She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Seriously Shifted, and reported the following:I always love seeing what the Page 69 Test produces. Here’s the very first thing on that page for Seriously Shifted.Visit Tina Connolly's website and Twitter perch.“Besides,” Sarmine said. “A classic love spell is problematic to apply. Because you want the crush to fall in love with the person paying you good money to work this spell, and not with you, the witch.”I love this exchange, and it clearly shows a couple key things about the book. One, it shows the mother-daughter banter that runs through the story between wicked witch Sarmine and her not-so-wicked daughter Cam.
“I thought you weren’t so big into people finding out we were witches.”
“I have a love-hate relationship with fame,” said Sarmine.
“Mm. And people paying you?”
“Obviously, Camellia, even witches have student loans. I worked my way through college via love spells.”
I started to say that that sounded a little naughty, but the look in her eyes dared me to make a joke. Some things you didn’t joke about to Sarmine Scarabouche.
Two, Cam spends most of this book agonizing over the ethics of how to be a good witch. She doesn’t want to be a witch at all, but she is backed into a corner in chapter one, and has to learn spells in order to save her friends. But every time she tries to help someone, a new ethical dilemma arises. For example, love potions. On page 68, she starts asking Sarmine to explain them, and by the end of page 69, she’s busy telling her mother that they sound totally unethical. (They are!)
Sarmine gives Cam a gentler, kinder, “open to possibilities” spell, but even with that, deciding if and when it’s okay to apply it, and to whom, leads Cam into a whole new tangled mess of concerns and entanglements....
My Book, The Movie: Seriously Wicked.
The Page 69 Test: Seriously Wicked.
Writers Read: Tina Connolly.
--Marshal Zeringue
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