As a writer, I create a talisman to help carry readers through my stories. In my first novel, Shevivor, it is Janet Murphy's .357 magnum revolver. Her story is about surviving attempted rapes, animal attacks, and bad treatment by employers, not the gun.

The .357 is there, however, to serve as protection should she need it as in the case of taking out the school shooter who kills her mother. Talismans have a role in writing.

In a Civil War novel I edited for a friend, the talisman was the Rebel cavalryman's horse. In a book about the assassination of President Kennedy, it was the AR-15 rifle wielded by a Secret Service agent.

Talisman's are subliminal to story lines but can provide a guide to take the reader from its introduction to the conclusion of the story. In Kevin Costner's movie, Dances with Wolves, his hand-written journal provides the continuity essential to the story.