"Welcome to the Dark House"

Laurie Faria Stolarz grew up in Salem, MA, attended Merrimack College, and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Welcome to the Dark House, and reported the following:

In Welcome to the Dark House, seven characters win a contest - enter your worst nightmare and get the chance to see acclaimed horror director Justin Blake’s confidential new project. These seven characters are flown from around the country to rural, MN, for the screening. They arrive at the Dark House, a haunted cabin based on Justin Blake’s Nightmare Elf movie series.

On Page 69, Parker is just arriving at the Dark House and meets the hostess for the weekend - a woman dressed up as Midge Sarko, the creepy chambermaid from Blake’s Hotel 9 movie series. Note: Parker’s chapters are in screenplay format because he wants to make his own movies and pictures things cinematically.

Here’s Page 69:

MIDGE SARKO

Welcome, you must be Parker.

ME

And you’re obviously Midge. Anyone ever tell you that you look just like Tina Maitland, theactor who played Midge in the movie?

I move CLOSER on the POCKETS OF HER APRON. The curly handle of Midge’s signature paring knife sticks out—always ready to slice off a souvenir finger for her collection.

MIDGE SARKO

(winking)

Tina’s just an actor. I’m the real McCoy.

I lower my camera to shake her hand.

MIDGE SARKO

Sorry about your flight delay.

Visit Laurie Stolarz's website.

--Marshal Zeringue