"Nemo Rising"

C. Courtney Joyner is an award-winning writer of fiction, comics, and screenplays. He has more than 25 movies to his credit, including the cult films Prison, starring Viggo Mortensen; From a Whisper to a Scream, starring Vincent Price; and Class of 1999, directed by Mark Lester. A graduate of USC, Joyner's first produced screenplay was The Offspring, which also starred Vincent Price. Joyner's other scripts have included TV movies for CBS, USA, and Showtime.

Joyner applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Nemo Rising, and reported the following:

From page 69:

CHAPTER ELEVEN: RUST AND BLOOD

The sound of Nemo’s footsteps changed.


The cobblestone streets had ended, and the wood planking of the Norfolk Harbor wharf had replaced them. A flock of gulls broke from a far piling, and he watched them dip before they angled for a strip of ocean he could barely glimpse between a sail maker’s shop and a tavern.

The rows of buildings along the waterfront denied Nemo his view, but he tasted the salty-damp air, then soaked his lungs with a deep breath. His strides lengthened, quick-marching through an alley, with Duncan catching up, until they both reached the docks.

He stopped, taking in the shallow-bottom freighters and fishing boats, tied in their slips. Sailors worked the small craft on the rst dock, and on the second the sails were coming down on a two-mast schooner. Orders were shouted, with all hands crewing together.

Duncan said, “You can deny it, but this is where you belong.”

My page 69 is a bit compromised; the start of a chapter, and half-a-page. I thought about shifting to another part of the book, with Nemo fighting steampunk monsters, or in bloody battle, and there’s plenty of that, but I stayed with this quiet moment, because my book is also a sea story besides being a giant, fantasy adventure. So, I like this brief page, as it reminds us that Captain Nemo was a hero, villain, and all the shadings of Verne, but he was also a man of the sea.

Visit C. Courtney Joyner's website.

My Book, The Movie: Nemo Rising.

--Marshal Zeringue