"Beach Plum Island"

Holly Robinson is a journalist, a celebrity ghost writer, and the author of The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter: A Memoir (Crown 2010), the self-published novel Sleeping Tigers (2011), and two novels published by NAL Penguin, The Wishing Hill (2013) and Beach Plum Island (April 2014). She holds a B.A. in biology from Clark University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Robinson lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts with her husband and their five children, where they are fixing up a 1700's Colonial one shingle at a time.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Beach Plum Island and reported the following:

If I were a stranger picking up Beach Plum Island and flipping it open to page 69, I wouldn't be able to resist going to the bottom of page 68, since the first line on page 69 is a sentence fragment. Starting there, I would know this much about the plot: the death of a father has caused a rift between two half sisters, and the older sister, Elaine, is writing an apology note to Gigi, her teenaged half sister, for something awful Elaine did at their father's funeral because Elaine was so drunk.

Page 69 demonstrates some of the book's emotional tension, and certainly shows us that Elaine is a snide, imperfect character. However, this particular passage doesn't spell out the central conflict in Beach Plum Island, which is sparked by the mysterious deathbed confession of a father to his daughters about a brother they never knew they had. It also doesn't reveal that the book is plotted like a tightly-paced mystery, with the sisters frantically searching for clues about the whereabouts of that missing brother.

Here's how page 69 starts (cheating by adding the last line of p. 68):

Entitled brat or not, Gigi couldn't find it easy, losing her father at fifteen.

Their father.

Elaine sighed and started over on a fresh sheet of paper.

Dear Katy and Gigi,

I am sorry for your loss. Dad was a powerful presence in all our lives. I know he was a good husband and father to you, and that you were close to him in ways I never was. I guess maybe that's why it hit me so hard when he died: I never really got to know him, and I will regret that forever.

I want to apologize for acting the way I did at the service. I would like to blame my atrocious behavior on the wine. (Here, Elaine barely refrained from adding, “Which could have been better, by the way.”) But I hold myself fully accountable for my outburst. You were trying to honor my father with the memorial service and I greatly appreciate the effort you made. You were generous to include us, and I thank you.

I hope things will get easier for you over time. I promise to behave more like an adult if our paths ever chance to cross in the future.

Sincerely yours,
Elaine Barrett

Then, before she could change her mind or spend any more time fretting, Elaine neatly folded the paper in thirds, slid it into a matching envelope, and put a stamp on it.

Learn more about the book and author at Holly Robinson's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Wishing Hill.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Summer of Letting Go"

Gae Polisner is the award-winning author of The Pull of Gravity. She is a family law mediator by trade but a writer by calling. She lives on Long Island with her husband and two sons. When she’s not writing, she can be found in a pool or, in warmer weather, in her wet suit in the open waters of Long Island Sound. Her new book, The Summer of Letting Go, is her second novel for teen readers.

Polisner applied the Page 69 Test to The Summer of Letting Go and reported the following:

The minute I turned to page 69 in my book, I was sure you started this feature just for me (thanks!). In a moment, you’ll understand why.

Suffice it to say, page 69 is the place where Part II of my book opens, and if I had had to choose on my own, a single paragraph to represent the story, I might not have been able to do it any better. There may not be a more representative page of my book.

The Summer of Letting Go tells the story of almost-16-yr-old Francesca “Beans” “Frankie” Schnell who, four years ago, witnessed her baby brother, Simon, drown. Guilty and broken, Francesca has hunkered down in the shadows of her life, resolved to play second fiddle to her dead brother’s memory and to her best friend Lisette, a blonde bubbly beauty Francesca lives vicariously through. That is, until she meets a young boy named Frankie Sky who bears an uncanny resemblance to Simon. Frankie Sky brings humor and hope to Francesca’s life, and helps her to step out of the shadows, whether or not she solves the riddle of his connection to her brother.

Here’s the opening to page 69:

As I’m about to knock on the Schylers’ front door, it opens.

Frankie stands there in blue Batman underpants and a Superman T- shirt with a red towel wrapped around his shoulders like a cape. For a second I’m shaken because his face is more my brother’s than I remember. But then he smiles and it makes me feel happy inside, as if a piece of Simon is right here in front of me.

That moment is the second in the story where Francesca finds herself in Frankie Sky’s presence, and, you can see, pretty much the crux of the story. There is an instant connection between them, one that might be more overwhelming, unbearable even, if not for Frankie’s sense of humor. Indeed, it’s his silly lightness of being that allows Francesca to open the door in the first place – both literally, and figuratively to the rest of her life.

I’m about to tell him he shouldn’t open the door for strangers, but he says, “Is okay, Frankie, I seed you from the window.” Then he pulls me in and quickly closes the door. Like he’s afraid that, otherwise, I might leave.

It’s Frankie’s trust in Francesca – his wish for her to stay – that sets her on a path toward believing she might have good to offer the world, and that suffering great loss doesn’t mean you can’t ever trust to hold on again, even as you figure out how to let go.

Visit Gae Polisner's website.

Writers Read: Gae Polisner.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Wrecked"

Tricia Fields lives in a log cabin on a small farm with her husband and two daughters. She was born in Hawaii but has spent most of her life in small town Indiana, where her husband is an investigator with the state police. A lifelong love of Mexico and the desert southwest lead to her first book, The Territory, which won the Tony Hillerman Award for Best Mystery. Her second novel, Scratchgravel Road, was followed up by her newest book, Wrecked, released this month. She is currently working on the fourth book in the series, Fire Break, featuring border town Chief of Police, Josie Gray.

Fields applied the Page 69 Test to Wrecked and reported the following:

As was the case with my other two books, page 69 is a pivotal scene, and introduces one of my favorite bad guys, Wally Follet. At this point in the story, Chief of Police Josie Gray has discovered that her longtime love interest, Dillon Gray, is not only missing, but his secretary was murdered in his office. When Dillon didn’t show up for a planned event, Josie let petty jealousies keep her from checking his house and office. She imagined him spending the night with his pretty secretary, Christina. When Josie discovers Christina’s body in Dillon’s office the next morning she realizes her insecurities could have cost the woman her life. To further complicate matters, she discovers that Dillon’s disappearance may be connected to her past involvement with a Mexican cartel.

In the excerpt below, Josie and her partner Otto have discovered a key player in the murder of Christina and the disappearance of Dillon. Wally Follet, who appears to be a sleazy salvage dealer, has connections to the Medrano’s, a Mexican cartel with a vendetta to serve against Josie. Wally Follet is connected to a con game that is worth millions and could cost Josie everything that matters in her life.

Excerpt from page 69:

The office was cool and the shattered glass had been swept away. Christina’s chair had been removed and taken to the police station as evidence. It didn’t change the horror of what had happened, but it was a relief not to look at the bloodstained chair.

.........

After spending another fifteen minutes checking through desk drawers and searching closets, they were ready to go back to the department to begin sifting through documents. Before they left, Josie found the key to Dillon’s post office box in his desk drawer and took it with her. She occasionally picked up his mail and knew that his box was number 246.

Josie locked up the office and Otto drove to the post office, where she retrieved the mail with no issue. Seated in the car again, Josie flipped through the pile of bills and came across a letter addressed to Dillon from the United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas.

“This looks like a summons for federal court,” she said.

He glanced at the envelope. “Better open it.”

Josie quickly read through the letter and said, “Dillon received a summons for the district court in El Paso. The case is against a Walter Frank Follet.”

“Wally Follet,” Otto said. “That’s one of Dillon’s clients. I remember seeing the name in the database.”

“He runs the salvage yard. Wally’s Folly.”

Otto nodded and glanced at Josie. “I know who Wally is. I’ve never had a run-in with him, but I can’t imagine him ever winning businessman of the year.”

Josie turned in her seat and looked at him. “A federal indictment? Motive for a murder and kidnapping?”

“If a guy like Wally thought it would keep him out of jail? Absolutely.”

Learn more about the book and author at Tricia Fields's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Territory.

The Page 69 Test: Scratchgravel Road.

Writers Read: Tricia Fields.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Before My Eyes"

Caroline Bock has a master of fine art degree in fiction writing from The City College of New York. Prior to focusing on her writing career, she worked as a cable television executive, including as the senior vice president, marketing and public relations at IFC and BRAVO. Her debut young adult novel, Lie (St. Martin’s Press, 2011), inspired by a brutal hate crime, was critically acclaimed and her new young adult, Before My Eyes (St. Martin’s Press), just released in February, also takes inspiration from recent new events. Before My Eyes is about teens, mental illness and gun violence at the end of a long, hot summer. Bock currently lives in Maryland with her husband and two kids.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Before My Eyes and reported the following:

Much of the novel takes places at a fictional town beach on the south shore of Long Island, New York along the Atlantic Ocean. On this steaming-hot Friday at eleven in the morning—the days and time are listed at every chapter heading in this literary thriller—seventeen-year-old Claire has lied to her father and gone with her six-year-old sister, Izzy, to the beach. Claire has been taking care of her sister for months, ever since their mother had a stroke, and just wants a day of fun in the ocean and sand. But at this moment, on p. 69, Izzy has run ahead through the beach-going throngs, and Claire, in a panic, shouts, “Izzy” and sees this:

I catch my reflection in a pair of mirrored sunglasses. I look like I’m falling apart, hair out of my ponytail, beach bag over-flowing. He tilts his head, seeing me, watching me watch myself. In the reflection of his sunglasses, I’m all wide brown eyes. I’m distorted, elongated; but he doesn’t turn his head or take off the glasses, and I wonder if he’s looking for someone, too. He has a shaved head and a cold grin.

Claire can’t find Izzy in the crowd until—from behind this man, who we will learn much of in the novel, and who will change Claire’s life forever—Izzy appears.

“I’m right here,” she says. “Anyways I’m not afraid.”

“I’m not afraid either,” I say, though I am angry at the fear welling inside me.

The heavyset, bald guy trains his mirrored sunglasses on us. I look down toward Izzy. I’ve seen enough at my distorted image.

“Yes, you are, Claire,” says Izzy. “You’re always afraid something is going to happen to me.”

I exhale. We’re here. It’s going to be a blistering day. I am not afraid.

Visit Caroline Bock's website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Landry Park"

Bethany Hagen was born and raised in Kansas City. She grew up reading Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and all things King Arthur, and went on to become a librarian.

She applied the Page 69 Test to Landry Park, her debut novel, and reported the following:

From Page 69:

Underneath the good looks and the glamour, there was a changeling; a boy by turns serious and bitter and playful. From outside the musty world of the maze, the ringing of the university bell disturbed the ivy-covered ghosts of war. “It’s four o’clock,” I said, looking away from him. “Tea will be over.”

“Yes,” David answered absently, still looking around the room. “Yes.”

We quietly wound our way back through the maze until we reached the door. I pulled it shut and turned to find David standing just behind me. Away from the freshly cut grass, the smell of him was overpowering. “I enjoyed this afternoon. Believe it or not, my days are usually tediously empty.”

We were barely a body’s width apart.

“Given what I have seen on the wall screens since your arrival, I thought you spent most of your time partying or kissing debutantes.”

David moved away with a quick laugh. “A bachelor must keep up appearances.”

We were on the lawn now, with the sun streaming down and the soothing hum of the gardeners trimming the grass. The university bell rung again, but I felt reluctant to move closer to the house. “Mother will be wondering where I am,” I said, stalling.

“Let’s not keep her waiting then.” To my surprise, David seized my hand and started running, pulling me along behind him. I could feel my curls pulling loose from the comb that kept them back.

Page 69 is very representative of Landry Park on the whole. Landry Park is the story of Madeline Landry, the heir to a massive estate and to a long legacy of hidden power and privilege. Her world is fueled by nuclear energy, and it is a disgraced caste that is shackled with the work of handling the nuclear waste that makes a comfortable life like Madeline's possible. One of the biggest impetuses for Madeline evaluating her worldview is the arrival of David Dana in her city. At first glance, he seems the prototypical wealthy playboy, but he knows more than he's letting on...

What I love about this page is that it plunges right into the push and pull of Madeline and David's romance. We have Madeline, who is reserved but proud, and David, who is charming but mercurial, and when they are together, the air between them is charged with challenge. They bring out both the best and the worst in each other, which is a catalyst for many of the events later on in the book. It also gives you a sense of the atmosphere: the wide lawn, the clanging bells, the maze...this page evokes the sort of restrained luxury that permeates the entire world of Landry Park.

Visit Bethany Hagen's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Girl Who Came Home"

Hazel Gaynor is an author and freelance writer in Ireland and the U.K. and was the recipient of the Cecil Day Lewis Award for Emerging Writers in 2012. Originally from North Yorkshire, England, she now lives in Ireland with her husband, two young children, and an accident-prone cat.

Gaynor applied the Page 69 Test to The Girl Who Came Home, her first novel, and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Girl Who Came Home falls in the middle of one of my main character, Maggie’s, journal entries, where she is recording her thoughts and feelings about leaving Ireland, and her sweetheart, Séamus, to sail on Titanic to America. Maggie, and the thirteen others she is travelling with, are boarding the tenders at Queenstown. These smaller boats will take them out to Titanic, moored off-shore because she is too large for the small port.

I particularly enjoyed writing Maggie’s journal entries. She was a lovely character to write and I found that her voice developed very naturally on the page. I always felt that she was very real – sitting on my shoulder, making sure I got it right! She is a spirited, resilient young girl from a humble, Irish community where family was everything. As the novel is written in two different periods - 1912 and 1982 - we see Maggie as a seventeen-year-old girl and also as an elderly lady. By allowing her to grow into a mature woman, we are able to experience her full life story and learn what happened to her after Titanic. I hope that readers will enjoy immersing themselves in the Titanic era through Maggie’s eyes.

Although we were all still a bit jittery and anxious now to get going, there was a much happier mood about us. Dear God, nothing could be worse than that terrible maudlin feeling that had hung about us all a day earlier. Katie said that she feels so far away from home now that it’s almost impossible to be sad about it. I think I know what she means.

The two tenders, Ireland and America, were moored alongside the wharf. They were nice-looking boats themselves. We stood together, the fourteen of us, some talking, some thinking of home, and some, like me, watching the piles and piles of mailbags being loaded onto the boats, the red flags of the White Star Line and the colourful bunting fluttering in the breeze. It must have been quite a spectacle for the newspaper reporters and the crowds who had gathered to see people off.

It was a bit of a struggle to get us all and our luggage aboard the tender America, but once on board we huddled around the front of the boat, I think it’s called the bow. It felt a bit odd swaying from side to side as the boat rocked in the water. We had to wait a while as a late-running train from Cork had just arrived carrying more passengers. I thought how lucky they were not to have missed the tenders, or Titanic itself for that matter!

Visit Hazel Gaynor's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

--Marshal Zeringue

"And the Hills Opened Up"

David Oppegaard is the author of the Bram Stoker-nominated The Suicide Collectors, Wormwood, Nevada, The Ragged Mountains and And the Hills Opened Up. Oppegaard’s work is a blend of science fiction, literary fiction, horror, and fantasy. He lives in St. Paul, MN.

He applied the Page 69 Test to And the Hills Opened Up and reported the following:

Page 69 of And the Hills Opened Up:

“What happened?”

“Three men dead, sir.”

“Cave in?”

“No. I mean, yes, sir, some rock fell in, but that wasn’t what killed them.”

“Then what was it?”

The boy glanced up at the foreman. “Something…something got at their throats.”

Chambers pulled up. Sweat poured down in his brow in a mighty cascade of miserable salt water.

“Their throats?”

“Ripped’em clean out, sir. Blood all over.”

Chambers set his hands on his hips. He felt like keeling over right there in the scrub grass.

“Run back to my cabin, Randy, and tell Bonnie to give you my rifle. Go now and catch up with me.”

I couldn’t have picked a better page to represent this book, really. My new novel And the Hills Opened Up is a horror/western set in a Wyoming mining town in 1890. When the mining company blasts open a new section of the mine, a powerful and unsettling demon is unearthed.

In the above passage, the mine’s foreman Hank Chambers first learns something is terribly wrong down in the mine. Feeling sick with a summer fever, he decides to investigate the death of three men (the first of many deaths) on his own, taking only his rifle with him. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to confront something much worse and much stranger than three dead miners.

Yes, the Charred Man has been woken and is about to lay waste to the isolated town of Red Earth, Wyoming in a major way!

Visit David Oppegaard's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Suicide Collectors.

The Page 69 Test: Wormwood, Nevada.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Truth and Fear"

Peter Higgins read English at Oxford University and Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He was a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and worked in the British Civil Service. His short stories have appeared in Fantasy: Best of the Year 2007, Best New Fantasy 2, Asimov's Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Zahir and Revelation, and in Russian translation in the St Petersburg magazine Esli. He lives with his family in South Wales.

Higgins applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Truth and Fear, and reported the following:

The first thing that strikes you about page 69 of Truth and Fear is the white space. It’s only got seven lines of text. It’s the end of a chapter. This isn’t much of a surprise, Truth and Fear has short chapters: 93 in total, averaging four pages each. It’s SF/fantasy, but I wanted it to move with the pace and drive of an action thriller. I like short chapters: it speeds up the reading experience, keeps you immersed in the story and wanting to go on turning the pages.

Truth and Fear is the second in a trilogy that began with Wolfhound Century – three thrillers, which together build into a bigger picture, a larger story. I’ve used the action thriller because the world the book builds is a kind of mid-twentieth century Russia/Central Europe – the history and art and atmosphere of that time and place are reflected there, reshaped and re-imagined – and the thriller is a core genre for that. I want readers to feel they’re in that edgy, dangerous world, never far from violence and betrayal. But there are strange things abroad in this world. Alien presences. A sentient river. A sophisticated man who’s also a forest wolf.

Since page 69 is so short I’ll quote it in full:

… the dark wool. She had kissed him that morning at the sea gate lodge. On the cheek. The cool graze of her mouth against his skin.

‘You didn’t start it,’ she said. ‘You chose a side, that’s all. There are only two sides now. There’s nowhere else to stand.’

They walked a little way in silence.

'I didn't know you could fight like that,' said Maroussia.

'That wasn’t fighting,’ said Lom. ‘That was winning. Different thing altogether.'

It’s just a glimpse. Other passages would feel quite different, and this one’s too brief to give a full flavour of the richness of the world the book builds round you. But it’s got the two main protagonists, and it snapshots something essential about their relationship: tentative, exploratory, on the edge; almost-strangers thrown into intimacy, their lives ripped open, everything immediate and raw. They have to act, take sides, decide: and that reveals the truth of who they are. I hope this extract catches something of the atmosphere of the poem by Osip Mandelstam which gives the book its title:

The salt stars melt in the barrel –

The ice-water turns coal-black –

Death is getting purer, hard times saltier,

The planet edging closer to truth and to fear.

Visit Peter Higgins's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Madam"

Cari Lynn is the author or co-author of four books of narrative nonfiction and a new work of historical fiction (with Kellie Martin), Madam: A Novel of New Orleans, which is based on the true story of New Orleans' experiment with legalized prostitution in the late 1800s.

Kellie Martin is probably still most fondly remembered for her work as Becca Thacher in the ABC series Life Goes On for which she received an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actress. From there, Martin played the title role in CBS’ drama Christy. She also played medical student Lucy Knight on NBC’s ER from 1998-2000. Her most recent series was the Hallmark Channel’s Mystery Woman from 2005-2007.

Lynn applied the Page 69 Test to Madam and reported the following:

It’s almost as if page 69 of Madam knew it would be put to the test! This last page of Chapter 4 manages to hit upon most of the major themes of the book. It’s 1897, New Orleans. We’re seeing the main character, Mary, a poor alley whore, returning from a visit to Miss Eulalie, the Voodoo queen, who’s known to have the best remedy for the “gleet” (a general term used on the street to describe the venereal hazards of Mary’s profession).

Mary’s pimp, Lobrano, is waiting at her house, wondering where she’s been. Mary provides for her brother and his wife, and they share a tiny, dirt-floor house where no one speaks about how Mary earns her way. We get a sense of Mary’s low life and her seemingly helpless situation under the thumb of her pimp. But we also see a spark of Mary’s gumption, signs of the spirit that will compel her to risk everything, to devise a plan to outwit her pimp, and to completely reinvent herself as Madam Josie Arlington. And it’s worth a note that the characters on this page are all based on real people of the same names.

Excerpt from page 69:

Mary gritted her teeth. “Ain’t feelin’ too good is all. Went to get a remedy.”

He studied her, a look of disgust creeping over his face. “You ain’t gone and got yourself in a bad way, have you?”

“No,” she said, insulted, “I always use the French preventative.”

“Good, ’cause you my little cash cow.” He moved toward her, his wandering hands trying to pick up where he’d left off the other night.

“Can’t, Lobrano,” she said forcibly and stepped into the house, only he wedged his foot so she couldn’t shut the door. He followed her inside, already having scoped the place to know that Charlotte and Peter weren’t home. Coming up from behind Mary, he rubbed himself against her like a feral cat. She could smell the drink on him, a constant smell these days. Her fingers traced the outline of the remedy bottle in her pocket, and she could hear Miss Eulalie’s voice warning of the gleet’s fleas.

“Ain’t a good idea, Lobrano.”

He grunted and pushed Mary onto the cot, onto the clean white blanket where pregnant Charlotte slept. She had tried to warn him, but since he wasn’t willing to listen, Mary stopped resisting and let her body uncoil. She planned how, not a moment after he left, she’d strip the bedclothes and boil them in a kettle of water. Leaning back, she tried to hide the little smile playing on her face—Lobrano deserved exactly what he was about to get.

Read more about Madam, and visit the websites of Cari Lynn and Kellie Martin.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Roosevelt's Beast"

With his most recent novels, Roosevelt's Beast, The School of Night, The Black Tower, The Pale Blue Eye and Mr. Timothy, Louis Bayard, in the words of the Washington Post, has ascended to "the upper reaches of the historical-thriller league." A New York Times Notable author, he has been nominated for both the Edgar® and Dagger awards and has been named one of People magazine's top authors of the year.

Bayard applied the Page 69 Test to Roosevelt's Beast and reported the following:

Ah, the old Soixante-neuf Test! So fun.

By the 69th page of Roosevelt’s Beast, Kermit Roosevelt is in deep shit. He and his father have been captured by unnamed Indians and are being held for reasons still unknown. Kermit has woken up in a small enclosed dark space – a hut, perhaps – and is being gently interrogated by a young woman named Luz, who speaks Portuguese. He is disconcerted by her nudity, but the source of his arousal at the top of the page is not Luz but his fiancée. “In a flash, it was Belle standing in this dark enclosure. Belle’s naked shoulders, burning in the darkness. Belle’s breasts….” This suppressed eroticism – the hunger of a young man unable to be with his woman – will play through the rest of the book.

Kermit has recognized that Luz is an outlier herself, and for the rest of the page, he courts her as an ally in escaping. He promises to return her to her home—better still, America! “In America, everyone is free,” he says. But freedom and America mean nothing to Luz, and here is another theme writ small: the limits of the colonialist impulse.

At last Kermit despairs of his tactics. “All this time he had wasted on rhetoric, on persuasion. When what was truly needed—he could hear the Colonel barking it—was action.” Meet the other key character of the book: Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who is lying somewhere in that dark enclosure and whose grand idea of exploring an uncharted Amazonian river is the reason they’re in this mess in the first place. And whose notions of right and wrong will be profoundly challenged by all that follows.

Not a bad harvest from a single page. Soixante-neuf, I salute you.

Learn more about the book and author at Louis Bayard's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Black Tower.

The Page 69 Test: The Pale Blue Eye.

The Page 69 Test: The School of Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Pretty Sly"

Elisa Ludwig enjoys writing about teen outlaws, even though she herself has never been one. Pretty Sly is her second novel and the sequel to Pretty Crooked. She lives in Philadelphia, where she is hard at work on the third installment of Willa Fox's adventures.

Ludwig applied the Page 69 Test to Pretty Sly and reported the following:

From page 69:

“Mind telling me where we’re going?” I asked Tre from the passenger seat.

He’d been silent for the past five minutes as he drove us along. Surprises were cute and all, but I was pretty sure I’d had enough of them in the past few days to last me for the next fifteen years.

I scanned the scene outside the window for more information. We were heading south out of the Valley on Route 51, I could tell that much. His Audi picked up speed as we merged onto a huge multi-lane highway lined with sound barrier walls, and passed under a big green sign indicating that the airport was five miles ahead.

“Are we flying somewhere?”

Tre just shook his head. “Damn, you’re impatient. We’re finding you an alternative means of transport. If you’re going to skip town, you can’t go taking public transportation or using your credit cards.”

This excerpt is certainly ironic, given where the story goes. Willa has just said she's had enough surprises to last her for her next fifteen years but in terms of her journey in this book (and the next one, really), she's just getting started. There are many, many more surprises that lay ahead of her!

It also sets up the trip itself. She knows at this point that her mom is missing and she needs to go find her, but she hasn't figured out exactly the best way to go about it since leaving means skipping out on her probation. In this scene, Tre helps her find her mode of transportation but in the process she realizes she really can't take this trip alone. That's where her wingman (and mega crush) Aidan Murphy comes into play. By the end of this scene the trip has launched, she's hit the road and the adventure begins!

Visit Elisa Ludwig's website and view the trailer for Pretty Sly.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Queen Elizabeth's Daughter"

Anne Clinard Barnhill has been writing or dreaming of writing for most of her life. For the past twenty years, she has published articles, book and theater reviews, poetry, and short stories. Her first book, At Home in the Land of Oz, recalls what it was like growing up with an autistic sister. Her work has won various awards and grants. Barnhill holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, Queen Elizabeth's Daughter, and reported the following:

From page 69:

“My lord Oxford. You have taken me by surprise. What brings you to the queen’s kitchens?” said Mary, removing her arm from his grasp.

“I was looking for you, Mistress. I went to the queen’s apartments in search of you and Mistress Eleanor said you were most likely checking on your cordials. I knew you to be a woman of many skills, but I did not know you dabbled in medicine,” said Oxford.

“Tis merely a hobby. I am by no means an expert. I have much to learn, but it is pleasant to sip my own concoctions. Why were you looking for me, milord?” said Mary, now walking toward her cordial-making room.

“I wanted to tell you something. Or rather ask…I am not sure which,” said Oxford. His manner was uneasy. Gone was his usual arrogance and in its place, uncertainty. Mary grew more uncomfortable.

“I shall do my best to answer, if you have a question,” said Mary. She watched as the earl shifted from one foot to the other and bit his lower lip. He did not look at her, but instead, gazed at the stone floor.

Mary waited, impatient to get to her fruit and spice mixture, to check on its progress.

“Mistress, I am of an age to take a wife. I have met, and I might add, bedded, many a likely prospect. However, none has touched my heart,” Oxford said, still staring at the floor.

Mary said nothing.

“But now….,” he said, reaching for her hand, “Now I have found one I would wish to be bound to ---you, dearest Mary.”

Mary stood still. She could not think of what to say. She could feel the blood pulsing in her neck and her chest pounded. She did not wish to marry this man—

This page is pivotal to the rest of the story. Mary is young, eligible, and, as the queen’s royal ward and second cousin, she is a desirable match. However, though Oxford would be a fine husband for her, raising her status and her finances, she does not care for him. As she rebuffs him, this action will lead to serious consequences for Mary later on.

Touching on one of the overarching themes of the book—love and its various forms—this scene sets the stage for further explorations about the nature of romantic love, maternal love and love of God. As Mary will learn, love can hurt. Here, it is Oxford who is hurt; later, the tables will turn.

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--Marshal Zeringue