Playing Poker in my Bra
I lost my shirt playing poker last week. I wasn't playing strip poker, so no, I didn't ACTUALLY lose my shirt--sorry to anyone who was hoping for a photo of the title of this post. But I was up, with a sweet pile of chips, and then tanked. Bad. If it WAS strip poker, I would have been playing in my birthday suit.
But God, I love the game. THE POKER DIARIES just came out, and Lulu loves the game, too. So does Skye McNalley in DOUBLE DOWN. Georgia Ray Miller plays for candy with her band in DIARY OF A BLUES GODDESS. Neccos are the pinnacle of the betting scheme. Are we sensing a theme here?
Art imitates life, and there are some things so intrinsic to who I am that they tend to filter into what I write. Poker, martinis, heroines who are outsiders, betting on football, loving boxing. Buddhism. Lapsed Catholics. Praying to saints. I return to those elements because it's a fit for me. I know it.
So what about your wip? What do you return to because it's like breathing and you know you can flavor the world in your novel perfectly because of the reality of it?
But God, I love the game. THE POKER DIARIES just came out, and Lulu loves the game, too. So does Skye McNalley in DOUBLE DOWN. Georgia Ray Miller plays for candy with her band in DIARY OF A BLUES GODDESS. Neccos are the pinnacle of the betting scheme. Are we sensing a theme here?
Art imitates life, and there are some things so intrinsic to who I am that they tend to filter into what I write. Poker, martinis, heroines who are outsiders, betting on football, loving boxing. Buddhism. Lapsed Catholics. Praying to saints. I return to those elements because it's a fit for me. I know it.
So what about your wip? What do you return to because it's like breathing and you know you can flavor the world in your novel perfectly because of the reality of it?
posted by Erica Orloff at 5:16 PM
11 Comments:
Fishing, tennis, music, literature, religion in general, God and the universe and everything...
These are some things intrinsic to me that sometimes end up in my fiction.
And, what we talked about on the last post--the inability to forgive certain crimes. Here's an excerpt from my completed draft:
The abusers are ten rungs lower than shit on maggots. They deserve public execution and eternity in darkest Hell. I worked a homicide one time, three year-old little girl in foster care. She hemorrhaged to death from vaginal tears and a ruptured cervix. The father, vile little twerp, claimed she stuck the broomstick up there herself. It was all I could do not to brain him with a flashlight on the way to jail. I made sure the word got out on him in Starke, though. He lasted less than a month. It’s amazing what they can do these days with a sharpened pork chop bone and a pill bottle full of gasoline.
Jude:
You scare me.
:-)
E
Definitely outsiders. Anything to do with outdoors. Music. Religious confusion. Cold beer. Scotch, neat. Food...oddly enough, I hate to 'assemble meals' on an everyday basis, but if I'm in a funk, you'll find me in the kitchen making a helluva a mess with something that requires a lot of time and prep work. Manicotti, Cabbage rolls...spaghetti sauce from scratch with every veggie imaginable, all chopped by hand, despite the fact that I have a food processor???
Actually had a lengthy passage of a character doing that, but cut it to bits because it felt too...telling?
Coward. :)
lainey:
I have to resist the urge to cut things all the time because I feel so naked. But I know a lot of times, that's my best stuff.
Sex scenes . . . now that's naked.
:-)
Technology.
My current WIP is all about nanotechnology and computers. Every time I get into a spot, out come the computers. Maybe it is a crutch? I try not to get too technical because it would boor the pants off of most people, but I do try to 'flavor' the story such that it seems more real.
I'm also consulting on other peoples books about computers and hacking and general networking to help them get it right, or at least a lot more plausible.
ewoh:
That's awesome. I had a hacker in one of mine, but because it wasn't his POV--just his conversations online with the woman who hired him, I could get away with being evasive on the details.
I did, however, in my research, find out how easy it is to find methamphetamine recipes online. And visited hacker sites.
E
Jude, can't wait to read more! Intense!
The flavor of the locale. That's always with me. And new age aspects.
Great post!
Thanks, Kathy!
kathy:
I use NYC a lot as a setting. Old turf. Usually cities. No 'burbs for my locales.
E
Witch craft because I'm a practicing witch, cat, brooding personality, a smart ass and too many more to name. Each one of my characters have something of me. The good and the bad.
la:
Me, too. The good, the bad, and the ugly. :-)
E
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