She regularly appears on podcasts, including The Bestseller Experiment and SJ Bennett’s PrePublished. She lives in London and runs a biweekly newsletter filled with fun news, book reviews, and regular updates about her miniature schnauzer.
Blake applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, The Unforgettable Loretta Darling, and reported the following:
I’d never heard of the Page 69 Test, but the gods of typesetting had already gifted me a memorable page 69 in The Unforgettable Loretta Darling as she encountered a Golden Era Hollywood party…Visit Katherine Blake's website.
From page 69:Chapter 13Does my page 69 tell you everything that you need to know about the novel? Some. Loretta still has a lot to learn – not just about Hollywood but about herself. Still, it’s clear that she’s up to the task. How did I achieve that in so few words? Let’s take a look.
I never expected my first orgy to be quite this glamorous. It was full of actors, actresses, directors, producers, writers – all looking for distraction. And, boy, had they found it. The stars worked their butts off during the week, but on a weekend they partied hard.
Still, nothing had prepared me for this.
The smiles were painted on as thick as the Silver Stone No. 2 body paint some of the naked girls were smothered in as they paraded around in their swimsuits and feather headdresses. Clouds of blue cigar smoke billowed above our heads. Have you ever heard the rattle of a studio executive’s laughter? I tell you, it sends a chill down your spine.
I walked past a tight clutch of men in suits, one of them loudly complaining, ‘I brought the son of a bitch over from Europe, paid for his passage, and all he does is tell me that the story I paid eighty thousand for is no good.’ As one, the group turned and stared darkly at the oblivious young actor who was kissing a woman by the pool.
Primrose was still holding my hand and my grip tightened as we gazed around.
‘Keep smiling,’ she said from between clenched teeth. ‘Just keep smiling!’
Loretta has a voice that spills out from chapter one. By page 69, we can be confident that she has the backbone of a whale, to take on whatever life throws at her. She’s not running anywhere, and certainly not from the best adventure that’s ever hit her. Or the best adventure she’s ever found, by bribing her way to America.
She’s arrived with ambitions to be a make-up artist and her future skills are already seeded in this extract as she recognises the body paints and the studio executives. She can describe the colours – the blue cigar smoke – and eavesdrop on gossip. In 200 short words, we understand who Loretta is, and what she faces. We are also certain that she’s going to survive and it won’t be by wearing Silver Stone No. 2 body paint…
--Marshal Zeringue
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