Books About Las Vegas

Like most people, I always thought I had a novel or two in me. But I never got a chance until my mid-forties. By that time, I had spent more than two decades in the ad biz, writing every imaginable type of promotional material: TV and radio commercials, brochures, press releases, newsletters, you name it. It paid the bills but none of it was for me. Excellent training, though. It teaches you how to get to the point fast.

I tell people that writing novels about Las Vegas is how I handled my midlife crisis. Safer than a Harley and cheaper than a divorce. Beyond that, I wanted to write books that really capture what it’s like to live in this crazy town. Most books and movies about Las Vegas are written by “carpetbaggers,” folks who come here for a week or two and think they’ve got a handle on this place. Impossible.

There’s no other city in the world like ours. We try to pretend it’s normal, and in some ways it is. But then you’ve got the gambling. In the convenience stores and Laundromats and coffee shops. Not to mention a casino on every corner. This is a company town, no less than Detroit, or Hershey, Pennsylvania. Most of us have a love/hate relationship with it. In some ways, it’s like selling your soul to the devil. I try to put some of that in my books.

My characters are all loosely based on real-life people. This town is a wealth of material. For any writer, all you have to do is keep your eyes open and take notes.

Las Vegas Blog

Ideas, Part 2

A few blogs ago, I mentioned that ideas are important, but implementation is key. People constantly tell me, "I have a million dollar idea. I just need someone to write it." That's kind of like the tongue-in-cheek slogan for the screenwritng software program Final Draft ---"Just add words." Easier said than done.

If you've read Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell or Christopher Vogler, you know there are only so many basic plot lines and characters to work with, what they call "archetypes." How many books and films are based on the Bible, the Odyssey or Gilgamesh? George Lucas, before he got all full of himself and boring, often said the Star Wars series was an old-fashioned western set in space. Likewise, Gene Roddenberry commented that Star Trek was "Wagon Train to the stars." (If you're too young to remember Wagon Train, you could look it up.) Apocalypse Now was a reworking of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. And so it goes (in the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut).