"Whispers of Ink and Starlight"

Garrett Curbow is the author of Whispers of Ink and Starlight and the Daughter of Light trilogy, which was short-listed for the Publishers Weekly Selfies Award. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

Curbow applied the Page 69 Test to Whispers of Ink and Starlight with the following results::

I’m going to cheat a little, if that’s okay. The actual page 69 in Whispers of Ink and Starlight is the title page for Part Two: Wish Me On My Way, and I will answer for that page.

But to have a little more fun, I flipped back to page 67 to see if it fits this challenge.

Page 67 (pretend it’s 69):

His gaunt face is splashed with shadows and firelight, a droopiness to his shoulders, a crack of defeat in his stature.

Nelle steps into the hall, hesitating before she shuts the study door. Father watches her go, and despite the fire wreathing him, no warmth touches his face. For a heartbeat, she considers saying goodbye. Then, on second thought, she slams the door shut.

James is already by her side, holding a chair. He wedges it underneath the handle, as if that will stop Father. Though he may not try to escape. Without her, what does he have to live for? She feels no remorse for leaving him to burn, instead relishing the idea of him melting while the pages of his precious Nellie crumble to ash.

A new Nelle walks through the house, chin held high, James beside her, strange folder held tight against her chest. She walks out into the sticky night, tears dry on her cheeks, fireflies blinking between the trees, and watches flames lurch off the tin roof, an artist stepping back to survey her canvas after brushing on the final stroke.

James starts his truck. Nelle climbs into the cab and feels along the cracks in the leather seat.

He gingerly hovers his finger over the still-fresh cut in her palm.

“Is this okay?” he asks.

“Yes.” She braces herself for the burn as his fingertips touch her open wound. On the dashboard, he writes: Nelle rides with James.

A tight ball of yarn unspools inside her. As her cut stitches back together, Nelle watches the road and listens to her life crackle away over the sound of gravel under the tires.

If I’m going based off the true page 69, which would be the title page of Part Two: Wish Me On My Way, then I honestly do think this test works. One of the reasons I chose that phrase as the title for the second part of the novel is because it perfectly captures Nelle and James’s journey.

If I’m doing the test based off page 67, which is the closest I could get with actual text to 69, then, again, I think it works! Page 67 is a major turning point for the story, when a lot of the overarching themes, especially for Nelle’s character, start to bloom.

I guess you could technically say that Whispers of Ink and Starlight fails the Page 69 Test, but it does pass the Page 67 Test with flying colors.

This page contains one of my favorite scenes in the novel, with Nelle looking back at her past life and feeling, for the first time ever, hope for a future she never thought she would have. It’s dramatic and, taken out of context, can seem heartless. Most people wouldn’t leave their father inside a burning house, but…

Without a doubt, the Page 69 Test works for this book. This scene, which breaks the story into Part Two, is one of the most integral moments of the book. Without it, the rest of the novel could not exist.

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--Marshal Zeringue