"Curdle Creek"

Yvonne Battle-Felton was born in Pennsylvania and raised in New Jersey before moving to Maryland. She currently lives in Yorkshire, England with her family. Battle-Felton holds an MA in writing from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in creative writing from Lancaster University. She is an associate teaching professor and the academic director of creative writing at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her debut novel, Remembered, won a Northern Writers’ Award, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize.

Battle-Felton applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Curdle Creek, and reported the following:

Let’s turn to page 69 to see what the test reveals. For this test, I’m using the US edition. Here we go:

…can almost hear the hooting and hollering, the chants from the townsfolk with their pre-Warding off shenanigans. Besides, in a year, Mr. Jacobs won’t even be here. Not if my nominating him has anything to do with it.

I picture Daddy running through the sheets, hot torches sizzling and popping, shadows taunting and practically taking shape as the town closes in. “Will you be scared when it’s your time?”

Daddy straightens up. Takes a step back. I didn’t mean to offend him. I drop to my knees to apologize.

“No, no,” he says. He grabs my arm tight, yanks me to my feet, still shaking his head. “You didn’t do anything wrong in asking.” The Town Hall bell rings. “You remember when you were a little girl, and we’d talk about Well Walkers down by the Creek?”

I would hate for him to move On thinking he’d raised a non-believer. “Of course I do, but they ain’t real and if they were, what they’d be doing would be wrong. When it’s my time, I’ll go like I’m called to.”

A breeze blows, carrying the smell of fresh cow dung, exhaust, and sweet-cut grass. Flies fat with all the time in the world buzz and settle one after the other near Daddy’s feet. He pats me on the back like I’m one of the girls.

“I thought you might say that. But if you change your mind, if you ever need to, see if you don’t find what you need when you need it. Don’t tell your mother. She has enough to think about right now.”

She sure does. Why else would she be sewing mourning clothes before the Calling?

If readers open Curdle Creek to page 69 they’ll get a good idea of what the book is about and some of the tensions. They’ll meet Osiria, the main character, and Osirus her father, before his name is called. They’ll see that she’s a believer of the town’s many rules and I think they get a good sense that something sinister is going on in the town of Curdle Creek. They’ll see that Osira is a willing participant in it and for me that makes it even more sinister. They might get to see some of Osirus’ doubts creeping in.

Curdle Creek is inspired by Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery." I wanted to know what a town with sinister rules might look like in a contemporary setting. The town of Curdle Creek has a strict population policy of one in, one out. It’s the law and everyone follows the law. The town has a way of coming in between people and families. Allegiances are to the rituals. In a town like this, the more people know about you the more dangerous it is. So family is the first to turn on you. I was really interested in who might follow the rules and who would break them. There’s always a rule breaker. But even in a town full of people with their own motives there is love and joy and music. There are also grudges and secrets. On page 69 Osirus has a secret. Osira doesn’t know what it is and wouldn’t believe it if she knew. All she knows is that following the rules keeps her and her loved ones safe. She believes this even after her children run off, after her husband’s name is called, after she loses the job she loves. If nothing else, Osira is a believer. At least she is on page 69.

Visit Yvonne Battle-Felton's website.

--Marshal Zeringue