Casinos are a great place to develop characters....

I had the pleasure to be in St.Louis last week and in my journey about town I came across a fantastic place to relax and work on the book.....a casino.It being my first time in Missouri,I had no clue that there were any casinos and such nice ones at that.Who would've thunk it?Well I settled in with my brand new shiny red casino card and found some delightful looking penny slots near the front....(I thought I heard Kenny Rogers singing in the background)...not really,I am not much of a gambler, but a casino has a certain kind of ambience that it is hard to not feel a certain excitement and buzz in the air akin to the Kenny Rogers song.Along with the ambience I recognized there was a host of interesting people gambling and frolicking about.As I settled into my chair and learned all the exciting lines and payouts to my machine I thought about how a recluse like me could just blend into the crowds of happy chattering people.The first thing I noticed as that a casino draws all walks of life to its doors.Grandma's and Pa's,brothers and sisters,friends and neighbors,and an occassional oddball author or two.There were more I could see at different tables and slot machines,some were having the times of their lives, others looked seriously like they were trying to read the cards,while others sat at the slot machines with a notebook and pen looking deep into haze of thought(that was yours truly).
Somewhere between a bonus spin and winning 340 pennies(!)I reached into the place in my mind that gets creative and started to work.Starting with the man who sat next to me.An older clean-cut gentleman who was enjoying his winning streak.He had a funny thing he did with his hands when he won.Hard to describe,but it was working,he had won over 33,000 pennies in the short time he sat next to me!I noticed on his jacket was an emblem representing the F.B.I.....I asked him was that a clothing company and he informed me that no,in fact,he was a retired F.B.I agent of 33 years....slots were a favorite pasttime of his these days.I thanked him for his service to our great country but wondered if he would be as friendly if he knew I were crime writer who writes stories where the good guy doesn't always win.....Either way this jarred my creative flow and sent me into a state of "Raconteur Nirvana".I started looking around to see if maybe he were being followed maybe by some deranged man whom he sent to prison decades before....or maybe the agent was sent to follow me to gain a better dossier for the Bureau.....they have a thing for authors you know......then I noticed a strange man over in the next island of machines...looking desperate and aloof...perhaps a gambling junkie who just gambled his rent money away for the second time this year...and the little old lady with the cherry hat on just down the aisle watching him...perhaps the regional president of Gamblers Anonymous watching him fail yet again...and the lady sweeping up cigarette butts?....her shoes were too expensive looking,perhaps C.I.A undercover working in conjunction with the A.T.F tailing a drug dealer from South America.....that Latino looking fellow at the roulette table in the 3-piece Armani suit.
Could my protagonist find himself doing a job here?You bet,with the noise and the organized choas about,he could be in and out of there in no time at all.Could he blend in,now you see him...or did anyone see him at all?.....More on him later.
As you can tell better by now,a writer is always working and dreaming up story lines and characters.It is a interesting lifestyle for sure.


In Atlanta on the internet,

Charley

P.S The Bottleneck Blues Bar will be hosting Davy Jones singing later this month...too bad I will miss that show.Gosh, how I love the oldies.......CT