"Medusa Uploaded"

Emily Devenport has written several novels under various pseudonyms including one which was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick award. She currently studies Geology and works as a volunteer at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

Devenport applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, Medusa Uploaded, and reported the following:

Midway down page 69 in Medusa Uploaded I read:

Unhappy plans were beginning to manifest in the halls of my mind. They were bloody-handed creatures...

And that is, absolutely, representative of the rest of the book. In fact, it makes a pretty good summary. Oichi is a ruthless person, but she's got good reason. She was forged by harsh circumstances, and has spent the majority of her life pretending to obey. The consequences of being exposed as a dissident are brutal, but it's not just the loss of her life that frightens Oichi. She has a master plan. It's the core of her existence. And if she's discovered, that plan will fail. So she's willing to kill to prevent that from happening.

Yet Oichi has also been raised with an appreciation of beauty, of intelligence and integrity. On page 69, she is confronted with the need to kill someone she admires. He has seen through her disguise, and he could expose her. The fact that he has children to protect makes him more dangerous. She's going to have to decide what to do about him. And Oichi has the fortitude to do what needs to be done.

But things aren't going to go as expected, and how she improvises is what drives this story. If you haven't read my book yet, and this post leads you to check out page 69, I hope you'll want to flip back to the beginning, because Oichi's unhappy plans lead to some unexpected places.

Visit Emily Devenport's blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

"All the Ever Afters"

Danielle Teller (formerly Morse, nee Dyck) grew up in Canada, where she and her two brothers were raised by the best parents in the world. As a child, she was a bookworm who dreamed of being a writer, but she chickened out and went to medical school instead. In 1994, she moved temporarily to America, and she has been living temporarily in America ever since. Teller attended Queen's University during her undergraduate years, and she received her medical training at McGill University, Brown University and Yale University. She has held faculty positions at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University, where she investigated the origins of chronic lung disease and taught in the medical intensive care unit. In 2013, Teller quit her job to pursue her childhood dream of being a writer. She lives with her husband, Astro Teller, and their four children in Palo Alto, California.

Teller applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella’s Stepmother, and reported the following:

This is the most interesting question anyone has asked about my book! Page 69 comes at the end of a chapter, so it is half blank, which may be a good metaphor for my writing. I write very slowly and revise constantly, so my word counts are always lower than they are supposed to be, never higher. I struggle to fill blank spaces!

This chapter closes with Agnes, who eventually becomes the “evil” stepmother, escaping a cruel mistress for what she hopes will be a better position as a servant:

As we left the kitchen, I cast a glance at the bulky form of the laundress, who lay sprawled in her scant underclothes, glistening with sweat in the weak light of dawn that filtered through the skylights. I prayed that I might not meet her again.

This is the first of Agnes’s “ever after” moments, where she finds her way out of unhappy circumstances to seek a better life for herself, and later for her daughters. As such, page 69 is emblematic of the novel as a whole, which chronicles the successes and setbacks of the stepmother’s rags-to-riches life.

Visit Danielle Teller's website.

Writers Read: Danielle Teller.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Man on Ice"

Humphrey Hawksley is a British journalist and thriller writer whose books focus on the world’s trouble spots and the characters caught up within them. His most recent, Man on Ice, set on the US-Russian border exposes the vulnerability of a tiny Alaskan village barely two miles across the winter sea ice from a Russian military island. This is where the sovereignty of America and Russia meet face-to-face. As most of us know, hostility between the two in real life has reached dangerous levels. Trouble flares up on the eve of a presidential inauguration when foreign powers often view the US as being weaker and in flux.

Hawksley applied the Page 69 Test to Man on Ice and reported the following:

By chance Page 69 of Man on Ice is a pivotal scene. The protagonist Rake Ozenna, a soldier skilled at working with ice and snow, is hiding out from Russian troops who have moved onto the tiny Alaskan island of Little Diomede. He awaits orders from Washington. In the White House, they are working out what possible motive Russia could have for occupying the island.

“They’re doing it now because they think they can,” suggested Prusak (White House Chief-of-Staff). “They took Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and Europe did nothing. They’re outpacing us many times over with bases and ports in the Arctic.”

Then, down the page to Ozenna:

“Captain, how best can we use you?”

“I need to cross to Big Diomede and cut off the snake’s head.”

The snake goes all the way to the Kremlin, thought Stephanie (British ambassador to Washington).

“What can you achieve there?”

“I can tell you who is where and how to hit them.”

The chapter ends with Rake Ozenna instructions to cross treacherous frozen sea water unseen and get to the Russian military base on the other side.

Visit Humphrey Hawksley's website.

My Book, The Movie: Man on Ice.

Writers Read: Humphrey Hawksley.

--Marshal Zeringue

"It Started in June"

Susan Kietzman is the author of Every Other Wednesday, The Summer Cottage, A Changing Marriage, and The Good Life.

She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, It Started in June, and reported the following:

From page 69:

He had just started picturing his life without Grace when she called. He got up from his couch and walked to the fridge for a beer. He took a sip and called her back, resolved to tell her he couldn’t make the commitment. As soon as she answered the phone, as soon as her heard her voice, his resolve crumbed.

Thirty-year-old Bradley Hanover finds himself in the unexpected and unwelcome position of assessing his allegiance to a co-worker he has impregnated but hardly knows. Leery of office romance and sworn off hooking up on a first date, Bradley breaks both rules one night when post-business-meeting drinks with Grace Trumbull, his project manager, lead to sex in the back of her car. Before she announces her pregnancy, Bradley and Grace go out several times, each date more adhesive than the last. But Grace’s decision to keep the baby is as surprising to Bradley as their initial unplanned intimacy. Not ready for parenthood yet not able to shake his infatuation with Grace, Bradley straddles freedom and commitment.

Their twelve-year age difference is a factor. Grace has already been married (and divorced) and is professionally several steps ahead of Bradley, who still has to prove himself at the office – and in life. He drinks too much beer with his college buddies, and he relies heavily on his psychiatrist mother for advice. His trouble-free existence has delayed his maturation. And yet he has an innate inclination to do the right thing. Plus, he knows his rejection of fatherhood will immediately end his opportunity to see if Grace can work her way into his heart as she has with his head. Selfishly, he wonders if a long-term relationship with Grace and the baby will punch his ticket to manhood.

Grace, too, has her doubts, not only about Bradley but also about being a mother. But, as the damaged product of a loveless childhood, she is determined to be a better parent than her teenaged mother and righteous grandparents were to her, to give this baby growing inside her a loving and nurturing upbringing. Realizing her decision to keep the baby may be misguided, she nonetheless convinces herself that correcting the errors of the past will heal her troubled soul. The few people she is close to, however, question her logic – Bradley amongst them.

Does it make sense – Grace, Bradley, and the reader wonder – for a couple to stay together when the one thing keeping them together is also pushing them apart? The questioning of commitment continually surfaces, for Grace as well as Bradley, making this passage on page 69 representative of the book from beginning to end.

Visit Susan Kietzman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Every Other Wednesday.

--Marshal Zeringue

"I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain"

Will Walton is an indie bookseller in Athens, Georgia. Anything Could Happen was his first novel.

Walton applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel, I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain, and reported the following:

Page 69 actually works sort of okay! It's sort of a split-screen page: We have the beginning of one of Avery's poems on the bottom half, and the scene that precedes its composition right above it. That pretty well indicates what the reader's in for; the book itself is split similarly, divided between prose and verse.

Follow Will Walton on Facebook.

The Page 69 Test: Anything Could Happen.

My Book, The Movie: Anything Could Happen.

Writers Read: Will Walton.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Cactus"

Sarah Haywood was born in Birmingham. She studied Law at Kent University and Chester College of Law, then worked as a trainee solicitor in London.

After qualification, she moved to Liverpool, working first as a solicitor, then as an advice worker with Citizens Advice. She subsequently joined the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman, where she investigated complaints about lawyers.

Haywood completed an Open University Creative Writing Course, followed by an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. She lives in Liverpool with her husband and two sons.

Haywood applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, The Cactus, and reported the following:

At the age of forty-five, Susan Green finds that her carefully-constructed world is turned upside down; one of the catalysts is her unexpected pregnancy. The soon-to-be father is Richard, a man with whom she’s had a ‘relationship’ of mutual convenience based on the strict understanding that there’s no emotional involvement from either party. The Cactus is written from Susan’s perspective, so we’re in her head the whole time. Page 69 begins with her explaining to the reader why she’s ended the arrangement with Richard, who, annoyingly, is standing on her doorstep:

I could imagine the scene being played out: I tell Richard I’m pregnant; he assumes I’ve done it deliberately because I want a baby or some kind of permanence to our relationship; I try to convince him that it’s the last thing on earth I’d want to happen; he offers gallantly to pay for the termination and accompany me to the clinic; I seethe with anger at his condescension and pity. No, much better to end it cleanly and swiftly.

It’s clear from this paragraph that Susan is a strong-minded, independent woman. All well and good, but she’s taken it to extremes. She refuses to be swayed by emotion and is determined to rely on logic alone when making her life choices. She never lets down her guard, so she can never be hurt.

Later on page 69, Richard, who has no idea that Susan’s carrying his child, endeavours to persuade her to resume their personal arrangement. In the course of his appeal, he says:

“I understand why you sent (the message ending the relationship). You want something beyond what we currently have, some guarantee that you won’t be alone as you enter middle age. I didn’t think I’d be able to make such a commitment, but if not doing so means I’m going to forfeit our time together, then I’m prepared to give you what you want.”

Richard genuinely believes he’s offering Susan what she desires: more regular contact and a greater commitment from him. We know better. With his self-conscious magnanimity, Richard’s not only being as tactless as Susan can be herself (“alone”, “middle age”), he’s also completely misinterpreting her motives.

So, is page 69 representative of the rest of The Cactus? Not entirely. There’s an element of humour, as there is throughout the book. Here, it’s in Richard’s pomposity and obliviousness; in the rest of the novel, it’s in Susan’s rigid but misguided opinions, and in the eccentric people she encounters. Page 69 gives both a snapshot of Susan’s character early on in the novel, and the background to her decision to proceed with the pregnancy alone. What’s missing, though, are the other main plot threads: Susan’s efforts to overturn her mother’s will favouring her brother, Edward; her exploration of her family history; and her developing relationships with Edward’s best friend, Rob, and her neighbour, Kate. It’s these experiences, as much as the prospect of becoming a mother, which cause Susan to bloom.

Visit Sarah Haywood's website.

Writers Read: Sarah Haywood.

My Book, The Movie: The Cactus.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Onyx & Ivory"

Mindee Arnett is the author of the critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller Avalon as well as the Arkwell Academy series and the newly released Onyx and Ivory. An avid eventer, she lives on a farm near Dayton, Ohio with her husband, two kids, and assorted animals. When not telling tales of magic, the supernatural, or outer space, she can be found on a horse, trying to jump anything that will stand still.

Arnett applied the Page 69 Test to Onyx and Ivory and reported the following:

From page 69:

…but the threat of the wilders wasn’t new, just the notion of them banding together. Even still, he couldn’t see their threat being the reason a magist would invent a spell that could kill so quickly. Wilders weren’t to be executed on the spot but taken prisoner for the Purging, a ritual designed to rid the world or their magic once and for all.

The above quote from page 69 of my latest book, Onyx & Ivory, is surprisingly indicative of the rest of the story. It deals specifically with the heart of the external conflict and plot—the ongoing political struggle between the two groups of magic users in this world, magists and wilders. Without giving away too many spoilers, readers will eventually discover that the main difference between these groups is more political than physiological (magicological?). In other words, one group of these magic users, the magists, have been recognized as being useful and safe by the powers that be. They’ve been embraced by society at large and even enjoy a privileged status among the people—hence their ability to invent new spells and use them. The other group however, the wilders, have been deemed dangerous and are forced to live in hiding.

The point of view character in this passage is Corwin Tormane, the second born prince of the high king, and a person who just so happens to be in a position of power. This conversation, taking place with one of the magists, is the start of Corwin’s journey in realizing the politics involved in singling out one group of people or another, and what he might or might not need to do to correct the situation.

Visit Mindee Arnett's website.

The Page 69 Test: Avalon.

Writers Read: Mindee Arnett.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Blues Walked In"

Kathleen George is the author of The Johnstown Girls, a novel about the famous Johnstown flood. She has also written seven mysteries set in Pittsburgh: A Measure of Blood, Simple, The Odds, which was nominated for the Edgar® Award from the Mystery Writers of America, Hideout, Afterimage, Fallen, and Taken. George is also the author of the short story collection The Man in the Buick and editor of another collection, Pittsburgh Noir. She is a professor of theater arts and creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

George applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Blues Walked In, and reported the following:

On Page 69 of The Blues Walked, Marie David, who has worn nothing but stitched and mended hand-me-downs all her life buys a new coat. It’s not exactly new in that it has been returned to Gimbels after too long a time by a customer who changed her mind. This purchase is representative of a couple of things (I am thrilled to learn.) It’s the coat that will make her look much more sophisticated than she is and will cause her to be mistaken for Lena Horne. It is also like a coat Lena remembers from her childhood, something her father bought her, in a rich royal blue. The coat links these two women who are of different races and economic backgrounds. The things they share are emotionally bare childhoods and a love of movies, a love that has both of them dreaming about being discovered and put on the screen.

They also share a fascination with a charismatic young man Josiah (a Negro in the language of the day) who wants to be a movie director. They know there is something special about him. Both of them respond to his kindness and his emotional intelligence. When he’s jailed and accused of murder, both women go to the jail protesting. The officers only see a blue coat in one case and coifed hair and dark skin in both cases. They are not looking. They already have opinions about race and those opinions toss everybody—and unfortunately Josiah—onto the expendable pile.

I’m thrilled to learn that page 69 “talks” the language of the book. This test is always a terror. What if there’s nothing there? I always ask before I look. Whew.

Learn more about the book and author at Kathleen George's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The French Girl"

Lexie Elliott grew up in Scotland, at the foot of the Highlands. She graduated from Oxford University, where she obtained a doctorate in theoretical physics. A keen sportswoman, she works in fund management in London, where she lives with her husband and two sons. The rest of her time is spent writing, or thinking about writing, and juggling family life and sport.

Elliott applied the Page 69 Test to her debut novel, The French Girl, and reported the following:

In The French Girl, page 69 spans the end of one scene and the start of another. Nevertheless, the combination rather neatly captures not only the essence of the novel but also that of the main protagonist, Kate. By page 69, Kate is both struggling with the re-surfacing of painful decade-old memories, stirred up by the discovery of the corpse of the eponymous French girl, and grimly aware that it would take something of a miracle to save her fledgling business. Both are taking a toll on her sense of self, as we see in the first section when she catches a glimpse of her own reflection in a shop window:

I disconnect then look up to see my ghostly self hovering in front of a swimwear montage, a smile still in place from the phone call that fades as I watch. The promise of a new life, a different life, still lies tantalizingly in reach.

In the next scene, we see two inherent characteristics of Kate’s personality: her commitment to facing her difficulties head-on, and her dark humour. We also see Kate’s warmth for Tom. It becomes clear to the reader that his presence back in England, after a long period living in Boston, is an emotional crutch for Kate; we begin to worry that she might be blinded by their shared affection:

I’ve been expecting a call from him, to tell me he’s awarding the contract to a rival firm. I could do without the final nail in the coffin…but why delay the inevitable? “Put him through, please.”

The phone in front of me buzzes after a moment. I find a smile to drape on my lips. “Good afternoon, Gordon. How are you?”

“Very well, thank you. Is this a good time?”

“Absolutely. Fire away.” Fire away. Not that he can really fire me since he’s never actually hired me, but still, the inadvertent gallows humor amuses me. I will tell Tom that later, I think. I can already see his eyes crinkling above that unmistakeable nose.

So: memories and ghosts and for Kate, a shifting sense of her own place in both her past and her present. I think it’s a fairly representative page. But perhaps you should buy the book and judge for yourself.

Visit Lexie Elliott's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Sign of the Cross"

Glenn Cooper graduated with a degree in archaeology from Harvard and was formerly the Chairman and CEO of a biotechnology company in Massachusetts. His previous thrillers, including the bestselling Library of the Dead trilogy, have sold six million copies in more than thirty languages worldwide.

Cooper applied the Page 69 Test to his new religious conspiracy thriller, Sign of the Cross, and reported the following:

My favorite page in the book! Well, maybe not, but an interesting page to illustrate an important point about Sign of the Cross in particular, and thrillers in general. In the book which is the first in a new series, Cal Donovan, professor of history of religion and archaeology at the Harvard Divinity School, is asked by the Vatican to investigate the case of a young Italian priest who develops the stigmata of the wounds of the crucified Christ. Is the priest a faker or might this be a real miracle?

The page involves the book’s antagonist, Schneider, and his nefarious organization, and here I use the device of a new recruit to illuminate some of the group’s backstory. Thrillers, by nature, cannot work without the duality of a protagonist and an antagonist. I’m not the only thriller writer who’s found that coming up with strong, believable, multidimensional bad guys is really the name of the game. Good guys are easy to invent, bad guys are hard. Early on in my writing career, a mentor who earned his bones in the thriller game told me to study Ken Follett’s The Man From St. Petersburg, where equal page count is devoted to the protagonist and the antagonist. That lesson stuck with me and I take a measure of pride in crafting good bad guys.

Visit Glenn Cooper's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"A Lite Too Bright"

Samuel Miller was born and raised in Vermillion, South Dakota, and now resides in Los Angeles, where, in addition to writing, he directs music videos and coaches Little League Baseball. He began writing his first novel while on tour in a fifteen-passenger van with the rock band Paradise Fears. A Lite Too Bright is his debut novel. Currently he attends graduate school at the University of Southern California. He credits his existence entirely to two spectacular parents, three brothers, one sister, and the best and sweetest puppy dog on the whole planet, Addison.

Miller applied the Page 69 Test to A Lite Too Bright and reported the following:

Page 69 of A Lite Too Bright is entirely dedicated to a public address announcement made by the conductor of the Zeyphr train (his second of six such announcements in the novel), alerting the train passengers their next stop is Elko, Nevada. While this may not contain much literal information about the plot, I think it captures the essence of the book in a couple of subtle ways:

The conductor is about as modern, middle America as you can get; he sounds like someone straight out of my youth, false enthusiasm & all, & to me, a lot of this book is about trying to create that world for the reader. He's expressing his frustration with people getting off to smoke at stops when they're not supposed to; but truly, as he reveals, his frustration is with the organization & bureaucracy of his superiors. Truthfully, he doesn't care about what people do, he just hates that he's made to care, because he has to, because of the way systems of power & money are structured in the world-- also an over-arching theme & common attitude amongst characters.

Mostly though, it just tells the readers where we are....

Visit Samuel Miller's website.

Writers Read: Samuel Miller.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Accidental Bad Girl"

Maxine Kaplan was born in Washington, DC. She and her twin sister spent their early childhoods trotting behind their journalist parents as they traveled around the world, eventually settling in Brooklyn, NY. Maxine graduated from Oberlin College in 2007. Following a long stint in the world of publishing, she has worked as a private investigator since 2009. She lives in her adopted hometown of Brooklyn, NY, with her lovely husband and complex cat.

Kaplan applied the Page 69 Test to The Accidental Bad Girl, her debut novel, and reported the following:

Page 69 of The Accidental Bad Girl is both representative of the book as a whole and not representative. I don’t think this page out of context will give away the central conflicts of the book; it doesn’t tell you anything about the plot or even the genre. But what I think it does convey is the underlying conflicts of the book—the themes that undergird all the action. Specifically, this page concerns the contrast between reputation and lived experience; between trust your interpretation of your actions over the wider world’s impression of them. It also highlights the focus on sexual double standards and the slut-shaming that we still haven’t gotten over as a society, and which teenage girls deal with on a daily basis.

“Kendall, talk to me,” she said earnestly, grabbing my wrist. “I’m your friend.”

“Get away from me,” I hissed at her, trying to extricate my arm.

Audrey suddenly let go and buried her face in her hands. When she looked up there were tears in her eyes. I would have been impressed if I hadn't been there the first time Audrey cried on demand, to get out of trouble when she snuck into the hotel pool on the eighth grade field trip to DC. But I had been the only one there, so when she did it now, a hush fell over the hallway as Audrey hunched over and her shoulders shook.

“When you did what you did with Grant, I was angry, but I hoped our friendship would eventually get past it,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a real betrayal, but I told myself to remember how frustrating it must have been for you, to watch your friend with the guy you secretly wanted. I felt bad for you. But it’s because I assumed you liked him, not that it was about sex!”

She drew a raggedy gasp and continued, with narrowed, clear eyes staring straight at me. “Now I’m just worried about you, Kendall. Despite everything, I still care about you and I don’t want you to put yourself in dangerous situations. Grant is one thing, but strangers? Where are you meeting these guys? How old are they? Are you being safe?”

At each question, her voice went an octave higher, painting pictures in my head—and everyone else's heads.

I’m actually pretty pleased with page 69 as representative of Bad Girl. Gives nothing away while telling you what it’s worried about. Not a bad test...

Visit Maxine Kaplan's website.

--Marshal Zeringue