"Gather Her Round"

Alex Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). He has been a reporter, editor, photographer and door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. He now lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls.

Bledsoe applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, the fifth book in his Tufa series, Gather Her Round, and reported the following:

On page 69 of Gather Her Round, protagonist Duncan Gowan has just been awakened by his mother, and his best friend Adam. With a raging hangover, he tries to recall just what he did the previous night. Duncan has no trouble, however, recalling his discovery that Adam had been sneaking around with Duncan’s girlfriend Kera, who’s been killed by wild hogs.

This page lets you into Duncan’s thoughts, and helps lay the character groundwork for what he’ll subsequently do. Duncan isn’t a bad guy, but he gives in to his worst tendencies, and digs himself deeper with each decision. His desire for revenge goes awry in unanticipated ways, and despite his efforts to move forward and do what’s right, sometimes you can’t escape the past. It’s the same inevitability that motivates characters in classic Appalachian murder ballads.

Learn more about the book and author at Alex Bledsoe's website.

The Page 69 Test: Wisp of a Thing (Tufa #2).

The Page 69 Test: Long Black Curl (Tufa #3).

My Book, The Movie: Gather Her Round (Tufa #5).

Writers Read: Alex Bledsoe.

--Marshal Zeringue