She applied the “Page 99 Test” to one of her new books, Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and reported the following:Page 99 of Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand doesn't seem very exciting at first glance, which is a terrible thing to say about my own book. Every page should be critical! Riveting! Amazing! I'm not sure it's even representative of the book as a whole, since the Kitty novels tends to fast-paced and action oriented, and this scene is a pause in the action. Dead Man's Hand is a little different than the other books, though. I went into it thinking "screwball comedy." The previous two books were quite dark, and I wanted to lighten things up. Some silly as well as scary things happen throughout. Page 99 is the end of one scene -- Kitty has dinner with her parents -- and the start of another -- Kitty gets ready for her first televised show. It's a domestic, almost mundane scene, with no hint of the supernatural that forms the foundation of the series. And I've decided I like that, and that it is representative. Because what I try to keep emphasizing in the books is that Kitty has to continue dealing with mundane things -- her family, her job -- even though she's a werewolf, and even though this crazy supernatural stuff keeps happening to her.Read an excerpt from Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand, and learn more about the author and her work at Carrie Vaughn's website, blog, MySpace page, and Facebook page.
The Page 99 Test: Kitty and the Silver Bullet.
--Marshal Zeringue