romantic comedies inspired the writing of To Have and to Hoax, which is her first novel.Waters applied the Page 69 Test to To Have and to Hoax and reported the following:
From page 69:Visit Martha Waters's website.Violet’s plan was proving to be more complicated than she had anticipated.On page 69 of To Have and to Hoax, my heroine, Violet, has just realized that the plan she’s come up with to get even with her estranged husband – faking a case of consumption – is rather more difficult to pull off than she anticipated, something her friends have already predicted. Honestly, I’m astonished at how well this test works for my book, because this short snippet of the book really sums up the entire plot – Violet and her husband, James, getting ensnared in an increasingly complicated battle of one-upsmanship, even as they fall back in love with each other – and their long-suffering friends along for the journey, telling them to just have a conversation with each other instead! At the bottom of page 69, Violet – realizing she’s going to need to really commit to her plan if she wants to fool her husband – asks:
“Of course it is,” Diana said impatiently the next day as she, Violet, and Emily reclined in Diana’s barouche outside Gunter’s. “I do believe my exact words to you were, ‘Have you lost your mind?’”
“And I assured you that I had done no such thing,” Violet said, pausing to take a bite of her ice.“Do you think your physician would be willing to lie to the son of a duke?”This gives the first indication for readers that things are about to get very complicated – and increasingly silly – for Violet and James, and I think it really functions well as a glimpse into what the rest of the book will offer.
Writers Read: Martha Waters.
--Marshal Zeringue
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