"What We Reckon"

Eryk Pruitt is a screenwriter, author and filmmaker living in Durham, NC with his wife Lana and cat Busey. His short films have won several awards at film festivals across the US.

Pruitt applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, What We Reckon, and reported the following:

When we join our "hero" on page 69 of What We Reckon, Jack Jordan has joined Ben Matlin on a sojourn down South to Houston so they can score more Ecstasy to sell to college students. Jack has no idea how deep of shit he's in, as they make their purchase from the cross-dressing club owner, Beef Guidry.

In a fit of mish-mashed sexual tensions and misunderstandings, Jack is only pages away from realizing the true stakes of his bad planning.

Before Jack could speak, he was guided by the waist toward the framed photo of Ava Gardner. Two hefty lines of powder stretched across her lovely face. Beef waved his hands over the glass as if he were a model at a trade show.

"I'd better not," Jack mumbled. "I don't think cocaine will play well with the shit I done already took."

"Oh, this isn't cocaine," Beef tittered, "and it plays well with everyone."

Is it representative of the rest of the book? You bet your sweet buns it is. Hopefully there is enough tension and drug-fueled humor in the rest of the book that keeps pace with this scene in Houston, and the ramifications of what happens there will haunt our characters all the way until the final paragraph.

Visit Eryk Pruitt's website.

My Book, The Movie: What We Reckon.

--Marshal Zeringue