Guy Portman's Blog, page 33
January 1, 2016
Symbiosis Front Cover Reveal
Happy New Year everyone! May 2016 prove to be a prosperous year for us all.
Late this morning I spent some time perusing my 2015 Jetpack annual report. If you don’t like stats look away now.
This blog received over 14,000 page views in 2015. Visitors came from 123 countries including Kiribati. I wrote 52 blog posts (every Friday afternoon). March 20th was the most popular day with341views. My most viewed post was7 Famous Writers Who Died Poor.2016 promises more of the same.
As many of you...
December 25, 2015
The Books I Read This Year
Happy Christmas everyone. This week’s blog post is dedicated to the books I read in 2015. This year I have read 20 books, which is 12 less than last year. This is because I devoted a great deal of time to my 3rd novel, Symbiosis (Release Date: 21st January 2016). Symbiosis is a psychological thriller about twin girls called Talulah and Taliah. I will be revealing more information about Symbiosis next week.
The following 20 books are presented in the order in which I read them. Click on the li...
December 18, 2015
7 Books about Twins
My 3rd novel, Symbiosis (Publication Date: 21st January 2016), is a Psychological Thriller about identical twin girls called Talulah and Taliah. I will be revealing moresoon, but for now we continue with the book theme.
As part of my research for Symbiosis I read a number of books about twins. This week’s blog post is devoted to books about/that feature twins (fiction & non fiction) – 4 of which I have read.
The following books are presented in chronological order:
The Bridge of San Luis Rey...
December 11, 2015
The Books of 2015
This week’s blog post is devoted to ‘the books’ of2015.
Amazon’s Best-Selling Book of 2015 – The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
As the title suggests the story is about a girl on a train. She spies on people apparently. No doubt many of you have already read The Girl On The Train. I am looking forward to reading it.
Most Anticipated Book of 2015 – Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
55-years after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee published her 2nd novel to much fanfare...
December 4, 2015
7 Books about Mental Health
My latest novel, Symbiosis (Publication Date: 21st January 2016), is a Psychological Thriller about identical twin girls called Talulah and Taliah. One of Symbiosis’s themes is mental health. It for this reason that I am dedicating thisweek’s post to mental health themed works of fiction.
Here are 7 mental health themed books from the last 90 years:
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)
Set during a single day in June 1923, Mrs Dalloway’s themes include mental health. One of the main charact...
November 27, 2015
The Psychological Thriller Genre
My third novel,Symbiosis(Publication Date: 21st January 2016), is about identical twin girls called Talulah and Taliah.Symbiosis isa Psychological Thriller. This week’s post is dedicated to the Psychological Thriller literary genre.
Definition: A Psychological Thriller is a thriller story, which emphasises the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states… (More)
Characteristics:
Psychological & emotional stress are primary themes. The conflict between the characters is...November 20, 2015
Books with Secret Languages
My third novel,Symbiosis(Publication Date: 21st January 2016), is about identical twin girls called Talulah and Taliah. It is a psychological thriller. Talulah and Taliah speak to each other in a cryptophasia. A cryptophasia is a secret language developed by a set of twins, which only they understand. The word originates from the Latin crypto meaning secret and phasia meaning speech.Symbiosisis the first ever work of fiction to incorporate a cryptophasia.
Here are 6 authors who invented/allu...
November 13, 2015
10 Transgressive Novels
This week’s post is devoted to 10 works of Transgressive Fiction by 10 different authors, all of which I have reviewed here. As followers of this blog are aware,Transgressive Fiction is one of my favourite genres. My second book,Necropolis, is a transgressive, black comedy about a psychopath who works for the Burials and Cemeteries department in his local council.
Definition: Transgressive Fictionis a genre that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society...
November 6, 2015
My Tour of Highgate Cemetery
I am fascinated by cemeteries. The protagonist in my 2nd novel, Necropolis, works for the burials and cemeteries department in his local council. I have also written blog posts about the Old Brompton Cemetery in London, Recoleta in Buenos Aires and Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. This week I visited Highgate Cemetery in London. It is home to manyfamous people including a number of authors.
Highgate Cemetery is divided into 2 sections – East and West. To view the West one has to pre-book. Tour grou...
October 30, 2015
12 Famous Horror Books
As it is Halloween tomorrow, I am dedicating this week’s blog post to a Halloween related theme – 12 famous horror books from the last 250 years. (Well literary works would be more accurate). The Horror genre encompasses all forms of fiction that‘causes feelings of fear, dread, and shock.’
The following 12 books are presented in chronological order:
The Castle of Otrantoby Horace Walpole (1764) –This trendsetting book is widely accepted to be the world’s first gothic novel. It became an insta...
