"Friday's Harbor"

Diane Hammond is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Seeing Stars, Hannah's Dream, Going to Bend, and Homesick Creek. She served as a spokesperson for the Free Willy Keiko Foundation and the Oregon Coast Aquarium and currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her husband and their corgis.

Hammond applied the “Page 69 Test” to her new novel, Friday's Harbor, and reported the following:

At page 69, Neva (Truman Levy’s girlfriend) is preparing to swim with killer whale Friday for the first time—mostly as seen through Truman’s eyes. It is classic Truman. He is a man who doesn’t trust that good luck will last and who worries that the fact of his deep love for Neva, alone, will court disaster.

At the top of the page, Gabriel Jump, Neva’s boss and Friday’s senior killer whale trainer, is giving Neva instructions about how to initiate this new, in-water relationship with Friday. Truman tells Gabriel,

“Just don’t let him, you know, eat her. Okay?” Truman told Gabriel. “No eating.”

“C’mon—he’s a pussycat,” said Gabriel.

“That sounds like someone’s epitaph.”

It is on this page that Neva’s trust in Friday is first tested. She will spend countless hours in the water with him after this first introduction, and while she’s aware that Friday is an animal that could badly injure if not kill her, she’d been an elephant keeper for years, and was used to keeping her fearfulness down and her vigilance up.

Learn more about the book and author at Diane Hammond's website and follow her on Facebook.

The Page 69 Test:  Hannah’s Dream.

The Page 69 Test: Seeing Stars.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Diane Hammond & Petey and Haagen.

--Marshal Zeringue