"The Outcasts"

Kathleen Kent is the author of The Heretic's Daughter and The Traitor's Wife.

Kent applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Outcasts, and reported the following:

Lucinda Carter, one of the main characters of The Outcasts, is fleeing a life of prostitution and posing as a school teacher in a rough-edged settlement on the Gulf Coast of Texas called Middle Bayou. On page 69 she is being interviewed by her prospective employer, a down on his luck, ex-plantation owner named Euphrastus Waller. Lucinda is an intelligent, resourceful woman but has a hard time maintaining her composure when handed a teaching volume entitled The American Speaker (an authentic manual of the 1870’s) with entries such as “Religion Never to be Treated with Levity” and “The Folly of Mispending Time.”

She is then taken to see her new school house for the first time, escorted by Euphrastus who stares openly at her naked fingers---unlike his accompanying wife and daughter who are both wearing gloves---and Lucinda asks him about his past as a wealthy planter.

“‘I had twelve hundred acres of cotton and tobacco in Mississippi.” (Says Euphrastus)

“Before the war.’ He stared off down the road, his eyes fixed and tormented...”

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen Kent's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: The Outcasts.

--Marshal Zeringue