She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Fireproof Home for the Bride, and reported the following:Page 69 is the first page of Chapter Five: To Hold a Thing Unknown. Two very important things happen on this page: First, Emmy Nelson puts on men’s clothing in order to prove herself capable of being a farm wife. She is awoken in the middle of the night by the slamming door of a pick up truck and is already wearing a flannel shirt and overalls, as she is expecting this to happen. She pulls on her grandfather’s cardigan and then her father’s barn coat: ready to assist with the birth of a new calf on a cold winter’s night. But before she can even leave the house, her fiancé is standing at the door, asking her to make coffee and call her father. Gender roles are fanned and extinguished in this way throughout the novel, which is set in the pocket of time between Rosie the Riveter and Gloria Steinem. Second: Emmy is dreaming of a new love even as she is determined to prove herself worthy of the one assigned to her. The hope of knowing a greater world outside of her family’s expectations is already taking shape inside of her, and will eventually propel her in surprising ways.Visit Amy Scheibe's website and Twitter perch.
--Marshal Zeringue
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