In this ongoing series, we ask SF/F authors to describe a specialty in their lives that has nothing (or very little) to do with writing. Join us as we discover what draws authors to their various hobbies, how they fit into their daily lives, and how and they inform the author’s literary identity!

A number of years ago I happened to read that playing cards are descended from Tarot cards, and since both of those have particular intrinsic glamours and perils, I decided to see if I couldn’t write a book that combined them. Poker seemed to be the most dramatically fruitful use of playing cards, so I dutifully set about learning how poker is played. (At first I didn’t know whether a flush beat a straight, much less what “blind bets” were.)

[Poker, I discovered, is sort of a sit-down version of fencing.]