"Sure Signs of Crazy"

Karen Harrington is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. Her debut novel Janeology explored the shocking crime of Jane Nelson and examined how genetics play a role in the actions we take. Sure Signs of Crazy, Harrington's new middle grade novel, is the story of Jane’s daughter, a young girl growing up in the shadow of her infamous mother’s illness. Author Pat Conroy called Sure Signs of Crazy “knowing, hilarious, and tender.”

Harrington applied the Page 69 Test to Sure Signs of Crazy, and reported the following:

I was pleasantly surprised by the page 69 passage. It put a white hot spotlight on the struggle twelve-year-old, Sarah, is experiencing and made me want to hug her. The previous pages include an unsent letter to Sarah’s estranged mother, penned by her father, Tom. Sarah only gets two cards a year from her mother, who has been in a mental institution since Sarah was two. In many ways, both her parents are a mystery to her. When she reads her father’s words, it’s one of the rare occasions she gets insight into the sadness her father is carrying and why he drinks away his pain. It causes her to reflect:

The letter ended with no closing, no “Love, Tom” or anything. Maybe he had fallen asleep.

You see, this is what happens when you get only a couple of cards a year from a person you don’t understand. Someone ends up spilling a drink or crying or both, and you get nowhere.

Learn more about the book, currently a Best Book of the Month on Amazon, at Karen Harrington’s website or on her Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue