"Tune in Tomorrow"

Randee Dawn writes about entertainment glam by day and fantastical fiction worlds by night. A former Soap Opera Digest editor, she now scribbles about the wacky universe of showbiz for Variety, The Los Angeles Times and Today.com. The co-author of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion, Dawn appeared on L&O once! In the courtroom! Her short fiction has been published in multiple anthologies, and in her spare time she’s a trivia writer for BigBrain Games. Based in Brooklyn, New York she lives with a brilliant spouse, a fluffy Westie, many books and never enough mangoes.

Dawn applied the Page 69 Test to Tune in Tomorrow: The Curious, Calamitous, Cockamamie Story Of Starr Weatherby And The Greatest Mythic Reality Show Ever, her first novel, and reported the following:

Tune in Tomorrow (the TV show) stars a diva named Fiona Ballantine, who has been with the show for decades – and has just met Starr Weatherby, the series' latest potential hire. Fiona is both threatened by Starr and finds her ridiculous. It's in her hands to say whether Starr can be hired or not, but she's been warned that she must allow Starr onto the show, which desperately needs a fresh face and approach. So Fiona is now battling with her alter ego and show character Valéncia about how best to include Starr – but undermine her so that she quits as quickly as possible.

Actually, the Page 69 Test absolutely works: page 69 plunges us directly into the key conflict in the book, which is between Starr and Fiona. Fiona believes there's an All About Eve situation developing here, while Starr is so thrilled to finally be in line for a great first job that she'll do anything and say anything to stay. Fiona's fear that Starr is just there to usurp her influences all of her decisions going forward and it's up to Starr to wise up and protect her position on the show if she wants to stay. This is a great test!

Curiously, the way my book is formatted has the first page of Chapter 1 starting on Page 9. So should a potential reader instead skip to Page 78? Heck, that works too: Starr, who has just been brought on board at this mythical soap, has until now been laboring under the assumption that she'll be working on a series with a lot of great visual and practical effects, run by people who love to cosplay (her executive producer Jason has horns and a tail). But after her shocking and hilarious first confrontation with Fiona, the penny drops and she gets it: Mythics are real. And they're now really her bosses. Her slapstick reaction is also a wake-up for readers: She really is in a mythical world, where TV shows are being made!

Visit Randee Dawn's website.

--Marshal Zeringue