"Maybe Tomorrow I'll Know"

Alex Ritany is a nonbinary Canadian artist, musician, and author of Dead Girls Don't Say Sorry, I Wish You Wouldn't, and Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know.

They applied the Page 69 Test to Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know with the following results:

From page 69:

If I die in this time loop, is it just over? Or do I reset? My stomach turns at the thought, and I can’t bring myself to finish the rest of the sandwich, so I bring it with me, and it sits on the passenger seat like it’s made of ham and judgment instead of ham and provolone.

The dashboard clock is useless, and Valerie’s dead phone isn’t any more help, so I have no idea what time it is, but it’s been dark for hours when my eyelids start to droop.

I’ve been changing the radio station all day, chasing frequencies, and now I turn the volume up, trying to stay awake, and when it gets truly unbearable, I stop in the middle of the night for gas and I buy a coffee.

“Long day?” the girl at the counter asks when I order a large. She has frizzy blue hair and pretty graphic eyeliner.

By the clock on the wall, it’s ten to midnight.

I give her a wry little smile. “You have no idea.”

“Where are you headed?”

At that, I pause. “I don’t actually know.”

“Ooh. An adventure.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I muse, and decide that I like the sound of that. An adventure is the nicest way to frame this existential nightmare.

“Be safe,” she calls when I’m on the way out, and I go still with my hand on the door.

Emotion rises, threatening to cut off my air supply. Before I leave, I tell her, “Thank you. I will.”

The mountains drag on forever. I steadily make my way through the coffee, watching the road signs flash by, bright in the headlights, vanishing into darkness.

Interestingly, I think this is a great example of the Page 69 Test, even though this girl is not a recurring character and this scene takes place on a journey that does not last longer than this one chapter. This interaction encapsulates the bittersweet feeling that is a thread through much of Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know, and actually manages to frame the overall story with a few facts: we’re in a time loop, this character is alone on a journey of existential dread, feeling uncertain and pressing through exhaustion and anxiety, and is buoyed only by the kindness of strangers (and gas station coffee). It frames the protagonist as resilient, but to me this feels like a resilience demanded by circumstance. They are resilient because there is no alternative. They are on an adventure, just not one they would choose. This brief moment also represents an important facet of queerness to me in that moment of recognition between two people who will never meet again. Whether shared identity is even consciously recognized or not, there is a call and response we’ve all participated in: I see you; be safe. For Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know, the Page 69 test succeeds with flying colours.

Visit Alex Ritany's website.

Q&A with Alex Ritany.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Dead Can't Make a Living"

Ed Lin is a journalist by training and an all-around stand-up kinda guy. He’s the author of the Taipei Night Market series: Ghost Month, Incensed, 99 Ways to Die, and Death Doesn’t Forget as well as five other novels. Lin, who is of Chinese and Taiwanese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. He lives in New York with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung, and son.

Lin applied the Page 69 Test to The Dead Can't Make a Living, the fifth title in the Taipei Night Market series, and reported the following:

Page 69 in The Dead Can't Make a Living is shocking, and truly lives up to the book's title. The heart of the book is solving the murder of a migrant worker, an Overseas Filipino Worker. Narrator and protagonist Jing-nan finds the body of Juan Ramos, an OFW, in the Shilin Night Market. Juan's family comes to the night market to thank Jing-nan for contacting the authorities so quickly, and they ask to see where Jing-nan found Juan.

Juan's mother Rosario, brother Paolo, and sister Eliza are somber, but soon they can't contain their anger at how they are being treated. Juan's company, a food factory, offered the family compensation of six months' salary—less than $6,000 now—and said they were lucky to get that since it wasn't proven Juan died on the premises of the factory. Representatives of the Taiwanese government, meanwhile, encouraged Juan's family to leave with his body as soon as possible. Taiwan and the Philippines (both in fiction and in life) recently had a fishing dispute, and Taiwan is anxious not to have another flashpoint with its neighbor.

What happens is what always happens to Jing-nan. He wants to help people in need, and thinks it won't be too much trouble for him. Of course he's wrong on that point, and before long he ends up biting far more than he can chew. Jing-nan finds himself working undercover in the food factory looking for Paolo, who has disappeared there while trying to find answers about Juan. Cut off from everyone he knows and trusts, Jing-nan is exposed to the same systemic exploitation experienced many of Taiwan's migrant workers. The only man who can help him is his roommate—a man the factory bosses want Jing-nan to help them put in prison for trying to organize.

What's really different about The Dead Can't Make a Living, the fifth book in the Taipei Night Market series, is that Jing-nan has a hand in making awful, ultraprocessed "foods" rather than his amazing night-market concoctions. What hasn't changed is that he continues to be confronted by life's absurdities, and tries to endure it all with a sense of humor.

Visit Ed Lin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Snakes Can't Run.

The Page 69 Test: One Red Bastard.

My Book, The Movie: Ghost Month.

Writers Read: Ed Lin (October 2016).

Q&A with Ed Lin.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sing Down the Moon"

Robert Gwaltney is the author of Sing Down the Moon (2026) and The Cicada Tree (2022), works of Southern literary fiction that explore inheritance, identity, and the fragile boundary between the living and the dead. Rooted in the landscapes and histories of the American South, his writing blends the gothic tradition with elements of magical realism to illuminate the forces that shape who we become.

Gwaltney applied the Page 69 Test to Sing Down the Moon and shared the following:

On page 69 a heated confrontation unfolds as Avery, wracked with guilt, suggests he may be a murderer, while others try to deny or soften the accusation. Blame shifts among the group—especially between Avery and Rebecca—over past harm, including Leontyne’s injury. As tensions peak, Blue Heron offers a symbolic truce, and Rebecca urges unity, warning that survival depends on working together despite their shared guilt and fractured trust.

Page 69 is a fairly good—though not perfect—introduction to Sing Down the Moon.

It drops the reader into the middle of conflict without context, so a browser won’t fully understand the relationships or the history that led to that moment. But in terms of tone, language, and emotional stakes, it’s remarkably true to the book. The lyrical voice, the undercurrent of violence, the blurred lines between guilt and innocence, and the sense that beauty and damage coexist—all of that is present on this page.

So while the Page 69 Test won’t explain the novel, it does represent it. A reader who is intrigued by that page will likely be at home in the world of the book.

Sing Down the Moon is Southern Gothic tale of generational trauma, exploring inheritance, addiction, identity. It’s a story about the legacies we carry, the ghosts we inherit, and the costs of breaking free.

The story is told from the perspective of sixteen-year-old Leontyne Skye, who is bound by blood and legacy to Damascus, an ancient fig tree that grows on the Georgia island of Good Hope, a tree that feeds the dead and poisons the living. As her mother disintegrates before her very eyes Leontyne must confront a birthright that will take everything from her as it has her mother—teeth, hair, and bone. Leontyne has already lost parts of herself—a hand, and her memory, in a happening two years prior known as Tribulation Day. When a mysterious stranger arrives on Good Hope, Leontyne’s memories slowly resurface, and with those memories, the discovery of a chilling truth. Rejecting her legacy will shatter the fragile balance between the living and the dead forcing Leontyne to choose: save the island and those she loves, or save herself.

Visit Robert Gwaltney's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Amish Country Homicide"

Susan Furlong grew up in North Dakota where she spent long winters at her local library scouring the shelves for mysteries to read. Now, she lives in Illinois with her husband and children and writes mysteries of all types. She has over a dozen published novels and her work has earned a spot in the New York Times list of top crime fiction books of the year. When not writing, she volunteers at her church and spends time hiking and fishing.

Furlong applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Amish Country Homicide, with the following results:

The Page 69 Test is a fun way to gauge a story. Have you ever tried it? Pick any book and turn to page 69, read a few paragraphs, and see if the story pulls you in.

In my newest release, Amish Country Homicide, I’m thrilled to say that the Page 69 Test provides a surprisingly accurate glimpse into my story. On page 69, readers are dropped right into an exciting moment of rising danger.

In this scene, Alena Walsh’s life has taken a dark turn. She has unknowingly witnessed a crime, and now the killer has tracked her down, placed a bag over her face, and is trying to recover a crucial piece of evidence that he believes will expose his crime:

Fingers dug into the back of her neck. A sudden shove. Her face plunged into the river. Icy water rushed into her ears, her mouth, stung her eyes. She bucked, twisting, thrashing as her lungs screamed for air, her hands painfully struggling against the zip ties.

Her head was yanked up.

She sucked in a desperate breath, wet fabric suctioning to her lips, bile burning her throat. “I … I don’t know what you want…”

“The phone.” He shook her, her head snapping back and forth like rag doll. “Where is it?”

“I don’t know…” she choked, coughed and her stomach heaved, emptying into the bag around her face. She sobbed, tiny mewing noises like a rabbit caught in the jaws of a coyote. “I … I don’t know anything about a phone. I’m telling you the truth. I promise…”

Her head was forced down again, plunged into the water like a baptism of hate.

I love that, somehow, page 69 of Amish Country Homicide, captures the essence of the story: an ordinary woman caught in extraordinary danger, relying on courage and faith to survive.

Visit Susan Furlong's website.

My Book, The Movie: Splintered Silence.

The Page 69 Test: Splintered Silence.

Writers Read: Susan Furlong (December 2018).

Q&A with Susan Furlong.

Writers Read: Susan Furlong (July 2023).

The Page 69 Test: Lethal Wilderness Trap.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Two Truths and a Lie"

Mark Stevens is the author of The Flynn Martin Thriller series including No Lie Lasts Forever (2025) and Two Truths and A Lie (2026); The Fireballer (2023), and The Allison Coil Mystery Series including Antler Dust, Buried by the Roan, Trapline, Lake of Fire, and The Melancholy Howl.

Buried by the Roan, Trapline, and Lake of Fire were all finalists for the Colorado Book Award. Trapline won.

Stevens applied the Page 69 Test to Two Truths and a Lie, and reported the following:

Well, bang.

Page 69 of Two Truths and a Lie is, I hope, a fairly tense moment.

Television reporter Flynn Martin is discussing a news conference she has just covered with her station’s news director, Rick Goodman. The news conference was about the disappearance of an entire family—mother, father, son, and daughter—from their suburban Denver home.

But Flynn can’t tell Goodman what she’s just found on the dashboard of her car, a second note from an anonymous someone who is taunting her. She’s contemplating a trip to go see her nemesis from the first book in the series, No Lie Lasts Forever. The guy she’s thinking about going to see is a serial killer now behind bars in the Colorado prison system. She is sure he must be playing a role in the new messages, but she can’t let on (to anyone) that she might pay Harry Kugel (a.k.a. “PDQ”) a visit.

Because that would seem both entirely inappropriate and unprofessional.

In Two Truths and a Lie, the Page 69 Test gives us many facets of Flynn Martin. She’s thinking about her son. (The first note arrived, mysteriously, in her son Wyatt’s school backpack). She’s processing a fresh news story. We see Flynn thinking about who might have seen someone approach her car while she was off covering the news conference. “As Flynn talks, she scans. All the humans have scattered back to their air-conditioned comfort zone, but she spots a video doorbell on the house directly across the street.” And we see her cajoling her boss for a day off to go confront the guy she helped send off to prison.

As always, Flynn Martin has a lot on her mind. Page 69 gives us a glimpse of her juggling balls in the air and charting her course for what she needs to do for work and for herself.

Visit Mark Stevens's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Fireballer.

Q&A with Mark Stevens.

My Book, The Movie: The Fireballer.

Writers Read: Mark Stevens (June 2025).

The Page 69 Test: No Lie Lasts Forever.

My Book, The Movie: No Lie Lasts Forever.

Writers Read: Mark Stevens.

--Marshal Zeringue

"As Far as She Knew"

Diana Awad is an Arab American who grew up all over the world as the daughter of a United States Foreign Service Officer. After college, she became a local television journalist and often covered stories about violent crimes and mysterious disappearances. She eventually decided to write her own stories with unexpected endings. Awad also writes historical romance as Diana Quincy and historical mystery as D. M. Quincy. She is now happily settled in Virginia but still gets the itch to explore far-off places. When she’s not bent over her laptop, Awad reads, devours streaming thriller series, and plots her next travel adventure.

Awad applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, As Far as She Knew, and shared the following:

From page 69:

Compassion filled Lulu’s face. “The facts do seem to point to a pretty ugly reality.”

Tears stung my eyes. “I was married to the man for more than two decades. I knew who he was, didn’t I?”

“But you didn’t know about the secret house in North Carolina,” she gently reminded me.

“Yes, Ali lied. That’s for sure.” I took a breath, still holding on to hope. “But maybe there’s another explanation for why he did that.” Please, God, let there be.

Lulu dipped celery into the hummus. “I hope you’re right. But I just want you to be prepared for the worst.”

I would never be ready for that. “What if I sue her?”

Nasser poured himself more iced tea. “Who?”

“Carol Darius.”

Doubt crossed Nasser’s face. “You don’t even know if Carol Darius got the house.”

“Then I’ll sue the LLC. I’d learn what I need to know during discovery, right?” I warmed to the idea. “Wouldn’t they have to show me the operating agreement?”

“They might,” Nasser admitted. “It could work, actually.”  

As it turns out, page 69 gives readers an excellent capsule of what As Far as She Knew is about and marks a significant turning point in the novel. Several of the novel’s central themes—primarily the question of how well we really know the people closest to us—are explored on page 69. The scene features a three-way conversation between Amira, the protagonist, who recently discovered that her late husband, Ali, owned a secret house; Nasser, her husband’s cousin and best friend; and Lulu, Amira’s sister and often the voice of reason. The scene foreshadows the numerous twists ahead, delves into family and marital devotion, and the complexities of grief when a wife is no longer sure her marriage was as happy as she thought.

Ultimately, the scene marks a decisive moment. Amira resolves to take control of her life by investigating how and why Ali came to acquire the house, and to explore what that means not only for her past, but also for her and her children’s future.

Visit Diana Awad's website.

My Book, The Movie: As Far as She Knew.

--Marshal Zeringue

"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.

Visit Garrett Curbow's website.

Q&A with Garrett Curbow.

Writers Read: Garrett Curbow.

--Marshal Zeringue

"If Books Could Kill"

Karen Rose Smith, USA Today bestselling author, is a wife, mom, and catmom of five rescued felines. Married for 54 years, she focuses on family relationships in her novels. She has written romances, mysteries and women’s fiction. Her pastimes include cooking, gardening and listening to Calum Scott’s latest. She saw a dream come true when one of her romances was made into a movie for UPTV. She’s a firm believer that dreams can come true at any age.

Smith applied the Page 69 Test to If Books Could Kill, her 112th novel, and reported the following:

Page 69 features sleuth Jazzi Swanson (Daisy’s daughter from Daisy’s Tea Garden cozies) stepping into the house and room where her friend and librarian Mathilda Woods was murdered. Mathilda’s lawyer Blair McNally has invited her inside. Fingerprint dust still dirties the side tables and bookshelves but the rug has been removed. Jazzi asks Blair if Mathilda mentioned family in her will. Blair explains that the librarian did not and reveals that she intuited that there had been a family breach.

The Page 69 Test works for If Books Could Kill. After a winter scavenger hunt, Jazzi and friends hear a gun shot near the librarian’s bungalow. Knowing Mathilda had worries about her safety, Jazzi peers in her window and finds Mathilda shot dead on the rug. On page 69 that rug has been removed but Jazzi remembers its placement. New to sleuthing, this is book 3 in my Tomes & Tea series, Jazzi is uncertain about becoming involved. Belltower Landing’s detective always warns her against that. However, she and Mathilda had begun sharing personal information, though Mathilda never mentioned family.

Meeting Blair McNally, Mathilda’s lawyer, gives Jazzi the opportunity to delve into the murder and find out more about Mathilda’s life. She believes attorneys often know their clients’ secrets. Perhaps one of those secrets was the reason Mathilda was murdered. Or else… Jazzi is aware of the bookshelves in the scene on page 69. One of the secrets Mathilda shared with her was that a rare book could be hidden on those shelves. Mathilda was a collector of rare books. Her lawyer was one of the few people who knew that. This conversation with Blair leads Jazzi in the direction of learning more about Mathilda’s life before she moved to the tourist town to become director of the library.

A major part of writing If Books Could Kill was researching rare books and their worth. I mention several in this cozy including Anne of Green Gables, a personal childhood favorite, and Where The Wild Things Are. I have a stack of old books from Golden Books to romances I read as a teenager stored away. I can’t seem to give them up. Like Mathilda appreciating the scent, cover and texture of the novels on her bookshelves, I appreciate having books all around me. I hope you enjoy the spotlight on books in If Books Could Kill.

Visit Karen Rose Smith's website, Facebook page, and Instagram page.

Coffee with a Canine: Karen Rose Smith & Hope and Riley.

The Page 69 Test: Staged to Death.

The Page 69 Test: Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Marks the Page.

The Page 69 Test: Booked for Revenge.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Survivor"

Born in Scotland, Andrew Reid worked as a research scientist for almost a decade on projects including DNA synthesis, forensics, and drug development. He now teaches Science and lives in Stockholm with his wife, three children, and two cats.

Reid applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Survivor, and shared the following:

Before I opened to page 69 of The Survivor, I wondered: what would happen if it was the start or the end of a chapter? Would less than a page still be representative?

It turns out that page 69 is the final page of Chapter Eleven. Here it is, in its entirety.

If he gets off now, then more people will die, starting with the woman right in front of him.

Ben stretches out a hand to reach for the radio mic that Sarah dropped when she fell. He doesn’t want to use it. The last thing he wants is for more people to get dragged into this. To risk more people knowing the name Adam. But he is out of options.

Ben needs to call for help.

I love that somehow, in less than a hundred words, it still delivers the premise in microcosm. Ben is trapped in a situation where it isn’t just his own life that hangs in the balance, and that to save the life of the person in front of him he is going to have to reveal something he wants to keep secret. I used to sniff at the term high concept, but it turns out that I really enjoy high stakes and a steep price. What immediately jumped out at me is the first five words: if he gets off now. Even though The Survivor takes place on the subway, the setting is not what is keeping Ben trapped. It’s his nature that the killer is counting on: that no matter what he goes through, they know that he can’t bring himself to walk away. I hope readers enjoy seeing how deep that journey goes.

Follow Andrew Reid on Instagram and Threads.

Writers Read: Andrew Reid.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael"

Paulette Kennedy is the author of The Artist of Blackberry Grange (2025), The Devil and Mrs. Davenport (2024), The Witch of Tin Mountain (2023), and Parting the Veil (2021), which received the HNS Review Editor’s Choice Award. Her work has been featured in People Magazine, The Mary Sue, and BookBub. Originally from the Missouri Ozarks, where as a young girl she could often be found wandering through the gravestones in her neighborhood cemetery, Kennedy’s affinity for fog-covered landscapes and haunted heroines only grew, inspiring her to become a writer. She now lives with her family and a menagerie of rescue pets in sunny Southern California, where sometimes, on the very best days, the mountains are wreathed in gothic fog.

Kennedy applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael, with the following results:

From page 69:

“...Beautiful things deserve to be enjoyed. Please, will you join me?”

I sit next to him, and he pours wine into the crystal goblet nearest me. I raise it to my lips and drink. It’s rich and dark, with an underlying peppery tone.

“Zinfandel,” Alex says with a smile. “A newer wine variety. Have you ever tasted anything like it?”

“I can’t say that I have.” It’s been so many years since I’ve enjoyed a proper, seated dinner, much less wine. Papa preferred ale and cider with supper, although Mother would insist upon French wine for formal occasions. “It’s delightful.”

Alex carves the roast and serves it to me, ladling sauce over the meat. I dredge the meat in the sauce and lift my fork to my mouth. A moan of pleasure escapes my lips. It’s so tender it melts on my tongue. After years of near starvation in prison and in the marsh, and nothing but broth and soup during my recovery, this meal feels worthy of a queen. It makes me curious about Alex’s financial standing, and how he can afford such sumptuous food.

“Is it good?” he asks, his eyes sparkling.

“Heavens, yes,” I say, laughing. I carve another piece with my knife, savoring the taste more slowly this time.

This is such an interesting test for The Two Deaths of Lillian Carmichael, because while the context of the scene is a meal shared between two soon-to-be lovers, it encapsulates many aspects of the novel: sensuality and hunger, as well as wealth and class, which are major themes. Vampires are true hedonists, and while Alex and Lillian are not vampires, this scene conveys sensory delight and the growing romantic tension between my characters. The setting of the novel, Charleston, South Carolina in the 1850s, was filled with earthly, materialistic vanities, pleasures, and classism. If readers were to turn to this page, it would help to set the tone for the book. The line, "Beautiful things deserve to be enjoyed," has an especially harrowing context when applied to the vampiric murderer, who very much views the young women he victimizes as beautiful things that he is entitled to. Predation and desire, ambition, and revenge are all explored in the novel, so I believe the Page 69 Test works well for this scene.

Visit Paulette Kennedy's website.

The Page 69 Test: Parting the Veil.

The Page 69 Test: The Devil and Mrs. Davenport.

My Book, The Movie: The Artist of Blackberry Grange.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sing the Night"

Megan Jauregui Eccles lives in the foothills of San Diego and is a writer, poet, and professor at John Paul the Great Catholic University. Her gothic fantasy novel, Sing the Night, explores the ambition and grief of being an artist. When she’s not writing or rehoming rattlesnakes, she plays Dungeons and Dragons with her husband and six kids. She holds an MFA in Fiction from UCR—Palm Desert.

Eccles applied the Page 69 Test Sing the Night, and reported the following:

Page 69 takes us inside the forbidden mirror beneath the opera house with the ghost trapped inside. This is a quintessential scene where Selene witnesses the magnitude of his magic--marking the difference and noting the possibilities of what magic can do.

"She couldn't live with herself, knowing she'd left him here.

He hovered there--winged in darkness and haloed by false stars--like a vengeful god. There was no music to this magic. This wasn't controlled by breath or voice. This magic was wild, living. It had taken his blood and made him monstrous and lovely.

Something sparked, feral and hungry inside Selene. Whatever he was doing, whatever dark magic this was, she needed it. If she could harness this, she would have magic like never before. They'd have no choice but to crown her the King's Mage. To write the Dreshé name down in all the books. She would be unstoppable.

"Selene." His voice was all the thunder but none of the honey, dissonant and dark and somehow still a siren's song.

He flapped his great, dark wings. The force of it shattered the air, pushing Selene back, back, back. The ground slide from beneath her feet and she was floating, falling into the shapeless nothing that was the dark."

This is an excellent test for Sing the Night. It propels us into one of the main conflicts of the book—the Faustian bargain to free the ghost from the mirror—all while balancing Selene’s need for more power, more magic, and a chance to secure her father’s legacy. Sing the Night is very much an ode to the grief and ambition of being an artist, which is fraught with contradiction. We make art because it’s what our souls need, but we must have commercial viability in that art in order to survive. That creates systems in which artists must push themselves to tbe brink in order to succeed. This scene also captures the rich atmosphere and the lush prose that I worked hard to embody throughout the book. This is such an interesting craft exercise and I look forward to trying it out again on my future work.

Visit Megan Jauregui Eccles's website.

My Book, The Movie: Sing the Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Tore All to Pieces"

Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr. is an advocate, educator, author, and Kentucky Teacher of the Year. His work is focused on advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and creating inclusive spaces for students, especially within the context of Appalachia. He is the author of Tore All to Pieces, a fragmented novel about a small town in Appalachia and the interconnectedness of our identities, as well as Gay Poems for Red States, a bestselling collection of narrative poetry about his childhood growing up queer in Appalachia.

Carver applied the Page 69 Test to Tore All to Pieces and shared the following:

Hearing about the Page 69 Test tells me two things: (1) that I have the humour of a middle schooler, since I know that the poem “The Scientist” in my first collection begins on that page because I giggle every time I tell people to turn there, and (2) that I am not to be trusted.

This is because when I opened Tore All to Pieces to page 69, I immediately thought, “This is one of my favorite moments.” Then I found that suspect, so I randomly tried pages 86 and 141 and had similar feelings. Still…

On page 69, Patrick, a college-aged queer hillbilly, has just spent the evening in the backseat of a car with a stranger on the strip job at a coal operation, and is now tired and also afraid to retrieve his car from the driveway of a gun-toting family that lives against a hillside. He is trying to convince his sister, Rayeanne, to take him to get it, but she is more invested in canned cheese dip and police detective television shows. She simply declares, “Fuck I will.”

This page is a true slice of the entire book—a bite of dressing with onion, turkey, and celery in it. These characters are Appalachians for Appalachia. They’re unadorned, unafraid to be messy, and unwilling to have to work to be legible outside of here. Many Appalachians know the feeling of worrying about looking serious and worthy to others. This book refuses that lens. It begins with the knowledge that these people already matter—as do their stories. Tortilla chips broken in cheese dip and lovemaking up on strip jobs?

That’s home to me.

That’s Tore All to Pieces—folks I love without wrapping paper. Hungry. Tired. Worthy.

Visit Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.'s website.

Q&A with Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.

My Book, The Movie: Tore All to Pieces.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Only Spell Deep"

Ava Morgyn is the USA Today bestselling author of The Bane Witch and The Witches of Bone Hill. She grew up falling in love with all the wrong characters in all the wrong stories, then studied English Writing & Rhetoric at St. Edward’s University. She is a lover of witchcraft, tarot, and powerful women with bad reputations, and she currently resides in Houston surrounded by antiques and dog hair. When not at her laptop spinning darkly hypnotic tales, Morgyn writes for her blog on child loss (forloveofevelyn.com), hunts for vintage treasures, and reads the darkest books she can find.

She is the author of YA novels Resurrection Girls and The Salt in Our Blood.

Morgyn applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Only Spell Deep, with the following results:

Page 69 of Only Spell Deep reads:

A scream that my grandfather put there, that my mother fed and the voice honed, that woke up in the park under that bridge and might swallow me alive if I don’t get it out. It is a horrific, caterwauling sound that claws its way out of my throat and into the wires supplying the building. And when it hits the night, the Needle goes black, every light ticking off in a dizzying sequence, dousing the heart of the city in shadow.

While I find this passage intriguing and think it makes several very telling points—alluding to the abuse of her grandfather and mother, mentioning “the voice” which was such a significant part of her childhood, discussing the park in which she first met the Fathom, and most importantly describing her power and the effect it has on her as she exercises it again—I think there is just too little here to satiate readers that don’t already know the story. It even mentions “the Needle”, meaning the Seattle Space Needle, which hints at the setting, but without that other word, I don’t know if readers will even pick up on that.

That said, I do think even this tiny passage carries the tone and mood of the book and might be enough to draw a reader solely based on “vibes” if they know they are looking for dark fantasy and moody storytelling.

What I’d really like for readers to get as a teaser of my book is something more like this passage on page 23:

Magic is only spell deep, my mother used to say. It is as likely to harm as to heal.

Who knows how many other cautionary tales in love and magic populated my storied family tree? And at the simple age of sixteen, I had, in my own way, taken my place among them.

Still, I knew there was more. Things my mother hadn’t told me, things about my grandmother, about her, about our family. Things she’d run from once, only to have to run back. But I assumed that those things lived in the past; they couldn’t touch me.

This passage is only a small snippet of a much larger, more informative page, but even it tells and tantalizes in ways the page 69 passage does not. We know instantly that our main character is grappling with family secrets and generational trauma, with the silencing of women and with hereditary magic. We even get a glimpse of where the title of the book came from.

Visit Ava Morgyn's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bane Witch.

Q&A with Ava Morgyn.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Best Little Motel in Texas"

Sonia Hartl (AKA Lyla Lane) is the author of YA, romance, and cozy mysteries. Her books have received starred reviews from BookPage and Booklist, and earned nominations for the Georgia Peach Book Award, YALSA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, ALA’s Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, and ALA’s Rainbow Booklist, and was named an Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best Young Adult. When she’s not writing she enjoys board games with her family, attempting to keep her garden alive, or looking up craft projects she’ll never get around to completing on Pinterest.

Hartl/Lane applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Best Little Motel in Texas, and reported the following:

Page 69 features Cordelia and the chicks trying to come up with a list of suspects for the murder of the local pastor and debating what makes someone a suspect. Cordelia thinks the pastor’s wife is guilty of poisoning him, while my the chicks think it’s the local land developer, but mostly because they can’t stand her.

The Page 69 Test works well for my book because it showcases the main characters just starting the investigation. They’re already putting together a list of both suspects and people they don’t like, and the way they chime in on individuals gives a good sense of their history, personalities, and their relationship with people in town. It’s a nice blend of both plot and character development.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but I drop a pretty significant clue on this page that doesn’t feel like a clue at all and is only mentioned in passing, but becomes Very Significant later on. Part of the fun of writing a mystery is leaving little breadcrumbs for the readers to pick up on, so it’s funny that I was asked to do this test and the page number given happened to have a great deal of relevancy to it.

Visit Lyla Lane's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Best Little Motel in Texas.

Q&A with Lyla Lane.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Island of Ghosts and Dreams"

Christopher Cosmos was raised in the Midwest and attended the University of Michigan as the recipient of a Chick Evans Scholarship. In addition to being a bestselling author, he is also a screenwriter and has had his work featured in the annual Black List of best Hollywood screenplays of the year. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Cosmos applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, Island of Ghosts and Dreams, and shared the following:

Page 69 of Island of Ghosts and Dreams features the main character, Maria, talking with her best friend as they sit in her apartment and look out at the iconic Chania Harbor, discussing both the activity that's happening there in the harbor (the British and remaining Greeks getting ready for a potential invasion of their island) as well as the British soldier that Maria has found, nursed back to health, then returned to the British Army.

This passage is a great representation of the novel visually, as it's the stunning harbor of Chania which the characters are looking out at from an amazing vantage that was one of the inspirations for this novel. The harbor is also actually even featured on the cover!

It's also a good representation of the story as a whole, as Maria's life soon becomes defined by the German invasion of her island, and the help she receives from this particular British soldier she saved and which becomes essential to both her and her family.

If you have a chance to check out Island of Ghosts and Dreams, I so very much hope you enjoy! I'm a Greek-American writer and moved to Chania while I researched and wrote this story, sitting in an apartment looking out over the harbor each morning and day, just like Maria does on page 69.

Visit Christopher Cosmos's website and follow him on Instagram.

The Page 69 Test: Once We Were Here.

Q&A with Christopher Cosmos.

The Page 69 Test: Young Conquerors.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Pinky Swear"

Danielle Girard is the USA Today and Amazon #1 bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the Annabelle Schwartzman Series, Chasing Darkness, and The Rookie Club series. Her books have won the Barry Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, and White Out was in the top 100 bestselling e-books of 2020. In addition, two of her titles have been optioned for screen.

Girard applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Pinky Swear, with the following results:

Page 69 shows a look into the girls’ shared high school journal. This is their private, confessional space and it’s intimate, messy and very teenager. The entry starts innocently, discussing a love of peanut butter on graham crackers and a mother who stopped buying them because she thought her daughter was “getting fat in like third grade.” It’s funny, painful, and telling all at once.

The entry spirals into a strange reaction from her father and though the tone is flippant, there is something underneath about the girl’s reaction. Finally, the girl mentions a high school crush and calls herself his stalker for how much she watches him. Finally, the girl reassures the group that they can bury last weekend firmly in the past. They can keep this secret.

But that final line lands differently than the rest because secrets, of course, are never really buried.

Would page 69 give browsers a good idea of the whole work?

Yes, but maybe not in the way they would expect.

If a reader opened to page 69, they might initially think Pinky Swear is a novel about teenage girls, high school crushes, and family drama. They wouldn’t immediately see the suspense framework or the central crisis involving the surrogate’s disappearance.

But emotionally and in terms of the tone? The page is very representative of the novel.

At its core, Pinky Swear is about female friendship, about shared secrets, about the long tail of adolescent experiences into adulthood. The journal entries reveal how formative those early relationships are, and how the things we bury at sixteen have a way of resurfacing decades later.

So while page 69 might not scream “thriller” at first glance, it definitely reflects the heart of the book by hinting at the intensity of girlhood bonds, the complexity of family, and the dangerous illusion that the past can be sealed off.

In that sense, the test works surprisingly well.

I love that this page captures so many elements of the book. First, the authenticity of teenage voice. The humor (“barf”), the insecurity (“Does that make me a bitch?”), the melodrama, the rawness—it all feels immediate. While the girls are funny and sharp and self-aware, they are also deeply vulnerable and that emotional honesty is foundational to the novel.

Second, the page plants seeds of unease. The father’s strange behavior along with the abrupt emotional shifts and the casual mention of what happened “last weekend” as something they are determined to bury.

Third, the page underscores one of the novel’s central themes: how we misunderstand—or only partially understand—the people closest to us.

Finally, the shared journal itself is symbolic as it represents the intimacy and trust the girls have at sixteen.

So would page 69 give a browser the entire plot? No.

Would it give them the emotional essence of the book? Absolutely because it shows the origin story of a friendship and it hints at fracture lines in families. This page also introduces secrecy as both glue and fault line and it ends with the dangerous optimism of youth: We can keep this secret.

Anyone who reads that line and feels a prickle of dread is already in the right book.

Visit Danielle Girard's website.

Writers Read: Danielle Girard (August 2018).

My Book, The Movie: Expose.

The Page 69 Test: Expose.

The Page 69 Test: White Out.

Q&A with Danielle Girard.

Writers Read: Danielle Girard.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Then He Was Gone"

Isabel Booth is the pen name of Karen Jewell, a former trial attorney and now a writer. She holds an undergraduate degree in English, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Juris Doctorate degree. When she’s not writing she loves to read, travel, and cook dinner for friends. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband.

Booth applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Then He Was Gone, and reported the following:

The scene on page 69 in Then He Was Gone is narrated by attorney Elizabeth English, the mother of six-year-old Henry, who has gone missing at the end of a family hike in the mountains. Elizabeth is packing a suitcase for Henry’s older brother Nick, to send him back to Houston, and giving him instructions about his flight home.

“You’ll board first, with any other unaccompanied minors. Aunt Kathleen will be waiting for you when you land.”

“Mom. This isn’t the first time I’ve flown by myself.”

True. He was a seasoned traveler, having been on trips with Paul and me from the time he was born, to London, Paris, Mexico, all over the U.S. and Canada. But as I packed, a scene kept playing in my mind. Nick walking down the runway in Denver, disappearing into the plane—never to be seen again.

“I know. You’ll be fine.”

I zipped the suitcase and set it on the floor. Nick took the handle and rolled it into the living room.

“Ready to go?” Paul said.

“Yup.”

We’d agreed that Paul would take Nick to Denver, buy him dinner at the airport, and stay with him until the plane took off. The press was still camped out beyond the gate. We put Nick’s suitcase in the Jeep in the garage, with the door closed. He lay down in the back seat, and I sat beside Paul in front. Paul opened the garage door and backed out, turned the Jeep around, and headed down the driveway. As we approached the gate, I said, “I love you, Nicky,” and he said, “I love you” back. I hopped out and unlocked the gate, opened then closed it after Paul had driven through. Cameras clicked and whirred, still and video shots of Paul driving away, me walking back to the cabin as the reporters shouted, “Is there any news of Henry, Mrs. English?” “Have they found anything—any articles of clothing?” “It’s been almost forty-eight hours since Henry went missing . . . Do you believe he’s still alive?”

Page 69 establishes that Henry is missing, which is the main plot line of Then He Was Gone. It introduces Elizabeth, as well as Paul and Nick, who will narrate their own chapters of the story. It reveals the anxiety Elizabeth feels about being separated from Nick, and her fear that she’ll lose him, too. It shows the family being hounded by the press, and the parents’ desire to protect Nick from that.

Page 69 doesn’t give a sense of the tense pace of the investigation into Henry’s disappearance, or the twists of the narrative as evidence turns up. It doesn’t offer a full picture of the desperate parents searching for their son, or the heartbreaking effects of Henry’s disappearance on Nick. It doesn’t reveal Elizabeth’s mounting anguish as the days turn into weeks, then months, and she relentlessly combs the trails in Rocky Mountain National Park and drives the towns in the surrounding area looking for Henry. And it doesn’t introduce the other interesting characters who narrate the story: Monroe, a former Montana sheriff, now park ranger, who leads the investigation; Alexis, Henry’s godmother, a high-powered corporate lawyer and Elizabeth’s best friend; and Eddie, an ex-con obsessed with Elizabeth because she helped send him to prison years before.

But I hope page 69 leaves the reader wanting to know the answer to this question and read on: What happened to Henry? If so, I guess it passes the test.

Visit Isabel Booth's website.

My Book, The Movie: Then He Was Gone.

Q&A with Isabel Booth.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Cheerleader"

Marina Evans is a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader who graduated from Southern Methodist University with degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing. During her time with the Cowboys, she cheered under her maiden name/nickname, Rena Morelli. She lives in Arizona now but thinks about her days in short-shorts often.

Evans applied the Page 69 Test to The Cheerleader (Death of a Cheerleader, UK title), her debut thriller, and shared the following:

My novel, The Cheerleader, is a high-gloss, fast-paced thriller that explores the dark side of professional cheerleading. It’s (very loosely) based on my background as a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. With plenty of high-kicks, high hair, and high drama, the story is what you’d expect from a murder mystery set in Texas cheer royalty.

I would say that on page 69 of the book, we are still meeting the main characters. Namely, Nikki Keegan who is an ambitious filmmaker hired to document the supposed comeback of the Dallas Lonestars—a fictional football team. She takes the opportunity to film an unauthorized true crime series on the side, and in that, she notices the team’s star quarterback lurking outside the residence of the deceased cheer captain. On page 69, Nikki begins to research him. The QB is married with a child, and his wife is social media sensation. Was he just paying is “Lonestars” respects along with other lookie loos?

Nikki also watches an interview featuring the father of the murdered cheerleader. We feel the man’s pain, and we listen to his criticism of the police during their investigation. So, while we don’t get the full scoop of the entire story on page 69, trouble is brewing! And perhaps a little foreshadowing??

Visit Marina Evans's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Cheerleader.

Q&A with Marina Evans.

Writers Read: Marina Evans.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Defiant Woman"

Karen E. Olson, author of An Inconvenient Wife, is the winner of the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award and a Shamus Award finalist. She is the author of the Annie Seymour mysteries, the Tattoo Shop mysteries, and the Black Hat thrillers. Olson was a longtime editor, both in newspapers and at Yale. She lives in North Haven, Connecticut.

Olson applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, A Defiant Woman, with the following results:

Page 69 of A Defiant Woman is the last page of a chapter. In it, Nan Tudor—Hank Tudor’s second wife who has been living in France under an alias for eight years—is hiring private investigator Thomas Wyatt to help her find her kidnapped daughter. Nan had been lured back to the States with the threat of her daughter’s life; however, Nan suspects that the kidnapping was not as much about her daughter as about her—and who wants to take revenge on her:

“As I see it,” he said, putting his glass back down, “once I find your daughter, I’ll also find out who’s after you.”

“Oh, I already know who’s after me,” Nan said with a smirk.

He laughed then. “Why the hell do you need me, then?”

Nan leaned forward, her elbows on the table, and she stared into his eyes.

“Because if it’s who I suspect, the person who’s orchestrated this tried to have me killed once before, and I have to make sure she never gets another chance.”

In the exchange with Wyatt, the reader sees a snapshot of Nan’s personality: her defiance and determination—and courage. It also sets the stage for the rest of the book. While I gave Hank Tudor’s other wives—Catherine, Kate, and Anna—their own chapters and points of view, A Defiant Woman is truly Nan’s story. It’s serendipitous that page 69 reflects that so definitively.

Visit Karen E. Olson's website.

The Page 69 Test: An Inconvenient Wife.

Q&A with Karen E. Olson.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ruby Falls"

Gin Phillips has written seven novels and her work has been sold in 29 countries.

Phillips’s debut novel, The Well and the Mine, won the 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Award. The Los Angeles Times called it “an astonishing debut” and noted that “a whisper runs through the novel — the ghosts of places and people and luscious peach pies, making it a combination of dream and nightmare, nightmare and dream.”

Her novel, Fierce Kingdom, was named one of the Best Crime Novels of 2017 by the New York Times Book Review. It was also named one of the best books of the year by NPR, Publishers Weekly, Amazon, and Kirkus Reviews.

Phillips applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Ruby Falls, and reported the following:

I’m always delighted by the alchemy of the Page 69 Test—I don’t know if it works well in every book, but it works astonishingly well in mine.

My novel, Ruby Falls, begins with a man discovering a waterfall in the middle of a mountain. He names it after his wife, Ruby, and opens the tourist attraction to the public …just as the Great Depression hits full force. Meanwhile, Ada Smith has been exploring the caverns around the falls on her own—she’s lost plenty in her life, but this underground world has opened up possibilities she had no idea existed.

Page 69 hits right as the reader learns the basic framework of the novel: a local newspaper article details the plans for a famous mind reader to arrive in town as part of PR effort to sell tickets to Ruby Falls.

“He has been invited to Chattanooga by Leo Lambert, discovered of Ruby Falls, in hopes that he will perform the most mind-bending display of his abilities to date,” the article says. “He will navigate the underground passages of Lookout Mountain, using only his psychic energy to locate a hidden hatpin.”

Ada is scanning the article after a man she barely knows knocks on her front door and announces he has a proposition for her. She’s met Quinton in the caverns once before, but now she invites him inside her home for the first time:

He takes off his hat and starts to sit down in the straight-backed cane chair by the coatrack, and she’s glad when he reconsiders. She’s not sure it would hold him.

“Tea?” she says, wishing she had sugar. “Or I’ve got coffee on the burner I can warm up.”

He rests a hand on the back of the too-spindly chair. “I’ll take the coffee, if it’s not too much trouble.”

She taps the back of her oak rocking chair, and he drops into it with less jouncing than she expected. She steps to the stove, pulling her matches out of the drawer.

Within a few pages, we’ll learn that Quinton wants Ada to accompany him on part of the expedition that’s being kept secret—the two of them will follow the mind reader and his party at a distance in case of emergency. But even before that reveal, I like how this page sets up the divide between Ada’s life aboveground and belowground. She’s been raised to believe that her roles in life will be as a wife and mother, and she’s tried to play those roles: she has, in the past, desperately wanted to play them. But after her babies never lived to take a breath and her husband died, she’s coming to terms with the fact that she’s not going to fit the mold of all the women around her. She’s finding a new narrative in the caverns, exploring on her own, thrilled by the unknown.

We see her playing hostess on this page, with all the usual trappings of coffee and comfy seats, but it’s not a role she’s entirely comfortable with anymore. Her path is forking, both because of her passion for the caves and because of Quinton, who winds up playing a large role in how Ada’s story unfurls.

Here’s another thing I like: while much of the novel plays out underground in a world flush with millipedes and oxides and limestone and bats, the Great Depression—the weight and fear and constancy of it—is a big part of this story. Ada’s house has a certain barebones quality that almost every house would have had—no sugar, no extra food, furniture used past its prime.

The limits of life aboveground make the strange splendor of the Ruby Falls caverns seem even more otherworldly.

Visit Gin Phillips's website.

Writers Read: Gin Phillips (August 2017).

The Page 69 Test: Fierce Kingdom.

The Page 69 Test: Family Law.

Q&A with Gin Phillips.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow"

Verlin Darrow is a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near the Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary. Darrow is a former professional volleyball player (in Italy), unsuccessful country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign spiritual organization.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow, and shared the following:

From page 69:

“I never really thanked you for all you did for me.”

“It was my pleasure. Listen, this is Bill Cullen. He’s investigating a murder up on our land, and he thought you might be able to help.”

Gar’s face darkened. “I’m tired of this shit, officer. I’ve been clean for six years now and I did my time. Anyway, I was never violent.”

Bill’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? I’ve seen your file, Brindisi. Resisting arrest? Wasn’t that one of your crimes?”

“That was bogus. They tacked that on to strengthen their case so I’d make a deal. All I did was try to grab my coat while this asshole was pulling my arm at the front door. Shit, it was cold out.”

“The detective has to explore all the possibilities, Gar,” I said. “I told him you’d never be involved in anything like a murder. But maybe you know who would, or how we could find out.”

“Cuz I have a record? That makes me a font of information?” He looked down and then spoke in a softer, calmer tone. “Look, I’d help you if I could. All I can say is nobody up there could’ve done it unless there’ve been newcomers in the last four months.”

Bill looked at me, and I shook my head.

“I know every person in the community, and I knew killers in Folsom,” Gar continued. “You’re talking about opposite ends of the spectrum. Look elsewhere.”

“Okay, thanks,” Bill told him.

This excerpt is typical of the middle part of my mystery, in which Kade, my protagonist, and a police detective question a series of suspects to investigate a murder on a rural spiritual community’s land. The page isn’t particularly significant or interesting compared to some of the other encounters—ones that yield important plot points or further character development. Since the latter part of the book is a murder trial, this page isn’t any sort of harbinger of what’s to come, either.

All in all, I’d say page 69 lets the reader know a bit about the general idea of the book. It introduces the setting, two of the main characters, and that there’s a murder to solve. Beyond that, I hope this relatively unexciting scene doesn’t reflect how engaging the book will be to readers.

I’m going to take the opportunity to let my protagonist dispense advice to writers.

“We have a choice to either hunker down and resist being changed by what comes our way, or grow and evolve as the ground underneath us shifts. Trying to maintain our historical sense of ourselves through thick and thin can be subtle, using psychological defenses, or it can be obvious, arguing away others’ point of view or freezing our development by drinking. Our attempts to make ourselves feel safe and secure are doomed. Impermanence prevails.

For writers, this means we have to surf the randomness and capriciousness of the publishing world, especially in regards to the end result of our efforts. It’s easy to adopt a subtle adversarial stance toward the folks who hold the fate of our careers in their hands. Why won’t they accept our query/submission of such a wonderful manuscript? What’s wrong with these people? The reality we sometimes need to accept is that our work may not be wonderful, after all. And even if it is, it may not be marketable in the eyes of people more expert than us. If we can yield gracefully—without a fight—to all of this, including our feelings and thoughts about it all, we can proceed in whatever is the best way possible.”

This is in his voice, and he’s no dummy.

Visit Verlin Darrow's website.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow (May 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Murder for Liar.

The Page 69 Test: Murder for Liar.

The Page 69 Test: The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow (April 2024).

My Book, The Movie: The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth.

My Book, The Movie: The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow.

Q&A with Verlin Darrow.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions"

Ahmad Saber is a young adult author who grew up on an all-girls college campus next to a massive fort in Pakistan. He now lives in Canada, and loves Broadway (favorite show = Phantom), travel (favorite place = 4-way tie between NYC, Seoul, Paris, and Melbourne), and Taylor Swift (favorite album = folklore) He's also a self-professed Chocolate Chip Cookie Connoisseur and has crowned New York's Culture Espresso’s as the best in the world.

Ramin Abbas has MAJOR Questions is his debut novel and is based in part on his own lived experience, exploring the inherent challenges of being queer and Muslim, and the struggle to reconcile faith with sexuality.

Saber is also a medical doctor specializing in rheumatology.

He applied the Page 69 Test to Ramin Abbas has MAJOR Questions with the following results:

This is fun! Here’s what’s on Page 69 of Ramin Abbas has MAJOR Questions:

“Don’t talk poorly of your aunt,” Dad says irritably. “And leave your daadu out of this.”

But it is about Daadu. It’s got everything to do with my grandfather. Five months have gone by since Telephone Grandpa passed away, but Dad’s grief shows no sign of abating. When Dad emigrated, Daadu moved in with Aunty Fauzia, Dad’s younger sister. Aunty Fauzia doesn’t have a computer with a webcam or even Wi-Fi; the only option to talk with our grandfather was by phone. So, while Zayn and I wanted Daadu in our lives, it’s kinda hard to get to know someone when you can’t even see them. And it’s harder to be there for them. Aunty Fauzia loves reminding my father of this. Loves accusing him of being selfish for leaving. Never mind that Dad tried to sponsor Daadu four times, but the immigration people kept rejecting his application. Canada doesn’t want old, sick people.

I lay a hand on Dad’s shoulder. “Uh. We can talk about Daadu, you know.” My voice is shaky; I don’t know how he’ll react.

Dad runs his fingers through my hair. “Ramin. He is gone. No point talking about the past. We should focus on the future and fix things. It is not too late.”

“Fix things?” I bolt upright.

“I mean, it is not too late to make some big decisions. You and Zayn are young. You can still adapt easily. Islamabad has great universities.”

I leap off the couch as if it’s made of lava. “Come on, Dad! We’ve talked about this already! We’re not moving back to Pakistan. This is our home!”

While the Page 69 Test doesn’t quite capture everything (mainly, the central conflict between Ramin’s queer sexual identity and his devout faith in Islam, which forbids homosexuality, and the central plot about the soccer competition), it has captured the general vibe of the story and I’m quite impressed with this test, actually. Therefore, I think the readers would definitely get a good taste of the story, like a tasty amuse bouche before the main courses are served.

My book spans a wide variety of subject matter, so I think it would be nearly impossible for a single page to capture the breadth of the novel, but why this test worked for my book is because it has captured a key component of the various types of conflict in the story: Ramin’s complicated relationship with his soccer-loving dad, who’s also very religious and very unlikely to be accepting of Ramin’s queerness. The page highlights Ramin’s dad’s struggle with adjusting in Canada, a move which came at the cost of strained family relationships and constant second-guessing his decision to immigrate. Dad’s guilt over this certainly affects his relationship with Ramin on a subconscious level, hence the page gives an idea of the struggle of many first generation immigrants to the modern west: the feeling of never quite belonging.

Lastly, the page happened to capture one of my favorite combinations of words in the book: Telephone Grandpa. Every kid who grew up far from their grandparents would likely immediately know and feel what a “Telephone Grandpa” is. I had received overwhelmingly positive feedback on this phrase from my beta readers when the novel was first being drafted.

In summary, I love the Page 69 Test! I’d never heard of it before, but now I have a feeling I’ll apply to every single book I browse or purchase. It’s just so much fun, and lands you right into the core of the book to get an idea of the writing, the themes, the worldbuilding etc.

Visit Ahmad Saber's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Dark Below"

Sherry Rankin grew up in New Jersey where she became an early and avid reader of mystery fiction. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and currently lives in Abilene, Texas where she has taught writing and literature at a local university for twenty years.

Her novel, Strange Fire, was shortlisted for the 2017 Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize and won the 2017 CWA Debut Dagger Award.

Her debut thriller, The Killing Plains, was published by Thomas & Mercer as a super lead title in February 2025.

Rankin applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Dark Below, and reported the following:

On page 69, Teddy stops by her father Milton’s house to check on him and drop off a few groceries on her way to the crime scene. When Teddy was a child, Milton was a brutal domestic tyrant. Now, in his seventies, he’s a reclusive hoarder and an alcoholic—a shell of his former self, but still spiteful and manipulative. Teddy looks after him out of a sense of pity and family obligation, and he repays her kindness with complaints.

Here's a passage from page 69:

Teddy opened the refrigerator to put the milk away. The handle was sticky. A line of ants crawled up the door. She washed her hands and dried them with a paper towel. When she tossed it into the overflowing garbage pail, a crumpled letter on county letterhead caught her eye.

She pulled it out. “Dad, what’s this?”

Milton drained his beer. “Health Department thinks they can bully a veteran.”

Teddy scanned the letter. “This says you have thirty days to clean up before they take you to court.” She checked the date. “It’s from a week ago.”

Milton picked up his cigarette. “People need to mind their own goddamn business.”

“This place is a health hazard, Dad. It stinks.”

“It’s them rats—they die in the walls.” He flicked ash into the tray. “What can they do, sue me? I ain’t got nothin’.”

“They can send in a crew with a roll-off dumpster and gut the place. That what you want?” A dull pain was pulsing behind Teddy’s eyes. She looked at her watch. “I’ve got to go, Dad. We’ll talk about this later.” She folded the letter and tucked it in her back pocket as she left.

The Dark Below is largely concerned with the darkness people keep buried beneath the surface of their lives. While page 69 isn’t directly tied to the central mystery, it captures Teddy’s ongoing struggle to manage her own anger and grief while tending to others—balancing career and family, pride and pity, rage and restraint. In that sense, page 69 offers a representative glimpse of the novel’s thematic center, even as the larger plot continues to unfold elsewhere.

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--Marshal Zeringue