Yesterday, I wrote about 1800 more words on the WIP. But I had to stop and do some research on medieval card games because I decided to add a detailed scene about my hero’s gambling habit – card games. I did a quick search on the internet but didn’t find much on 14th century card games so I’m going to take one I did find and sort of make it work for my story.
As I started writing, though, I discovered I needed some visual aides. I got out a deck of cards and dealt myself the hand of 13 cards I wanted so I could write it out specifically. While in the middle of this, the kiddo comes wandering in to ask me a question but pauses in the threshold of the door.
“What are you doing, Mom?”
“I’m working on something.”
“Are you playing a card game?” He steps in, examins the cards.
“Not really. I just needed something for the story I’m writing.”
I had grouped the cards by suit and then organized from lowest to highest. He was very interested in the fact that I had two of the same numbers in there and pointed it out. He pointed it out and asked me what the game was about. I laughed and told him I was making it up as I went along. I didn’t get to finish the scene – my head hurt too bad and my eyes were starting to cross. So I had to wrap it up for the night. It’s okay, though. I needed time to figure out the scene and the card game. Meanwhile, my poor heroine is locked in a cold, dark cell all alone with her ankles and wrists tied and she thinks she ‘s going crazy. My hero better hurry up and win that card game so he can get to her. haha
I was asked to do a guest blog post for one of my groups in early March, so I added that to my calendar. Now I just need to come up with a topic! Hopefully all the guest blogging I’ve been doing will pay off with lots of book sales. Oh, and I may have some news in the coming days, so stay tuned.
I’m glad it’s Friday and the weekend is here. I’m looking forward to getting my hair trimmed up on Saturday – my bangs are driving me nuts. Man and I are going to try and go downtown to see what ESPN is up to in Sundance Square. Not sure what else we’re going to do.
It’s supposed to get super cold next week – we may even have some snow flurries on Tuesday. Is it bad that I’m hoping for a snow/ice day so I can stay home and work in my jammies? 🙂
Happy weekend!
Well, the tarot cards derived from the tarochi cards of mid-15th century, which is the 1400’s, so if you do some digging into early tarot/tarochi history, that should give you some images and some idea of how it was played, and how it evolved both into modern tarot and modern card games. Most libraries have a few books on tarot history, and there are some good sites — I’m not talking Wikipedia entries, I’m talking actual history. I’ve been hunting down cards from 18th & 19th century games, but that’s too late for your story. In Bologna, tarocchi is still played with a 62 card deck (most tarot are 78 and most modern decks are 52 cards.
You could also do some research into gaming/card games in Italy and France at this time, where it was popular. Even if your story doesn’t take place there, it could have been brought to wherever you are from Italy and France.
Well, the tarot cards derived from the tarocchi cards of mid-15th century, which is the 1400’s, so if you do some digging into early tarot/tarocchi history, that should give you some images and some idea of how it was played, and how it evolved both into modern tarot and modern card games. Most libraries have a few books on tarot history, and there are some good sites — I’m not talking Wikipedia entries, I’m talking actual history. I’ve been hunting down cards from 18th & 19th century games, but that’s too late for your story. In Bologna, tarocchi is still played with a 62 card deck (most tarot are 78 and most modern decks are 52 cards.
You could also do some research into gaming/card games in Italy and France at this time, where it was popular. Even if your story doesn’t take place there, it could have been brought to wherever you are from Italy and France.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!