"Copperhead"

Tina Connolly lives with her family in Portland, Oregon, in a house that came with a dragon in the basement and blackberry vines in the attic. Her stories have appeared all over, including in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

Connolly applied the “Page 69 Test” to her new novel, Copperhead, and reported the following:

On page 69 in Copperhead (the sequel to last year's Ironskin) Helen has just gone looking for her sister Jane at Jane's flat in the slums. But the door is finally answered by someone else:

Helen realized after she spoke that it was a woman, despite the fact that she was wearing slacks. Her heavy, dark brown hair was cut in an asymmetric bob that fell across one of the mask's eyeholes, and the heavy scent of jasmine perfume lingered around her. "You must be looking for Jane," the woman said as Helen entered, stripping off her lilac gloves and blowing on her hands.

"Yes," said Helen. "I'm her sister. But–"

"Helen!" she said. "How delightful. And so fashionably brave, too." Her finger inscribed a circle around her own mask, indicating Helen's lack of one. "I think someone beat us here. Do you know if Jane's safe?"

Page 69 is a pretty great random page because besides showing Helen's determination to bravely do a lot of things she's never done before, it introduces one of my favorite characters, Frye. Frye's a flamboyant theatre actress. She was just supposed to have a small part in the book, but she waltzed in and made herself indispensable to the plot. She takes Helen under her wing—but also, believes in her. And her home—a bohemian hanging-out place for a horde of local actors and musicians—becomes a central meeting place as Helen tries to solve the mystery of Jane's disappearence, and stay one step ahead of the political group Copperhead, and the dangerous fey.

Learn more about the book and author at Tina Connolly's website, blog, and Twitter perch.

My Book, The Movie: Copperhead.

Writers Read: Tina Connolly.

--Marshal Zeringue