"Keeping Lucy"

T. Greenwood is the author of thirteen novels. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. She has won three San Diego Book Awards. Five of her novels have been BookSense76/IndieBound picks. Bodies of Water was finalist for a Lambda Foundation award.

Greenwood applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Keeping Lucy, and reported the following:

While Keeping Lucy is a novel about a mother’s fierce and heroic efforts to save her child from the horrific institution to which she was whisked away as a newborn, it is also very much about one woman’s staking claim to her own life.

Keeping Lucy is set in 1971. When we think of the early days of the women’s movement, it is the images of activism that we might conjure: the bra burning, the marches and protests. August 26, 1971 was the first Women’s Equality Day. However, on that day women still could not have a credit card in their name, get a legal abortion, be guaranteed to keep a job if they got pregnant, engage in military combat, or take legal action against sexual harassment. Additionally, in 1971, there was no such thing as spousal rape. These are basic rights denied to women, never mind all the other smaller ways that women were oppressed.

Ginny Richardson is not at the forefront of the movement, by any stretch of the imagination, but through the efforts to protect her daughter, she finds her own voice and autonomy and is able to stand up for not only her daughter for herself against the powerful men who have other plans for her and her daughter.

On page 69 of the novel, Ginny has defied her husband’s wishes and checked her two-year-old daughter out of the “school” where she has lived since birth. The first thought is to take her (along with Ginny’s son) to an amusement park, but she has limited cash in her pocketbook.

Ginny had brought along the cash she kept in the bread box, the weekly allowance Ab doled out, a practice that had initially made her feel strange, but to which she’d gradually grown accustomed if not resigned. When she’d still lived at home with her mother, she’d overseen their finances. She’d done the bills, written checks for all their monthly expenses. She was used to budgeting – if only for the two of them – and accustomed to having her own money. And while Ab was always generous, she could never quite get past the idea that she had to ask him for money simply for the things their family needed. She’d told him once how uncomfortable it made her, and the next day he’d offered to let her determine the amount. “Whatever you need,” he’d said, missing the point entirely.

In writing this novel, it was important to me not to demonize her husband. In many ways, he too falls prey to the patriarchal system. Ginny loves her husband, and I believe that Ab is a good man. They are both struggling against a system which has clear expectations for both men and women.

Visit T. Greenwood's website.

Writers Read: T. Greenwood.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Flight Girls"

Noelle Salazar was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, where she's been a Navy recruit, a medical assistant, an NFL cheerleader and always a storyteller. As a novelist, she has done extensive research into the Women Airforce Service Pilots, interviewing vets and visiting the training facility—now a museum dedicated to the WASP—in Sweetwater, Texas. When she’s not writing, she can be found dodging raindrops and daydreaming of her next book. Salazar lives in Bothell, Washington, with her husband and two children.

She applied the Page 69 Test to The Flight Girls, her first novel, and reported the following:

How appropriate that page 69 of The Flight Girls so perfectly encapsulates so much about Audrey's arc in this story.

Audrey Coltrane is a woman quite evolved for the era. She doesn't pine for a husband. Kids are not part of the future she imagines. All she wants is to fly - in every sense of the word - but mostly in planes. She craves freedom, self-sufficiency, and to live life on her own terms. But she is also a bit narrow-minded in the beginning of the story, unwilling to bend or see how life could be even sweeter were she to open herself up to love. I love how she stays true to who she is, but eventually gives in to the natural evolution of the human condition. To love and be loved isn't weakness or giving in - it is to see your wings spread fully, your glide becomes smoother, and your world that much bigger and fuller.

Visit Noelle Salazar's website.

Writers Read: Noelle Salazar.

My Book, The Movie: The Flight Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Reticence"

Gail Carriger has multiple New York Times bestsellers and over a million books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes comedies of manners mixed with urban fantasy (and sexy stuff as G. L. Carriger). Her best known books include the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea.

Carriger applied the Page 69 Test to Reticence, the fourth and concluding volume of The Custard Protocol Series, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Quesnel was amiable enough not to care about social standing. He swirled around with one of Lord Akeldama’s more impressively dressed drones.

Percy shrugged. Ah well, they were departing London soon. He suspected Rue of intentionally scandalmongering. If she could not produce the best wedding London ever saw, she could at least produce the most outrageous.

Only one other thing of note occurred, and had Percy not been on guard because of Aunt Softy’s presence he would never have noticed. Lord Akeldama, having finished their set, led Percy over to the punch bowl. As if Percy were an overtaxed young lady in need of refreshment. Percy trailed after him, obligingly.

Primrose met them, wringing her hands. “Well, that was an excessive display.” She said it to Percy, because he was the only one she could criticize to his face.

Percy stuffed a biscuit shaped like a hedgehog into his mouth as an excuse not to answer.

Tasherit, Rue, and Quesnel joined them.

“Progress never did come easily to high society, sweetling.” The vampire’s eyes crinkled in amusement.

“I hardly see how dancing can change the course of civilization,” snapped Prim.

“Give it a chance,” replied Rue, grinning.

“Come now, little one, it’s fun. Dance with me next?” Tasherit nudged up against Prim coquettishly.

Primrose batted at her lover in perturbation. “What if Mother finds out about this?”

Percy rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t that the point? We can’t all of us be accused of deviant behaviour at once.”

“Of course we can! This is Mother we’re talking about.” Prim looked at Lord Akeldama. “You’ll be blamed.”

“Indubitably, my pearl. Mr Lefoux, would you care to dance?”

“Charmed, I’m sure, but I think I want my bride back in my arms.”

What’s just happened prior to this is that a bunch of same sex couples have danced together at a large society wedding in a steampunk Victorian London, 1896. Percy’s friend Rue is responsible. It caused wide scale hysterics and a great deal of social discomfort that I use as a writer both for comedic effect and cultural commentary. Percy, the POV character, opens this page with his suspicions as to Rue’s motivations for all this drama, as well as those of others at the wedding.

The rest of the page has set up dialogue featuring different members of the crew of Percy’s airship. From an author’s perspective it’s there to show interactions between familiar characters (this is the 4th book in the series) as well as affection and familial support networks in operation.

This dialogue also sets up a major character confrontation for Percy to observe that reveals background history on one popular character that readers of my world have been requesting for a really long time. In fact, this scene will tie to the epilogue for this book, and indeed the ending for the entire series. Not to mention a few of my other works. In other words this page is the set up for a pretty significant fan service moment to come.

I swear it wasn’t intentional that this be page 69.

Learn more about the book and author at Gail Carriger's website.

The Page 69 Test: Prudence.

My Book, The Movie: Prudence.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Fire Sparkling"

Julianne MacLean is a USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including the bestselling contemporary women’s fiction novel The Color of Heaven. She has sold more than 2 million books in North America alone, and her novels have been translated into many foreign languages. MacLean is a four-time RITA finalist with Romance Writers of America and has won numerous awards, including the Booksellers’ Best Award and the Book Buyers Best Award. She loves to travel and has lived on the west coast of New Zealand, in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, and in London, England. She lives in Nova Scotia with her husband and daughter, and is a dedicated member of Romance Writers of Atlantic Canada.

MacLean applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Fire Sparkling, and reported the following:

From page 69:

While I stood at the counter chopping leftover chicken, I felt like a fool for trusting Malcolm so completely. I’d leaped into the relationship without the slightest hesitation, believing that I’d hit the jackpot with a man like him. But how could I have missed that cheating side of him? Was there something wrong with me?

What a stupid question. Of course there was.

I froze and set the knife down, bowed my head, and closed my eyes to brace myself for the familiar wave of guilt that was about to hit me. I was well acquainted with it by now and could always feel it approaching. I could expect it to crash over me with a pounding force and make me relive the night of my mother’s death and accept the punishing weight of that memory, because no one should be allowed to get away with something like that and not pay for it somehow. Right?

I had been only nineteen when my mother died, and though everyone said it was the cancer treatments that killed her, I knew it was my fault.

Is this passage representative of the rest of the book? Honestly, no it’s not, and here’s why: The novel has a dual timeline with sections devoted to a female character in contemporary times, and other sections that take place in London and France during World War II. So, no matter what happens on page 69, it’s not going to be representative of the entire book, because the two time periods and situations are vastly different.

In this passage, the contemporary character (Gillian) is dealing with challenges in her life, as she just caught her fiancé cheating and she still harbors guilt over the death of her mother. These are typical issues for women’s fiction novels and most fans of that genre would probably be drawn to this. But Gillian is also trying to reach an understanding about her 96-year-old grandmother, who she just discovered had an affair with a high-ranking German Nazi at the start of the war and kept it secret all their lives. It’s quite possible that this man might even be Gillian’s real grandfather.

That question is the main thrust of the novel: uncovering the truth about what really happened during the war.

So, in this case, if a reader sampled this page alone, he or she would have no idea what the book was really about or where it goes from there. Fans of World War II fiction would probably take a pass on the book, based on this alone. So, I’m glad there’s a back-cover blurb to convey the bigger picture!

Visit Julianne MacLean's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Miraculous"

Jess Redman has wanted to be an author since age six, when her poem “I Read and Read and Read All Day” appeared in a local anthology. It took a little while though. First, she did things like survive middle school, travel around the world, become a therapist, and have two kids.

But then finally, her childhood dream came true! Her middle-grade debut, The Miraculous, was released last month. Her second middle-grade novel, Quintessence, will be out on July 28, 2020.

Redman applied the Page 69 Test to The Miraculous and reported the following:

In this part of the story, Wunder is going to return to the cemetery for the third day in a row. On the first day, he was there for the funeral of his baby sister who passes away after just eight days of life. At the cemetery, he met Faye, a cape-wearing fan of the paranormal who recently lost her grandfather.

The next day, Wunder returned to the cemetery, which he calls “the most unmiraculous place of all.” You see, Wunder was a miracologist. He collected stories of inexplicable and magical events in a journal that he called The Miraculous. He was sure that his sister would be another of those miracles. But she wasn’t. And so Wunder went to the cemetery and left The Miraculous there.

And now, on page 69, Wunder wants to return to the cemetery. He left The Miraculous, but there are other things happening in the woods and in the graveyard—possibly magical things that he wants to know more about. And Faye, who is always up for a cemetery visit, wants to join him.

Wunder says he’s not trying to achieve enlightenment, but in many ways he is. Wunder wants to know why this terrible thing has happened. He wants to know how he can make sense of it. He wants to know what he can believe in now.

That’s what the story is about. It’s about finding the light. It’s about journeying alongside one another through sadness. It’s about how in this world of dark and bright, of grief and miracles, we are healed by connection.

Visit Jess Redman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"An Unsettled Grave"

Bernard Schaffer is an author, full-time police detective, and father of two. As a twenty-year veteran police officer, he’s a court recognized narcotics expert, a graduate of the prestigious Top Gun Undercover Law Enforcement Training Program, child forensic interviewer, and possesses a Class A certification in the use of wiretaps. A child actor, Schaffer appeared in multiple television commercials, performances at the Walnut Street Theater (where his picture still hangs in one of the upper, darker corners), Saturday Night Live, and the Nickelodeon series Don’t Just Sit There. Schaffer is the author of multiple independently-published books and series, including Superbia, Grendel Unit, Guns of Seneca 6, and more. A die-hard supporter of the Philadelphia Union, he is proud to say that he’s never been ejected from a game. Yet.

Schaffer applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, An Unsettled Grave, and reported the following:

Hell no page 69 is not representative of the entire book. I hate that stupid test. I don't even like writing synopses or product descriptions of books.

My work in the Santero and Rein Thriller Series examines what happens to good people who willingly thrust themselves into the abyss. They absorb interactions with true evil. Child molesters. Serial killers. Predators. The toll it takes on them, psychologically, is something I've seen and felt firsthand. It changes you. Some of us get consumed by it, some of us find a way to carry on.

Visit Bernard Schaffer's website.

My Book, The Movie: An Unsettled Grave.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Last Astronaut"

David Wellington, aka D. Nolan Clark, aka David Chandler is the author of over twenty novels of action, suspense, and drama.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Last Astronaut, and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Last Astronaut is the exact moment the story kicks into high gear. Up until this point we’ve only been exposed to a cosmic mystery. A giant, alien rock is hurtling toward Earth. It hasn’t responded to any signals, and we can’t even tell if it’s being guided by an intelligent hand.

NASA sends up a spacecraft to meet the thing. So does a commercial spaceflight company, called KSpace. KSpace got there first, embarrassing NASA and maybe compromising the entire mission. Commander Sally Jansen, of the NASA ship, tries to contact the KSpace ship, to suggest they work together to plumb the alien ship’s secrets and mysteries.

Except now the KSpace ship isn’t responding to signals, either. It’s been hanging motionless near the alien ship for nearly a day, and there’s been no word that whole time.

Did something happen to the KSpace crew? Did they encounter the aliens? Are they still alive? Jansen has orders not to intervene or investigate. She’s got her own mission to carry out, and the fate of the KSpace astronauts is none of her business. It could even get NASA in legal trouble if she goes over there. There’s just one problem.

Twenty years ago, Sally Jansen was supposed to go to Mars. Her ship had to turn back after an accident left one of her crew dead. She has blamed herself, ever since, for what happened. She can’t live with more lives lost on her watch.

So on an EVA outside her own spaceship, she unhooks her safety line and starts flying over to the KSpace ship. She figures she’ll just look in the windows. Knock on the hatch, make sure they’re okay over there.

That’s what happens on page 69.

What she finds leads to a saga of fear and wonder. A story that’s equal parts science fiction and blood-curdling horror. It will take her and her own crew inside the alien spacecraft—a place beyond any human experience, a place no human being could comprehend. It’s a trip not everybody will return from, and one that will make Sally Jansen confront her darkest self—and how much of her humanity she’s willing to sacrifice, to find redemption.

Learn more about the book and author at David Wellington's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Arrangement"

Robyn Harding is the internationally bestselling author of The Arrangement, Her Pretty Face, and The Party which was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel. She has also written four novels of contemporary women’s fiction, a young adult novel, and a comedic memoir with an environmental focus. Harding is the screenwriter and executive producer of the independent film, The Steps which premiered at TIFF and was the closing gala film at the Miami International Film Festival. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her husband, two kids, and a seven-pound dog with no teeth.

Harding applied the Page 69 Test to The Arrangement and reported the following:

The Arrangement is the story of a young art student in New York City, struggling to stay afloat. Desperate for money for rent, tuition, and to pay back her snarky roommates, Natalie Murphy goes online and finds a sugar daddy. On page 69, she wakes up after her first “sugar date”, embarrassed and hung over. Her nerves got the best of her and she drank way too much. Natalie’s pretty sure she didn’t get paid.

“Retrieving her battered canvas wallet, she opened it and peered inside. Three ones and a five. Disappointment crushed her chest. Why hadn’t she gotten the money up front, like Ava had suggested?”

This is an interesting representation of the story because a strong theme in the book is: can you buy love? When one person pays another for their “affection” (which is code for sex – at least eventually – on sugar dating sites), there is an inherent lack of respect. Many people in sex work are abused or degraded. But sometimes, people find real love despite the monetization of their relationship. There are a few famous examples of women marrying their sugar daddies. I recently had an Uber driver tell me that, when he was a successful businessman, he was a sugar daddy. When he lost everything, his sugar baby stuck by his side and is still with him today!

In The Arrangement, the sugar daddy and sugar baby have a complex relationship and don’t always view it through the same lens. It doesn’t help that he fails to mention the fact that he has a wife. And, of course, the book is a thriller. So, this sugar relationship is going to go very, very badly.

Visit Robyn Harding's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Robyn Harding & Ozzie.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Escape Room"

Megan Goldin is the author of The Escape Room, a corporate thriller about colleagues who get trapped in an elevator with a killer.

She applied the Page 69 Test to the novel and reported the following:

Here's what's on Page 69 of The Escape Room.

"Everyone, say hello to Sara," Vincent stood behind me with his hand on my right shoulder in what he probably intended to be a reassuring gesture. The team was spread around a large table in the meeting room, immersed in work.

As Vincent's words registered, their eyes shifted from their laptop screens to me. I stood hesitantly in the doorway. I secretly cringed under their piercing scrutiny. It gave me the awkward new-girl-at school feeling.

"Hi Sara." I turned with relief in the direction of the first friendly voice in the room.

"I'm Sam." Sam sat on a black swivel chair with his arms crossed and a cynical twist to his lips that belied the friendly tone of his voice. He had closely cropped blond hair that you could tell would be curly if he let it grow, and large blue eyes that never missed a thing.

To give some context: Sara Hall meets her colleagues at Stanhope & Sons for the first time on this page which is the first of a chapter. On the next pages, we are introduced to the members of the team and given a sense of who they are in the pecking order. On the surface, it is a close-knit team, but underneath, there is plenty of tension and rivalry between the members. To succeed in their jobs, the team members all need to work together. Yet at the same time, they are playing a zero-sum game: their success must be at the expense of other members of the team. They can't all get promoted and they can't all get big bonuses so the team members are both teammates and bitter rivals.

The Escape Room is divided into two narratives. The first narrative is the narrative of what happens a few years after the scene described on Page 69 when the characters are trapped in an elevator during a team-building exercise. The second narrative is the perspective of Sara Hall, a colleague who worked with the team years earlier. Page 69 is representative of the Sara Hall perspective, which is essentially a flashback narrative that explains why the characters are trapped in the elevator and why things turn deadly when they learn each other's secrets. Woven together, both narratives tell the story.

Visit Megan Goldin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Malibu Bluff"

Janna King is a screenwriter, playwright, and director. She has written TV movies and series for Lifetime and The Hallmark Channel, King World and more. Her two short films, “Mourning Glory” and “The Break Up,” which she wrote, directed and produced, were official selections at several film festivals.

King's debut novel is The Seasonaires.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Malibu Bluff, and reported the following:

Malibu Bluff is the follow-up to my debut novel, The Seasonaires which centers on six young brand ambassadors for Lyndon Wyld, a fictional clothing line. These twenty-somethings are hired to live the dream life in beautiful spots around the world during vacation seasons. On Page 69, new seasonaires peruse the gorgeous Malibu bluff-top manse that’s been rented for them, divvying up oceanfront bedrooms. Mia is the sole holdover from the previous summer in Nantucket, having won the opportunity to return because she racked up the most social media followers. After the tragedy that occurred last season, Mia, a fledgling clothing designer, was hesitant to join the team in Malibu, so her chic tigress boss sweetened the deal with a contract for her own collection and an extravagant work space in the house.

Mia is simultaneously awed by the space and a bit uncomfortable that her accommodations are better than those of the other seasonaires, save for Brandon who is producing Lyndon Wyld’s digital channel. Brandon also happens to be the son of Lyndon’s media mogul business partner, so he is accustomed to preferential treatment like the studio that’s been set up for him. He teases Mia about her wholesome goal to productively “work.” Though he is ambitious in his own right, with a lot to prove to his famous father, he understands the crux of the seasonaires’ job.

“Work is play and play is work here. You know that,” he reminds Mia. His statement is true because the group is being handsomely paid to wear great clothes, bask in the sun, hang out at L.A.’s hot spots, and party with celebrities - making sure to post for their followers and fans. The digital channel has been added as extra entertainment, capturing all their exploits. However, like much of reality TV and social media, the line is blurred between what is real and what is staged. The novel explores the dangers of that ambiguity and the conundrum of image creation while offering up some juicy beach read drama.

Visit Janna King's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Janna King & Melvin and Olive.

The Page 69 Test: The Seasonaires.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Chelsea Girls"

Fiona Davis began her career in New York City as an actress, where she worked on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in regional theater. After getting a master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she fell in love with writing, leapfrogging from editor to freelance journalist before finally settling down as an author of historical fiction. She's a graduate of the College of William & Mary and is based in New York City.

Davis applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Chelsea Girls, and reported the following:

Boy did this test ring true. In the book, actress Hazel Ripley has been working on a play about her experiences during WWII as a USO tour performer, but is having trouble. She can’t seem to make it work, and her overbearing mother doesn’t help things any. They get into a big fight, and Hazel seeks refuge in the Chelsea Hotel, known for being a hotbed of political and artistic intrigue. There, she’s finally inspired, and thinks about what the Chelsea Hotel means to her:

This place was a living, breathing muse, one that coddled its guests and kept them warm while they scribbled away. Or, from the sound of the piano she’d heard in the hallway and the artwork in the lobby, composed or sang or painted. … For now, though, in the quiet of her room, she would take it page by page.

Visit Fiona Davis's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Address.

My Book, The Movie: The Masterpiece.

My Book, The Movie: The Chelsea Girls.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Searching for Sylvie Lee"

Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in twenty countries and taught in universities, colleges and high schools across the world. An instant New York Times bestseller, Searching for Sylvie Lee was selected by Jenna Bush Hager for the Today Show Book Club, Emma Roberts for the Belletrist Book Club, O, The Oprah Magazine for its summer reading list and called “this summer’s book club sensation” by Entertainment Weekly.

Kwok applied the Page 69 Test to Searching for Sylvie Lee and reported the following:

From page 69:

The room simmered with flickering shadows. The lights were off to conserve electricity, as was the case in most Dutch homes. The heat was set low as well—Thick sweater day: why not wear one, it is better for the environment and your energy bill. My feet knew where to slip off and leave my shoes. My arms recalled the coat hangers that jangled against each other. My hand reached for the light switch half-hidden behind the old Vermeer print on the wall without a thought, even though I no longer had to go on tiptoe.

How I had dreaded the mornings, the time Helena and Willem were home before leaving for the restaurant and returning late in the night. The afternoons and evenings had been lovely, only me and Lukas and Grandma, eating our simple meals of fresh rice in the lamplight instead of the rich restaurant fare Willem and Helena brought back. Most days, I was in bed before they came home. I made sure of it.

But there had been good times with Helena too. Days when she took me shopping for dresses, bought me colored elastics for my hair. One winter, the Vecht River had frozen over. I was amazed to find it packed with people I recognized as neighbors. I hugged the shore, expecting the ice to crack and swallow everyone whole. It was one of my nightmares, to be trapped underneath the surface of the water. But earlier that morning, Helena had rooted around in the garage until she found pairs of skates for Willem, Lukas, me, and herself.

In some ways, this page 69 from Searching for Sylvie Lee is quite reflective of the novel because it’s told in Sylvie’s voice as she returns to the Dutch house where she grew up. Chinese American Sylvie had been sent as a baby to her Grandma, who had already emigrated from China to the Netherlands with their cousins Helena and Willem and their child Lukas, because Sylvie’s working class parents couldn’t afford to take care of her.

When the novel opens, we quickly find out that Sylvie has returned to the Netherlands to see Grandma, who is very ill, and that Sylvie has disappeared. Sylvie’s younger sister Amy, who has always been in the brilliant Sylvie’s shadow, has to pull herself together to try to find out what happened to Sylvie. As Amy flies to the Netherlands to find clues, we also hear Sylvie’s voice backdated by a month, so we can also see Sylvie’s experiences for ourselves.

This page shows the conflicted feelings Sylvie has as she returns to the house where her cousin Helena had been unkind to her as a child and the reader wonders what, if anything, Helena had to do with Sylvie’s disappearance.

Visit Jean Kwok's website.

--Marshal Zeringue