Story Ideas - UNLUCKY

Lila N - you have now officially won something better than bad-tasting lip gloss (at least I hope my book is better). Please visit me at my website janadeleon.com and use the Contact page to forward me your name, mailing address and your preference for autographing. And a huge CONGRATULATIONS for being luckier than me or my heroine. :)


I promised this week I'd tell you about how I got the story idea for UNLUCKY. I think you'll enjoy this one as it's sort of autobiographical. :)

My husband and I got married in 2000. At the time, I was working contract, making fabulous money on these long-term accounting clean-up projects. I had just ended a 13-month project and was taking the next 3 months off (I told you the money was fabulous) so I decided to plan our wedding and study up for the honeymoon. Ah ha, I got you there, didn't I? You were wondering what I was studying for and I bet all sorts of things that had nothing to do with Blackjack crossed your mind.

But Blackjack is exactly what I meant. You see, we were getting married in Vegas and I had plans to take the Blackjack world by storm. By birth, I'm the product of an accountant and an engineer so math is like breathing to me. I figured if anyone can learn to beat the house, it ought to be me. So I started studying. And I learned. Boy, did I learn.

I learned every single statistical combination of cards on the table and what I should play based on my hand versus the dealers. I learned to count cards and had mastered a fairly basic counting system for up to six decks of cards (which is what most houses use). I had beaten my software so soundly, I knew I was going to take the bank.

Then we got to Vegas and started playing. And that's where the ugly reality stepped in. I am horribly unlucky. I don't mean just a little unlucky. I mean so unlucky that not only can I not win at cards, but when I sit down at a table, everyone there starts losing. It was an anomoly I was not in the least bit prepared for. My husband (who plays combinations so ridiculous, he annoys the other players) is one of those lucky people who wins a lot of the time playing hands he should never have played. Me - no way. If I had 18 the dealer had 19. If I had 20 the dealer had 21. If I had 21 the dealer had 21. It was like a Twilight Zone episode.

So I gave up Blackjack and switched to video poker since I didn't want to lose more money than I had already contributed to the tables. My husband, of course, went on to play for 12 hours straight on $25.

At RWA conference in Reno a couple of years ago, my agent asked if I'd had any luck gambling and I told her the story about how I just don't play the tables. Not because I don't want to, but because it's just not worth it. She laughed and said "you know, there's a story in there somewhere." Well, I thought on it long and hard and came up with heroine, Mallory Devereaux, a girl so unlucky that her entire life is like living with a disability.

The interesting thing about it is, when I pitched the idea to some writer friends of mine, one of them said "make sure you work in the word 'cooler' in the proposal." I didn't want to sound uncool, so I had google it and low and behold, I find that cooler are a casino myth (or reality, depending on who you speak to). They're people so unlucky that the casino managers pay them to sit down at hot tables and shut them down.

So, if I ever decide to give up the three or so careers that I've covered since college, I guess I could always move to Vegas and become one of those mythical "coolers." Just like my heroine, Mallory.

Just to make sure that none of you have luck as bad as Mallory, one lucky blog poster today will when an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of UNLUCKY. So post away and check back at the top of this blog post tomorrow morning to see who the winner is!!!!

- Deadly (but not at cards) DeLeon