"This Is Not a Ghost Story"

Andrea Portes is a bestselling novelist. Her novels include: Hick, Bury This, Anatomy of a Misfit, The Fall of Butterflies, Liberty, Henry & Eva and the Castle on the Cliff, Henry & Eva and the Famous People Ghosts.

Portes applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, This is Not a Ghost Story, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Suddenly I am anxious at the idea of talking to her. Anxious at the idea of talking to anyone… The room seems smaller, shrinking somehow, and suddenly I am terrified of any interaction whatsoever.

This happens just after Daffodil has made an elaborate day-dream scenario of the waitress at the local diner. It’s a wonderful, cinematic, zombie-including day dream… full of life and love of character.

But then, almost immediately, Daffodil suddenly shuts down and has to leave, running out of the diner.

Page 69 isn’t representative of the book, really. It’s a moment of the book, a dalliance. It does, however, give the reader a tiny peek into the machinations of Daffodil, our protagonist. She is, in one moment, brimming with life, full of love and understanding and imagination and wonder. Then, almost immediately, all of that energy seems to turn in on itself… to cannibalize itself. Daffodil has this kind of psyche, restless and brilliant and scared of its own shadow.

Visit Andrea Portes's website.

My Book, The Movie: This Is Not a Ghost Story.

--Marshal Zeringue