So I’ve just written the scene in my latest book in which my characters …. um, ahem … well, for the sake of keeping this post PG, let’s just say they were “playing canasta.” Now I for one have never been a fan of having characters “play canasta” in exotic or strange locals. I’ve always thought beds were nice and comfortable. Kitchen tables, not bad. In the office break room, yeah, it could work. Anything more than that starts to strain my willing suspension of disbelief.
If characters are “playing canasta” up against a tree in the Amazonian rainforest, for example, I start thinking things like, “Wow, isn’t that bark sharp?” or “Wouldn’t you be too busy watching for pumas to really enjoy what you’re doing?”
As a teenager, I remember reading a western in which the hero and heroine “played canasta” while on horse back. I’ve never been much of a rider myself, but this seemed believable to me. After all, horses are smart. They’re not going to jump off a cliff if the riders are distracted. I’m saying I’d want to do that myself, but believed it was physically possible. A few years later, I read a similar scene in a contemporary. But this time, it was on the back of a motorcycle. Seriously. And no, the guy didn’t have super powers or anything like that.
Needless to say, I put down that book. Which brings me to my point. In the scene I just wrote, my characters “play canasta” on the beach. And I’m a little worried the reader is going spend the whole scene thinking, “Yeah, but what about all that sand?”

So what do you think? Is that kind of thing distracting or romantic?