Goodreads asked R.F. Bright:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

R.F. Bright I was sued. The trial ended with the judge saying, "You'll be notified in thirty days." I nearly fainted. The only thing that would calm me was to write. So I sat down and spewed as much venom as I could onto the page for thirty days. It was just a rant about injustice and so on.

The rant took shape while attending my Friday night pinball league, at a huge bowling alley. My son had introduced me to the league three years earlier, but tonight a league official asked me to tell my son to stop slamming the machines around when he lost. My son's a Pennsylvania State Trooper and is often stressed to the max, but he always has a Glock on his ankle. So I slapped him on the head and told him to stop. It was awkward and embarrassing.

The official patted me on the back and launched into the history of bad sportsmanship and the violent reactions to losing to an inanimate object; a pinball machine. The lightbulb came on when he explained that in the ultimate of poor loser evil deeds was -- The Dead Slam.

The Dead Slam requires the overwrought player to lift the machine, often by the rails or ball plunger, and slam it to the floor hard enough to kill it.

So there it is. A cathartic rant (I won the suit) and an obscure pinball trope.

flag