Risk

I fully admit that I love to gamble. I like to take risks, but am very good at controlling them. So if I’m headed to Vegas or go to Blackhawk, Colorado, I take the amount of cash I’m willing to lose, and if and when it’s gone, it’s gone, and I’m done. That means I also have to pace myself so I don’t blow it all in the first ten minutes I’m there.

I don’t play the “big people” games—craps, blackjack, poker, roulette; I’m a dollar slot machine kind of gal. I don’t like to think hard when I’m having fun, and playing the slots only requires the push of a button or the pull of a handle. Instead, I can people watch, or talk with the person next to me, or let my mind wander into dreamland where I win the huge jackpot. Besides, I don’t know how to play the “big people” games, so I tend to stay away from them.

My risk taking goes into other parts of my life as well. I love to trail run, and have met up with mountain lions, coyotes, bulls, skunks, and moose. I love to play around in the Forex market, trading currencies. I love to challenge myself to do new things that intrigue me.

Risk-taking spills over into my writing. My risks may seem silly to some, but they’re a big deal to me. For example, my main genres are science fiction and mysteries. I’m not a romance writer, but the last few books that I’ve written have romantic elements to them. I had to stretch myself and go where I’ve never dared before, and in the back of my mind, I kept wondering what Sister Jenkins, a former Sunday school teacher, would think. It’s not explicit sex by any means, but just the little bit I wrote had me worried.

However, if I never take the risk, I’ll never know what I can do. I’ve been rolling around a screenplay in my mind, so maybe that’s the next gamble I’ll take.

Or maybe I’ll learn the “big people” games…