on again with life -- having grown along the way."
In writing Motive Games Taylor said she often paused to read books herself to fire the inspiration of her own efforts.
"I found it very helpful to go back and forth between reading and writing," she said. "There are a number of books which inspired me while writing, most particularly mystery stories by Dorothy Sayers and The Song of Roland. Odd, I know, but when I was thinking about why young men are so fascinated with violent hero stories, I started thinking about how far in history you could trace that back, and I wanted to explore the similarities and differences between those historical stories and today's game story lines.
"When I was focussing on writing a particular character, I wanted to read things written in a voice similar to that character's. I'd read, jot notes, then run off and write for a few hours."
Taylor said while Motive Games is her first novel, it is also the fruition of a long held interest in the craft of writing.
"Yes, I have always had an interest in writing," she said. "Back in Junior high school my English teachers started encouraging me to pursue writing as a career. I flip flopped for a number of years between music and writing -- I was in the awesome Yorkton band program from Grade 5 upwards, eventually ending up in the YRHS band under Joe Hary. Finally, in Grade 12, I decided to take a year off after graduating to learn French, the idea being that following that I'd make up my mind. During a year of French immersion in rural Quebec I discovered that one of the English universities in Montreal (Concordia) offered a dual Bachelor of Arts program in English Lit and History. History had been my other favourite subject back in high school so I decided to follow through on that one.
"People used to ask me what I was going to do with that degree, assuming teaching, which I had no interest in, and I'd answer that I wasn't sure, but that it seemed I should follow my interests and then trust that something would work out from there.
"In my last year I took extra classes in writing non-fiction and editing. I had a feeling that I would end up working in journalism, or something related, and that it would make sense to prepare myself for that.
While writing might have been a long held interest, just creating a manuscript was only part of an extended process toward being a published author.
"I spent three years in the writing and editing phase, and then two years trying to find a publisher, after which I gave up for two years," said Taylor. "The North American publishing scene, dominated by the big American houses that aren't the least bit interested in new writers, is really tough. It's particularly difficult if you're not following the current formula for your genre, which I'm not. Motive Games is not without its grittiness, but it's a far cry from the desolate feel of the Hunger Games.
"I had bites from publishers, but was basically told I'd have to work in the paranormal, maybe they wanted a vampire to be the killer, or cut out anything thought-provoking around video game ethics or the after life
"Motive Games raises questions about some of the issues not that it tells kids how to think, it just encourages them to do some thinking."
Writing for a specific, younger audience, in a style mimicking their's, and the video games language also created barriers Taylor said she had to overcome.
"I also sometimes hit adults who just couldn't get their heads around the video game and tech lingo," she said. "One agent actually told me, 'I can't understand all that video game jargon, how do you expect kids to understand it.' I just laughed. Obviously, this agent, who apparently specializes in YA lit, wasn't quite right for me.
"Anyway, after our family moved to New Zealand in 2010 I became aware of a writing competition in Australia open to writers living anywhere in Australasia. The writer's guild that ran it had just opened up an unpublished manuscripts category. I entered in 2011, as did over a hundred other people, and ended up on the short list. Fortunately they decided in the end to break the one category into three groups: adult, young adult and picture book. Motive Games won the young adult category and as part of that prize I was offered a contract by an independent publishing house in Brisbane, Australia; Wombat Books."
The book was released Oct. 1, and the launch was Oct. 13, in Brisbane.
"Even prior to the release my publisher was really happy with the response: two large book store chains, one in Australia, one in New Zealand, made large orders, plus she was getting major orders from schools, seems they actually prefer it when authors leave out the zombies," said Taylor. "It looks as if there's been a real gap in the market for books that are of interest to teen boys and yet aren't overly dark or depressing."
And there is more to come, said Taylor.
"There's a sequel underway," she said. "My publisher would love to see it released at this time next year, but I'm not sure. A really well-thought-out mystery plot takes some time to work through. I'm certainly past the initial learning curve for fiction writing now, and I've got an interesting cast of characters to work with, but, we'll see. Twelve - 18 months would be my guess."
