I was never lonely working in the casino. I always made good money and got to travel the world. To get my first job I drove across country from North Carolina to Nevada. The first casino I saw was the Cal Neva casino on the beautiful shores of Lake Tahoe. Dealing there allowed me to look out at a panoramic view of the lake. I lived in America’s all-year playground for three years. I was young, single and worked nights, so I could go to the lake or ski during the day.
I later worked for Princess Cruises traveling the world as a croupier. I met my Scottish husband on the Star Princess, and when we left ships, we moved to Palm Springs. My point is not every casino is in a beautiful place, but you can find one in a beautiful place if you want to.
The catalyst of my novel, Casino Queen, was the boom and bust of the first decades of this century. My husband and I moved to Palm Springs the same week a Native American casino opened downtown. Thousands of people from all over the world were flocking to the desert to work at the casinos, money flowed like water, and real estate became the new status symbol.
Tribes all over California were claiming their sovereignty. Our casino went to work sneaking in slot machines, defying the federal government. Until Proposition 5 passed, legalizing tribal gaming, we were scared of being shut down. But the best part was that we got to live in Palm Springs, with majestic mountains hovering in the background. And then came The Great Recession, and suddenly the partying stopped. My goal was to write a thriller filled with twists and turns to capture that special time and place.
I found the perfect backdrop for my novel in the High Desert of Southern California. A refuge for artists, ex-Marines and desert rats. The sky was always blue, and the rocks at Joshua Tree National Park looked like giant Jenga pieces precariously balanced, ready to fall. We loved hiking in the park, an isolated place near the largest Marine base in the world. The Night Hawk casino near that base became the setting for my novel.
The characters in my book were familiar to me from my two decades working in the casino industry. Fortunately, my boss was the most charismatic tribal chairman in America. People always asked me, “What’s a nice girl like you doing working in a place like this?” Now I could honestly say, “Research.” The characters in my head just kept letting me know how they wanted their story told. All the pieces of the story came together in an organic way to capture that special time and place. It was important to me that my protagonist would be a strong woman running the casino. Because I worked with so many smart, strong, independent women.
The casino industry had been good to me, but I always witnessed an underbelly just perfect for a thriller. Millions of dollars passed through the casino every week, casino fleas operated their personal side businesses on the gaming floor, and you never know who might walk in the door itching for a fight. My hope is that after reading Casino Queen you will never walk into a casino the same way.
What you don’t know reading my novel is that the series was inspired by actual incidents so coincidental that if you put them in a novel, they would sound like a contrivance. We arrived in Palm Springs and got married three weeks later. Dave, his roommate from the cruise ships, was the best man at our wedding. Dave left his job at our casino and moved to Albuquerque to take a job as a shift manager there. Working there, he met Julian and encouraged him to move to Palm Springs for greater opportunities. Even though they switched places, they couldn’t avoid their fate. They were both murdered under mysterious circumstances.
I would like to thank Window Over the Sink, for giving me the opportunity to chat with you.
~*~
Caroline
Popov, alone, heartbroken, and deeply in debt ends up in glamorous Palm
Springs, California. Native American casinos have just opened, thousands of
people from all over the world came to work there, money flowed like water, and
real estate became the new status symbol. And then came The Great Recession,
and suddenly the partying stopped.
Cara Bertoia grew up in a strait-laced Southern family, but she was always fascinated with casinos. In her twenties on a summer hiatus from teaching in North Carolina, she drove to California and became a dealer at Caesars in Lake Tahoe. She discovered that after teaching high school, handling an unruly gambler was a piece of cake. Her mother highly disapproved of her working in a casino, "a place so bad it has 'sin' in the middle."
Eventually, she
succumbed to pressure from the family and returned east to take a high-tech job
in Boston. She also began working on her MFA in writing at Emerson. Her goal
was to write the first realistic novel about casino life from the perspective
of an experienced table games dealer. She is always amazed that normal and
sometimes quite intelligent players become absolutely clueless in the casino.
They repeat superstitious nonsense and no amount of logic can change their
position, maybe her novel will.
While in Boston
she was offered the opportunity to join Princess Cruises as a croupier. Jumping
at the chance, she spent the next five years circling the globe. Sometimes life
exceeds your dreams. She was awed by the wonders of Venice, the fjords of
Norway, and the Northern Lights in St. Petersburg.
Cara returned
from ships with a very special souvenir, her Scottish husband Ray. They went to
work at the Spa Casino in Palm Springs, and now live in Hollywood, Florida,
where she writes about her casino years while wistfully gazing out at the
ocean.
I love to connect
with my readers. Please send me a picture with Casino Queen. I will post those
pictures to my social media.
TikTok: tiktok.com/@carabertoia
https://littlemissbooklover87.wordpress.com/?s=casino+queen
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Thanks for coming to the Window today!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting me on your beautiful blog on the release day for Casino Queen. What a great way to kick it off!
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Cara B
Your post brought back wonderful memories. I grew up in S California, and our friends had a cabin in Joshua Tree we used to stay at. Back in the fifties at night, the stars were beautiful! Hope your book does well.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating story you have, Cara! Was is every dangerous, dealing at a casino? Your book is on by TBR list!! Wishing you all the best.
ReplyDelete