Started on my newest short story today. Drawing Dead is a poker term.
Definition: When a player is drawing to a hand that has already been beaten — this final card is irrelevant because the player has already lost.
Joe Varley is a dead-beat. 37 years old, a bike courier for an internet disease-ordering company. When he inadvertantely gets added to an underworld game of poker, he has only one choice — cheat.
And what better way to cheat than to steal a deck of cards from the greatest cheat of them all: Apollo Limberopolous. The problem, of course, is that Apollo is dead — and his deck of cards has been buried with him.
All Joe Varley has to do is break into the cemetery, dig up the body, and steal the cards. What could possibly go wrong?
“What could possibly go wrong?”
Having to play poker.
So maybe I should make it craps? A craps game ‘to the death’. Hmmm, don’t know if that would work. I’d prefer that.
Maybe I should research Craps sometime. Say somewhere close. Like Las Vegas. And if the UFC happens to be on that weekend, well, I better research that too. And rum and coke. And you can research Kahluha and milk (honestly, who drinks that?)
I hear they have this fantastical new beverage called the “Warp Core Breach” in this magical land of Las called Vegas. We should research that as well.
Also there’s a 4D Star Trek ride. Now I’m not a huge fan of Star Trek…but 4D’s? Holy shnikies! I was only aware of 3D’s, but those masterminds in the Vegas of Las have found an entire NEW D that scientists had before now never known of.
PLUS, time moves differently in Vegas. For example, if you go to bed at 3am, and get up at 7am, because of the conversion from PST to EST and back again, you actually get 8 hours sleep.
Every night.
Las Vegas. A magical place, where much research needs to be done.