Sunday, March 8, 2015

"Inherit Midnight"

Kate Kae Myers is a sign language interpreter for deaf main streamed high school students. She also runs her high school's creative writing club.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Inherit Midnight, her first novel, and reported the following:
With awful relatives who don’t hesitate to remind her she’s not a true VanDemere, 17-year-old Avery has never gotten along with her family. Then her wealthy grandmother plots an elaborate set of challenges to see which family member deserves to inherit the VanDemere wealth. With Riley—the family lawyer’s son—by her side, Avery is determined to win, because winning means freedom and the chance to learn the truth about her parents.

Page 69 of Inherit Midnight takes place in the conference room of the lawyer’s office, where all the VanDemeres are undergoing the first challenge of the family competition, a test of their knowledge about the family ancestors. The pressure is on, since the competitor with the lowest score will be eliminated. Avery is the last one to still be working on her test, and she’s sensing the usual judgmental reproach from her relatives:
I felt all their eyes on me as I wrote my best guess for another fill-in-the-blank. Daisy gave an annoyed snort. “Hurry up stupid, so we can get out of here.”

Not looking up from the test, I said, “Just a suggestion, Daisy. Stop cutting your own bangs.”

The comment shocked me. I may have thought it every time I saw her, but I never planned to say it. Someone snickered and Uncle Marshall’s voice turned cross. “Avery, that was uncalled-for.”

I circled another answer, then glanced up. “But it’s fine for her to say I’m stupid?”

Even though he looked at me in a snooty way, I knew he was surprised that I actually talked back to him. I flipped my test face down on the pile just as Mr. Tate tapped his watch. “Time’s up.”
Visit Kate Kae Myers's website.

--Marshal Zeringue