Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Upcoming Release from Cara Bertoia: CASINO QUEEN

Today's guest is Cara Bertoia and she's going to tell us a fascinating story about working in the casino industry for two decades. Since they always tell you to write what you know, Cara has taken that experience into the writing of her upcoming release, CASINO QUEEN. The book releases on March 16, 2022 and is available now for pre-order. Welcome Cara!

I worked in the casino industry for a long time. As a child watching Ocean’s Eleven, they seemed so grown up and glamourous. They were open 24 hours, which made them seem so alive. 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.

 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. Tribes all over California were claiming their sovereignty. The casino we went to work at snuck 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.

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 can 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.

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. 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.

The casino industry has 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 knew who might walk through the door itching for a fight. My hope is that after reading Casino Queen you will never walk into a casino the same way.

Blurb, Casino Queen:

Caroline Popov, alone, heartbroken, and deeply in debt, ends up in glamorous Palm Springs, California where Native casinos have just opened, offering employment to thousands. She lands a job at the Palm Oasis Casino and is mentored by the charismatic tribal chairman, John Tovar.

Embraced by casino culture, Caroline works her way up to casino manager of the Night Hawk, in the High Desert town of Joshua Tree. There, she is responsible for managing multicultural team members, satisfying the demands of challenging guests, growing revenue while rooting out corruption.

In the process of rediscovering her inner strength, she learns, you have to gamble like your life depends on it. Because it often does.

Excerpt:

“Why did I transfer you up from Palm Springs to be my Casino Queen?” The charismatic Tribal Chairman John Tovar asked.

“Casino Queen, really? Apparently, you are the only person in America who isn’t watching the show about the seven kingdoms on cable. The queens always get killed in the most horrific ways. They are hanged, beheaded, poisoned, burned alive in an explosion, or have their throat slit,” an exasperated Caroline Popov answered.

“I promise that won’t happen to you.” He gestured for her to take a seat at an empty ‘Mystic Mermaid’ slot machine, then sat across from her. They swiveled their chairs to face each other. John tried to act serious, but a smile kept pulling at the corner of his eyes. “According to the Mazurie decision, Native American tribes are considered sovereign nations. Therefore as leader of the tribe, I am King of the Shotowa.”

He continued. “Believe me, when I met the Queen of England I was introduced as the leader of the Shotowa nation. Let me be clear, as soon as you drove into this parking lot you entered the nation.” He gestured toward the uniformed officers standing at the door. “We have our own army.”

She decided to play along with the flow of his logic. “You mean security guards.”

“Precisely, trained courtesy of the United States Marine Corps. The tribe issues its own currency, gaming chips made of ceramic clay, stamped with our logo. At the cashiers’ cage, our central bank, those chips can be exchanged for U.S. dollars. Anyone can find food in our three restaurants or the team member dining room for employees. An underground well supplies us with water. We provide hotel rooms for shelter. Any guest who comes to stay with us will find their basic human needs covered by the Shotowa Tribe. Never forget we are a sovereign nation. I am the King, and I anoint you Queen of the Night Hawk. 


Releases March 16, 2022. Available for Pre-order now at the following stores:

Casino Queen by Cara Bertoia | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)

Casino Queen (Night Hawk Casino Series Book 1) - Kindle edition by Bertoia, Cara. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.


Author Bio:

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 Leningrad.

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.

She would love to hear from you at:  Cara Bertoia: carabertoia@yahoo.com


For more information on Cara Bertoia, go to:

Instagram: Cara Bertoia (@carabertoia) • Instagram photos and videos

Blog: https://carabertoia.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaraBertoia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cara.bertoia

Bookbub: BookBub

Website: https://carabertoia.godaddysites.com/

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for being the very first stop on my journey for Casino Queen! Great Blog.

    ReplyDelete