She’s a Hanford, California native transplanted to the Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband, son, and requisite cat.Cato applied the Page 69 Test to Call of Fire and reported the following:
From page 69:Visit Beth Cato's website.“Papa? Papa!” A girl’s voice screeched from above. By the time Ingrid glanced up, all she spied was a blur of movement. Feet pounded down the stairs. The girl leaped to a stop before them. She was young with creamy brown skin, a stick figure in calico and stained white stockings. A mismatched bow in kimono fabric was almost bigger than her head.This latter half of page 69 is at the very end of a chapter, and in the few lines that follow, Ingrid is about to get quite a shock about the identities of these two strangers. My Blood of Earth trilogy features an alternate history of 1906, with the United States and Japan allied as a world power. Japanese influences, therefore, are quite evident in everyday America, from food to speech to clothes. Even in these few lines, there's mention of scrap kimono fabric being used as a bow. Worldbuilding often comes in small dribbles of details like this.
“Oh.” The girl stared at Ingrid. “You’re a woman. Up there, I saw the top of your head, and your skin, and I thought...”
Ingrid didn’t know what to think.
A nearby door squawked as it swung open. “Mirabelle, what fuss you causing?” The woman carried a damp rag and a scowl that could stop a galloping horse. She looked between Ingrid and the girl and stood even straighter. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. You. You’re Ingrid Carmichael.”
The Page 69 Test: Breath of Earth.
--Marshal Zeringue
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