He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Candle in the Storm (The Shadowed Path Book 2), and reported the following:Even in a fast-paced story, an author must sometimes pause to give the reader a glimpse of the terrain and hardships ahead. This is what’s happening on page sixty-nine. The tale concerns a man and a woman whose lives are devoted to Karm, the Goddess of Compassion. They are struggling against the Devourer, an entity with the powers of divinity but none of divinity’s benevolence. The man is Honus, and he’s a Sarf. As such, he’s been trained since infancy in the martial arts. A formidable warrior, Honus serves a holy person. That person is Yim. She was formerly his slave, but she has become his master.Read chapter one of Candle in the Storm, and learn more about the book and author at Morgan Howell's website.
On page sixty-nine, they are fleeing into a trackless wilderness after their first encounter with a deadly and implacable foe. Although an agent of the Devourer has sent Gatt, he’s a Sarf like Honus. Gatt has been convinced that slaying Yim will honor Karm, and he pursues this task with the inflexibility and single-mindedness of the righteous. The Devourer has bestowed upon him a supernatural knowledge of the landscape, and the Devourer’s agent has given him lethal venom to paint upon his sword blade.
Even as Yim flees, she fears that whatever path they take will end in death. She’s right. Their flight will conclude in battle. Someone will die, and that will be the novel’s first major twist.
Check out the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
