Story Elements: Shady Place and the Poker Scene

On occasion I’ll be throwing up a few posts about why I chose to use specific elements in my writings and what significance they have to me.

The first one I’m going to talk about is the poker scene in Shady Place. Don’t worry, no spoilers.

The scene serves a few purposes in the overall plotting of the narrative, but the reason I chose to make the setting a poker game goes back to my youth and even my mother’s youth. She was taught at a very young age to play cards by her grandfather and in turn taught me to play when I was very young.

The game has always been a part of our lives.

I enjoy it, but my mother, my mother lives it. We have a monthly game we play together, but she plays religiously often 3 or more times a week. The game in the book isn’t a direct reflection of her games, but an homage to the game my mom loves, and has engrained in me to love as well. So when I had the chance to place that characters of Shady Place in a poker game I had to jump at it.

That one was for you mom!

Oh, and I may or may not have named some of the poker players after her and a friend… Ok, I definitely did.