"The Empress of Cooke County"

Elizabeth Bass Parman grew up entranced by family stories, such as the time her grandmother woke to find Eleanor Roosevelt making breakfast in her kitchen. She worked for many years as a reading specialist for a non-profit and spends her summers in a cottage by a Canadian lake. She has two grown daughters and lives outside her native Nashville with her husband and maybe-Maltipoo, Pippin.

Parman applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, The Empress of Cooke County, and reported the following:

The Page 69 Test works very well to convey the essence of the story from Posey’s POV. In this scene, she is trying to convince her husband Vern to leave the modest home he loves and move to the mansion she has just inherited. An ice storm has knocked out their power, and they are having a dinner of cornflakes and orange juice by the fire. “This house was my parents’ home, and now it’s my home.” He paused and then added, “It’s your home, too, if you’d only realize it.” Myopic Posey cannot recognize what is right in front of her. When she answers Vern, “Well I don’t,” the essence of their conflict is revealed. They agree on nothing, and Posey’s ambition prevents her from appreciating what she has, a cozy house and a kind husband.

Because the story is dual-POV, I’m going to cheat a little and take a scene from one of eighteen- year-old Callie Jane’s chapters to show the essence of her journey. Early on in the story, she finds a book about tarot with an Empress tarot card tucked inside. She reads about the Empress, who embodies success, abundance, and confidence, all things Callie Jane lacks. On page 43 she quotes the tarot book.

“Ignore the message of this magnificent woman at your peril,” she whispered. But what was the message? The answer began to emerge from its eighteen-year-old chrysalis, unfolding fledgling wings within her soul: Choose your dreams and then do all in your power to conjure them into being, before someone else does the choosing for you. Now she just had to figure out what those dreams were.

And with this realization, Callie Jane begins her journey of self-discovery.

Visit Elizabeth Bass Parman's website.

Q&A with Elizabeth Bass Parman.

--Marshal Zeringue