"Haggard House"

Elisabeth Rhoads is the author of Haggard House and numerous short stories. She has a B.A. in Theatre Arts and is the current Vice-President on the board of the California Writers Club, Orange County branch. Since 2021, she has been volunteer judging the Scholastic Writing Awards.

Rhoads applied the Page 69 Test to Haggard House with the following results:

From page 69:

Chapter 15

The Narrative of Adam Bolton

“Come in,” Mrs. Haworth said, taking my arm and leading me into the warm house. The dim light in the hall momentarily blinded me.

“My horse,” said I.

As if invited, the bay’s muzzle came sniffing and snorting over my shoulder. Mrs. Haworth leapt back and then laughed. She took hold of the bridle and motioned me inside.

“I’ll stable your horse,” she said, moving to put on her boots.

“I can stable her,” said I, stubbornly holding my place. “You oughtn’t go out.”

“Very well,” she said, eyeing me curiously. “Follow the house that way.” She pointed toward the back. “You’ll find a rope that leads to the barn.”

I found and followed it. Once inside, I took a deep breath of air. It smelled familiarly of sweet hay blended with manure. The Shorthorn, being unexpectedly disturbed, lowed loudly, and the Haworth’s Morgan, several hands shorter than the bay, shoved her head over the stall door to see who had interrupted her dinner. It was a small barn, easily a quarter of the size of mine, but it was large enough to store the Haworth’s buggy and sleigh.

Since page 69 starts a new chapter, it’s on the shorter side, but the nice thing is that a new chapter is always a fresh start. I think a reader opening to this page would find it a good representation of certain aspects of the novel.

First off, you immediately get the sense that this chapter is building on action that takes place previously, which is something I really made an effort to do—continuously move the plot forward.

You also get a taste of the dialogue, which, as a reader, is one of my favorite elements of a book.

This section also reveals a bit about the protagonist Adam’s character with the description after his dialogue “stubbornly holding my place.” If that doesn’t show he’s a bit stubborn, I don’t know what would!

Interestingly enough, I think that one thing that isn’t showcased on this page is the sense of foreboding throughout the novel. Because the reader is introduced to an in-progress action/adventure scene, you don’t really get the sense that this is a dark work of fiction.

So, while I would say that page 69 is an accurate representation of writing style and pace, it’s probably not the best representation of the darker/suspenseful tone of the novel as a whole.

Visit Elisabeth Rhoads's website.

--Marshal Zeringue