Campaign for the American Reader: Pg. 69: "Pale Immortal"

Anne Frasier is the USA Today bestselling author of Hush, Sleep Tight, Play Dead, and Before I Wake.

Her latest book is Pale Immortal.

I asked Anne to apply the "page 69 test" to her novel; this is what she reported:

This is a scene I reworked and reworked and I’m still annoyed with myself because it still comes across as awkward and stilted. This is the reader’s first introduction to Old Tuonela. I’d wanted the dead, abandoned town to be a dark, ominous presence that isn’t seen until we are deep into the book. My editor thought it should be on the page early in the book. I’m still not sure who was right. Maybe there really is no right or wrong, but this scene was an editorial request. Some people have actually said it’s one of their favorites, so it apparently worked on some level even though I still feel saving the town for later would have made for better suspense. It’s one of those writing choices where something would be gained and lost either way.

Coroner Rachel Burton is searching for the grave of the Pale Immortal, a vampire who has been dead a hundred years….

page 69:

The buildings looked as if they were growing out of the ground. They had sunk over the years, slanted, decaying, shrouded in vegetation. Except for the flour mill at the end of the street, most of the structures were being devoured by moss and creeper vines, the wooden beams rotten and mushy. Roofs had caved in, and what was outside had come inside.

Rachel spotted the church with its crumbling bell tower. The stone wall surrounding the adjoining graveyard was only a couple of feet high, and she climbed over easily.

Hidden in the grove of cottonwoods was a tree that could have been an oak. She knew an oak leaf when she saw one, but this tree hadn’t begun to leaf. Dead? Dying? It appeared to be blighted, the trunk dark with sap and crawling with ants.

Many thanks to Anne for the input.

Visit the Pale Immortal blog here. Click here to read Chapter One from the uncorrected page proofs, and here for Chapter Two.

To watch the Pale Immortal video, click here.

Among the rave reviews:

"[G]rab a copy of ... Pale Immortal; then lock the doors securely, put the phone off the hook, order some garlic and wooden crosses and wrap up tight because you will be chilled."
--Ali Karim

"The characters are rich, complex. The story is masterfully spun."
--Sandra Ruttan, author of Suspicious Circumstances

"Anne Frasier delivers thoroughly engrossing, completely riveting suspense."
--Lisa Gardner

"It's a great horror book because it doesn't make you turn on all the lights and look for things that will leap out of dark corners at you: lights on or off, the scary part of this book is all in your head."
--Bethany K. Warner

"Pale Immortal is one of those nifty, page-turning thrillers that keeps you reading non-stop till you turn the last page."
--Martina Bexte

"This is just simply a masterpiece. I can't wait for the sequel so I can walk Tuonela's streets again."
--Maximum Horror Reviews