"The Mulligan Curse"

Diane Barnes is the author of All We Could Still Have, More Than, Waiting for Ethan, and Mixed Signals. She is also a product market manager in the health-care industry. When she’s not writing, Barnes can be found at the gym, running or playing tennis, trying to burn off the ridiculous amounts of chocolate and ice cream she eats. She and her husband, Steven, live in New England with Oakley, their handsome golden retriever

Barnes applied the Page 69 Test to her latest novel, The Mulligan Curse, and reported the following:

On page 69 of The Mulligan Curse, Mary goes to work as a television news reporter for the first time as her 24-year-old self. This is her dream job and she’s excited. However, because she’s just dropped into her new life as her younger self, she has no knowledge of what’s happening at work or what she’s supposed to do. For most of the page, she’s confused and desperately trying to figure out what’s going on. Late on the page, Mary gets a memory dump that helps her acclimate to her new reality.

The Page 69 Test doesn’t work for this book. If a reader randomly opened The Mulligan Curse to page 69, they would be as confused as Mary. They wouldn’t understand that just a few pages before, Mary was a 54-year-old unhappy housewife. Nor would they understand that The Mulligan Curse isn’t a time travel story so Mary doesn’t have old memories to help her adjust to her new life.

Of course, what happens on this page is essential to the story. It helps to show Mary’s discomfort in her new, young life, and the discomfort Mary feels is important to the change she undergoes throughout the book.

Visit Diane Barnes's website.

Q&A with Diane Barnes.

The Page 69 Test: All We Could Still Have.

My Book, The Movie: All We Could Still Have.

--Marshal Zeringue