The new Lucky adventure, out now and her first in a year, is a novella, Lucky Flash. As with the other novellas, I like to try something a little different, push a few boundaries I wouldn’t in the full-length adventures.
In Lucky Flash, Lucky is joined by her best friend, Flash, a down and dirty investigative reporter in Vegas. Both tell the story as they work to uncover a theft ring stealing the icons of Vegas’ music history, recover a huge diamond ring given to the Big Boss by Liberace himself, and save some of Teddie’s treasured collectibles from disappearing into the Black Market.
Lucky’s old problems with men, her mother, and her heart remain although… there is a bit of a break-through. But I’m not telling.
This story is the first time I’ve tried using dual storytellers and it was more fun than I thought. Flash is very different from Lucky although with a shared sass. Learning her voice, her heart was great fun. And she surprised me along the way.
And it was fun to look at Lucky through another character’s filter. In that way, she becomes a more fully fleshed-out person, although I don’t think she’d like that choice of words.
One of the things that happened in Vegas, something that sort of flew under the radar, was Wayne Newton’s financial disaster. Watching it unfold, I felt like creditors were stripping away, piece by piece, Vegas’ music history. Couple that with Liberace’s home falling into a horrible state, and Elvis not showing his face despite the belief he just might still be alive, and I felt compelled to bring a little bit of that magic back to life, if you will.
And, who knew, but an Englishman is restoring Liberace’s home to its former glorious kitsch.
No word on what’s going to happen with Wayne Newton, which is really hard on each of us who remembers him as Mr. Las Vegas.
After all the turmoil in my life that last year moving my kids from Vegas to California and finding myself spending more time in Texas to handle family matters, it was nice to get back to Vegas.
And, as I get older, I tend to cherish the treasures of the past a bit more, while squeezing the juice out of the present. I hope you do too.
And I hope you like this little Lucky adventure. And, I hope you find Flash, as one of my friends said, “Crazy but terrific fun.”
I’m hard at work on another Vegas adventure, a full-length novel entitled Lucky Break, will be out by the end of November. And I plan to release Lucky stories more often—two to three times a year.
Vegas is just too much fun, especially with Lucky leading the charge.
Buy Lucky Flash at Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo
