by Cara Bertoia

When I was younger, I always wondered what was wrong with me. Even though I had a good job, friends and a beautiful place to live I couldn’t settle down. I would pack up and move on a whim. I changed careers every few years. Then, I found this word, that described me perfectly, torschlusskpanik. The German word for the feeling that opportunities are slipping away. I didn’t just travel to places, I lived there. My wanderlust started in college. I spent a semester at the University of the Americas in Mexico. From then on I was hooked on traveling.

As a child watching Ocean’s Eleven, casinos seemed so grown up and glamorous. They were open 24 hours, which made them so alive. 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 was never lonely working in the casino. I always made good money and got to travel the world

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. He jumped ship to be with me, and we married two weeks later.

My new 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 opening up in the Coachella Valley. 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 think life in Southern California was so exciting it tempered my wanderlust. Palm Spring was two hours to the mountains, two hours from the coast, from Los Angeles and San Diego. Palm Springs was beautiful, a town in the desert filled with flowers. Not every casino is in a beautiful place, but you can find one in a beautiful place if you want to.

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. I 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.

Caroline Popov, alone, heartbroken, and deeply in debt ends up in glamorous Palm Springs, California. Native American casinos have just opened, thousands of people from all over the world came to work there, money flowed like water, and real estate became the new status symbol. And then came The Great Recession, and suddenly the partying stopped.
Alone, desperate and deeply in debt, she lands a job at the Palm Oasis Casino. She 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. As she moves up through the ranks of management, her bond with John deepens.
In the process of uncovering the underbelly of corruption her list of enemies grows. Sometimes you have to gamble like your life depends on it. With her life on the line can she pull out a win?

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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.

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.

Speed Round

The perfect writing day – Typing at the computer with a podcast on, but I am so absorbed with the story I don’t hear it.
You have a time travel machine: past or future – Definitely the future. I know what the past was like.
Morning rooster, night owl, or midday lark – Night owl an animal sacred to Native Americans. I wrote about that in Casino Queen.
If you could meet one famous person, living or dead, who would it be? Lionel Shriver my favorite author. But she kind of scares me.
Favorite Place to visit – Parma Italy, huge hams hanging from hooks and fresh parmesan cheese.
Beach, lake or mountains? Beach, I live in a high rise on the ocean in Florida. I gaze wistfully wondering what is on the other side of that ocean, as I write.

How about an 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.”