Taking a gamble: PRETTY IN INK week continues

I don't gamble. Well, maybe the slots, but nothing more than that. The slots are easy: Just keep pushing that little button and wait. And wait. And wait. And usually nothing. I think I've won maybe a dollar in the end. The other games, though: roulette, craps, blackjack, I just don't get them. I've never learned how to play and I don't really much care.

However, when you're writing a series set in Las Vegas, gambling might be a good idea to include at some point. So I decided to have Brett Kavanaugh, my tattoo artist protagonist, gamble a little in PRETTY IN INK.

My husband used to be a blackjack dealer in Reno way  back in the 80s, when he got out of college. He calls it his year on the dark side. But he understands blackjack, and the two times we've been to Vegas in the last couple years, he's always gotten up at the crack of dawn and gone out to find himself a
table with a low minimum. These are not at one of the swanky casinos on the Strip, but ones that are a little off the Strip, places we wouldn't bring our daughter. He's always managed to win a little, enough for lunch or even dinner. And then he walks away.

So you say, Brett must have played a little blackjack in the book. Ha. That would be too easy, having a blackjack dealer in the house to ask questions of. No, I had her play roulette.

Roulette seemed the easiest of the games to me: a little ball drops into a spinning wheel. How hard is that? Well, after I started looking online as to how to play, I realized this "easy" game is far from it. But I persevered, made Brett as ignorant as me and had a stranger show her how it's done. And then I wanted her to win.

One of my first readers is a really good friend and we used to be in a writers group together, so he doesn't just pat me on the back and tell me how good my work is without looking me in the eye. So when he read about Brett's roulette adventure, he gave it to me straight up: With everything I'd included, he said, do you realize just how much money she has won? I'd had her winning a very small amount but the actual amount was astounding. I had no idea I was so good at roulette!

So what about you? Do you gamble, and what's your favorite table game if you do?

And don't forget that you can get PRETTY IN INK anywhere right now...especially if you just click that little book cover over there on the left!

Karen

Comments

[Kathy Sweeney]

Picked up your new book last night at Mystery Lovers and can't wait to read it!!

I only gamble at Catholic School fundraisers. Our black jack table is always the loudest, but we're not very savvy.

[Mo]

Pretty in Ink popped into my kindle yesterday as I was leaving for the airport. I started it waiting for my flight, read more during my flight. I HATED that I had to put it down to drive from airport #2 to my hotel. Finally alone in my room, I sat read until there was no more to read. I enjoyed this one as much as Missing Ink and now I am counting down until book 3 is released. To fill the rest of my business trip I loaded your 4 previous books on my kindle and started Scred Cows over breakfast. Thank you!!

[Karen Olson]

So glad you bought at Mystery Lovers, Kathy!

Mo, thanks so much! My biggest fear is that someone will put the book down and never pick it back up again...

[Lori Armstrong]

I'm not a gambler, I'll play electronic poker if I'm forced to kill time in a casino...but $20 is my limit. I guess I work to hard for my money to "enjoy" throwing it in a fucking sinkhole.

Part of it stems from working as a bookkeeper at a restaurant/hotel, which had a bar filled with video lottery machines. Since we owned the machines, it was my job to pull the money and count it every morning, and balance payouts against money received. When I saw $200 to $300 in crisp twenties, I knew someone had gone to the instant cash machine to gamble and it just made me incredibly sad. Lots of the employees were addicted to gambling so that made me twice as cautious.

[Jeff Shelby]

I play everything - blackjack, craps, roulette, poker, all of it. I love gambling. LOVE it.

Playing roulette with my best friend is the greatest because he plays what he calls a no lose system. He only plays black or red and if he loses he just doubles his next bet to make sure he breaks even.

It is fun to see him sweat when he is down $500 and has to place the thousand dollar bet to break even.

[John]

I suck at gambling! I've never played a table game, only the slots. And I very seldom bring anything home because I am that sucker who will continue playing once ahead because I figure, what's a little when you can have a lot? (In retrospect, a little looks damn good when you're leaving with nothing--and a wife who says "I told you so.")

[John]

PS -- PRETTY IN INK--and you'll pardon the play on words--is a sure bet. How can tattoos, drag queens, and murder result in anything less than a winner?

[Becky Hutchison]

Karen, I loved Brett's first book, so I know the second one's going to be great too.

As for gambling, I once put money on the Kentucky Derby following a tip from someone I met in the infield. I won enough money for dinner on the way home to Knoxville.

On the cross-country trip (the same one with my five Vegas hours in hell), we stayed at Circus Circus in Reno, where I played the video poker games. Like Lori, I set $20 as my limit, then played for two hours on various machines (moving around to avoid smokers), and left with $18.00. I think it was all the practice on my video poker game CD prior to our trip that gave me the edge.

[David Terrenoire]

iIn 1969 I lost every penny I had playig blackjack.

My favorite game?

Blackjack.

I do't play it, or any card game any more, but I'll drop a few bucks on the ponies.

I love to watch 'em run.