"Salthouse Place"

Jamie Lee Sogn is a Filipina American author of adult thriller novels. She grew up in Olympia, Washington, studied Anthropology and Psychology at the University of Washington and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Oregon School of Law.

She is a "recovering attorney" who writes contracts by day and (much more exciting) fiction by night. While she has lived in Los Angeles, New York City, and even Eugene, Oregon, she now lives in Seattle with her husband, son, and Boston Terrier.

Sogn applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, Salthouse Place, and reported the following:

Upon turning to page 69 in my book, readers would find a scene where the main character Delia is arriving at her new guesthouse in Salthouse Place, a community on the Oregon Coast.

Petal pointed out the window, which looked like it might provide a view of the water if you pressed your face on the glass hard enough. "Imagine you'll be waking up to this every morning now." She smiled serenely. "Do you love it?"

I didn't know how to answer her or where to begin. Should I tell her I was happier not looking at the ocean on a daily basis?

After this exchange, Delia's new roommates come in and introduce themselves.

I think browsers turning to page 69 in my book would get a poor idea of the whole work by reading this page! They might be intrigued by the last sentence quoted above- Why would this character not want to look at the ocean? That is an odd thing to point out, and indeed, the character has some very specific trauma around water and that does have to do with the whole work and story. But this single page doesn't do a good job of exploring that.

What this page does do is help the browser understand that this character has some secrets (why doesnt she like the ocean...?) and introduces us to the main character's roommates at Salthouse Place, two women who will be massive influences on her during her time spent at the wellness retreat.

It's nice that this page is set at Salthouse Place, also the title of the book, as browsers may wonder about the title of the book itself. The community is called Salthouse Place and the main character finds herself there while searching for her childhood best friend who has sent her a message after a decade of estrangement. She believes this message might have something to do with an unsolved mystery of their third best friend's disappearance. What the main character doesn't know is that the women of Salthouse Place may be hiding secrets of their own.

Visit Jamie Lee Sogn's website.

Q&A with Jamie Lee Sogn.

My Book, The Movie: Salthouse Place.

--Marshal Zeringue