She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest book, No Easy Way Out, the sequel to No Safety in Numbers, and reported the following:Page 69 is mostly from the viewpoint of Shay, one of the book’s four protagonists, and she is in bad shape. At the end of the first book in the trilogy, her sister fell ill and she suffered the loss of someone very close to her, both victims of the terrible virus set loose in the mall by a terrorist’s bomb. Now, at the end of Day Seven in the mall, Shay is faced with a long night alone in a crowd of strangers, all collected in the JCPenney, which serves as the women’s dormitory.Learn more about the book and author at Dayna Lorentz's website and blog.
Before the quarantine, Shay considered herself something of an all-around artist, and loved in particular to read and write poetry. Lost and lonely in the expanse that is the cleared JCPenney sales floor, she tries to find solace in writing:The notebook found its way into her hands. She flipped it open. She clicked the pen light on and off, on and off. No words came. Normally, she couldn’t write fast enough, the words poured so rapidly from her brain. Nothing. She put the pen tip on the page, wondering if mere proximity would inspire, but no. Still nothing. Her words had died.Unfortunately, this isn’t the end, but rather the beginning of Shay’s troubles. In this second book of the trilogy, I pushed all my characters into the danger zone, forcing them to make choices that define the rest of their struggle to survive in the quarantined mall. But though Shay is certainly down here, don’t count her out.
Read--Coffee with a Canine: Dayna Lorentz & Peter and Kerry.
My Book, The Movie: No Safety in Numbers.
Writers Read: Dayna Lorentz.
--Marshal Zeringue
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