Taylor explores human choices and supernatural forces in debut novel

For author Chad Taylor, writing has always been about understanding people. Why they make certain choices, how relationships shape them and what happens when life doesn’t go according to plan.

Those questions are at the heart of his debut novel, “Soul or Keep,” a story that blends fantasy, mystery, humor and the everyday complications of being human.

The book represents nearly a decade of creative growth for Taylor, whose storytelling journey began with independently published comic books.

“I always had aspirations to write books younger,” Taylor said.

Although he began working on the story years ago, Taylor knew he wasn’t quite ready to bring it to readers. While studying writing at Northern Kentucky University in 2016, a classroom discussion about analyzing literature changed how he approached storytelling. He began paying closer attention to the details that make fictional characters and their decisions believable.

“I felt like I had the emotional aspect,” he said. “But the technical aspect of becoming a better writer, I learned that in the last five or six years.”

In “Soul or Keep,” Taylor introduces Nathaniel “Nate” Simpson, a truck driver whose life is complicated by unexplained blackouts, sleepwalking and troubling gaps in his memory. His problems are connected to a spell cast years earlier, and what initially seems like ordinary memory loss gradually draws him into a supernatural world.

That world includes fog-covered streets, hypnotized employees and mystics seeking to become warlocks. At its center is a mysterious game called Soul or Keep, which becomes part of Nate’s struggle to understand what is happening to him.

The game is more than an unusual diversion. It is tied to the supernatural forces threatening Nate and those closest to him. As he searches for answers, he must confront the spell holding him captive and find a way to protect the souls of his girlfriend, Rebecca, and their unborn child.

Taylor drew some inspiration for the game from his childhood interest in the animated series “Yu-Gi-Oh!” But rather than allowing the fantasy elements to overwhelm the story, he wanted to keep Nate grounded in recognizable circumstances.

“He still has to go to work. He still has to pay the bills,” Taylor said.

That balance between the extraordinary and the ordinary became central to the novel. Taylor wanted readers who might not ordinarily pick up a fantasy book to connect with its characters and their relationships.

The story also examines how one generation’s decisions can affect the next, with Nate facing consequences connected to events that occurred long before he fully understood them.

An unexpected connection to the South Carolina Lowcountry also found its way into the book.

Taylor, who researched West African cultural influences while developing the story, became interested in the Carolinas and eventually discovered Hilton Head Island’s Gullah Geechee heritage.

As he learned about the island’s churches, history and cultural traditions, he found a setting that suited the novel’s mystical elements.

Taylor has never visited Hilton Head, but said the research left him eager to see the area firsthand.