A little introduction to the story...some insight into what I was thinking when I wrote it...and a link to a chapter-long excerpt. Enjoy!
Lucky O'Toole, the Vice President of Customer Relations for the Babylon, one of Las Vegas' most over-the-top strip properties, is seriously regretting booking a reality television show, The Forever Game, into the small theatre at her hotel. One thing she knows for sure: Vegas does NOT need a dose of reality.
The four couples competing in the Forever Game add their own mischief to the incendiary mix normally available in Sin City while competing for a Las Vegas wedding extravaganza. The host of the show, Trey Gold, appears interested only in keeping the spotlight on himself while the contestants run-wild sampling all Vegas has to offer, threatening to blow the whole show out of the water.
Not only must Lucky keep the couples from killing each other, killing their relationships, or ending up on the front page of the Review-Journal, she has to navigate the rocky road to love herself. Teddie, her live-in lover is leaning more-and-more towards chasing a new dream as a singer, leaving Vegas…and Lucky behind. And a new French chef who seems determined to muddy the murky waters of love even further.
Then there's Lucky's mother, Mona, who never could leave well enough alone…
READ AN EXCERPT from LUCKY IN LOVE
WHAT WAS I THINKING?
(Inspirations Behind the story)
The whole idea of writing a Lucky novella came from the fact that I just don't get "Reality TV." Okay, perhaps the genesis of the idea didn't start there, but that's where it ended up. For some odd reason I thought I wanted to write a short Lucky story so that I could bring back some of the ancillary characters from the first two books, play a little bit more with the relationships, and just have some fun in Vegas…without a murder.
Now, there are several problems with that whole scenario, the first being I had never actually written a novella before. Between you and me, I wasn't even sure what one was—oh, I had an idea, but not the specifics. Another, related problem was that I could write short (1100 words, like I did when I was columnist) or long (110,000 words, like the Lucky novels), but I had no idea how to craft a story somewhere in the middle. And then there was that 'no murder' thing. Without a murder, what would move the story along?
This is where the Reality TV thing comes in. I began noodling and one day, after several glasses of Pinot Noir, I asked myself, what would happen if a Reality TV show came to Las Vegas, to the Babylon? And what if it was as fake and as staged as professional wrestling? And Lucky had to deal with all the behind the scenes shenanigans? And who would actually WIN?
A mystery! I was in business.
And since LUCKY IN LOVE is sort of a Valentines' story, the contest had to be about love.
Of course, everything is about love, isn't it? Oh wait, that's sex, right? Everything is about sex? Isn't that what they say? Oh well, in Vegas those two concepts get a bit muddled. Sometimes really muddled.
So, four couples, the finalists in The Forever Game, arrive at the Babylon to compete for a huge Vegas wedding extravaganza. Some couples don't like the others. Some contestants don't even like their partners anymore. And Lucky has to keep everyone corralled while dealing with the ego-centric host of the show, juggling her own love life, and trying to keep her mother from providing opportunities for the contestants to misbehave.
Lucky is surrounded by her normal cast of misfits including her brothel-owning mother, her steadfast straight man and assistant, Miss P, and Miss P's boy-toy, the Beautiful Jeremy Whitlock, PI. Of course, Teddie is front and center stoking Lucky's libido while vacillating about staying in Vegas or taking his act on the road. And the new French chef is proving to be too hot to handle.
I've brought back some of my favorite secondary characters from WANNA GET LUCKY and LUCKY STIFF. So tag along with Lucky as she chases contestants all over Sin City, from Smokin' Joes XXX Emporium, to Phil Stewart's den of iniquity, and culminating in a twist at Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden.
The stakes are high, the television audience numbering in the millions.
And love is on the line.
READ AN EXCERPT from LUCKY IN LOVE
BUY LUCKY IN LOVE ($1.99)
page jumpers
READ AN EXCERPT: Chapter One of
LUCKY IN LOVE
Veni, Vidi, Emi
LUCKY IN LOVE—A Lucky O'Toole Las Vegas adventure novella—released by Tor/Forge in January 2012 in E-book format and priced at $1.99!
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Dead languages...always good for a little mumbo jumbo...the headline above: "I Came, I Saw, I Bought."
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Lucky Shorts
Here's a handful of short stories featuring Lucky and the other characters you'll find in my novels.
