"The Wedding Writer"

Susan Schneider has over 10 years of experience as a bridal magazine editor; formerly she was executive editor at Bridal Guide Magazine, a national consumer magazine for engaged women, and she was also executive editor at Conde Nast's Modern Bride and at Elegant Bride. She covers everything wedding, from fashion to flowers to food to stationery, etiquette, registry and honeymoons. She especially enjoys writing true-life wedding stories.

Schneider applied the Page 69 Test to The Wedding Writer, her debut novel, and reported the following:

The Page 69 Test made me nervous. I was actually afraid to look at the page! What if it was dull? What if I found typos? Come on, I told myself, confront what scares you!

So, page 69 of The Wedding Writer: This is exactly where my main character, Lucky, starts to deepen. Until now, we've seen her as the smart, ambitious, hardscrabble protege of her wonderful boss, the editor in chief of Your Wedding magazine. Lucky has just pushed said boss out of the way and taken her job. You could really hate this girl. However, on page 69 we find Lucky on Christmas Eve traveling in a noxious bus through the Lincoln Tunnel, on her way to visit her crazy, working class family in Clifton, New Jersey, a million miles away from Manhattan and the life Lucky is painstakingly putting together. Our heart starts to go out to her. By her feet sit glossy shopping bags packed with holiday offerings for her mother and her sister: high-end beauty products that have streamed into her office as gifts from Chanel and Dior, Guerlain and Givenchy. Her thoughts are hopeful: She wants to see the looks on their faces as she showers them with gorgeous stuff. She wants to make them happy, to see them glow in the midst of the dark little house. She knows she'll be showing off, but she's worked hard and she knows she deserves their accolades. In her mind she tots up the price of the clothes on her back: over $3,000 worth! The reader then feels a sense of dread: Lucky's hopes are way too high, and we're morbidly attracted to finding out just how bad her family is and how very wrong everything will go.

Thank you for this chance to think the scene through with more detail than I ever consciously gave it before! And yes, do confront what gives you a nervous stomach. Interesting things happen.

Learn more about the book and author at Susan Schneider's website and blog.

Visit the complete list of books in the Page 69 Test Series.

--Marshal Zeringue