Saint Joyce and I joined my
younger sister Cheryl and brother Mitch in Las Vegas this past weekend for a
reunion. My buddy Roger, I was on the USS Ranger with, made it too. We all stayed
at the Stratosphere. We sipped a few by the pool, gambled a little, ate dinner
at the Top of the World revolving restaurant, and saw the Pin-Up show. Our last
night together we had a drink and dinner with my first cousin Darryl, who lives
in Las Vegas. I hadn’t seen him in over 40 years. It was a great three day
excursion.
On to the business side of the
trip. Joyce had a mammography seminar at the Paris Casino on Saturday. I took
the taxi with her at 7AM because everyone else slept in after the Top of the
World dinner, and Pin-Up show the night before. Once I left Joyce off at the
proper meeting room (not easy to locate) I walked down the Strip to the Mandalay
Bay Casino where more than a few of my scenes take place in the sequel to HARDCASE I’m finishing. The sequel, THE LURE OF HELL, will be released on July 4th,
but I should have it finished by the end of this month. It has an assassination
scene, a UFC fight, a Baccarat card scene, and a confrontation in the workout
room – all at the Mandalay. I finished all the research I needed there before
walking back up the Strip to the other end where the Stratosphere is. I have a
mugging scene between the Riviera Casino and the Stratosphere I wanted to take
pictures of and do a final check. A few scenes also take place in the
Stratosphere, but I had already checked them out the first day. I didn’t get
back to the Stratosphere until after noon time, because navigating your way
from the South end of the Strip to the North end on foot is not for the faint
of heart – a very good workout. I met up with my brother, sister and Roger by
the pool until Joyce joined us later. There are very few times when everything
goes right on a trip like this. This one was as close as it gets.
Once in a while we fiction
writers get to walk around in our characters’ shoes a little bit, and let the
voices in our heads fill in the dialogue. :)
High Stakes Baccarat Room at Mandalay Bay.
Mandalay Bay Front
Mugging scene between Riviera Casino and Stratosphere. At night of course in the book.
Sounds like a wonderful trip, Bernard--for both business & pleasure!
ReplyDeleteBut what's a "Pin-Up Show"?
It was a good one, Raine. The Pin-Up show had models dancing and singing to arrangements done by a spectacular band that accompanied them with a calendar theme. The trumpet player who arranged the musical score and directed was incredible - the best brass I've heard in a very long time.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely sounds enjoyable. Good to see folks you haven't seen in a while. Looking forward to that sequel. you know how much I enjoyed Hard Case.
ReplyDeleteThe mini reunion turned out very good, Charles. I had to get DEMON AT WAR up on Amazon today, but I'm nearly done with the sequel to HARD CASE. That will leave me plenty of time to write and edit. I hope your next Talera book is going well.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful trip! I'm glad everything went so well. I'm looking forward to the sequel :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tim! THE LURE OF HELL will be breaking a few conventional morays in point of view, but it has action, humor, and an entertaining but somewhat horrifying plot. It introduces two new members into John Harding's crew - two cold as ice killers - Clint Dostiene and Lynn Montoya.
ReplyDelete