My Epic 2019 Halloween Giveaway!

It's here!!!!

First, I must give credit for this giveaway idea and format to Shannon Messenger. Several years ago, I met Shannon at an author dinner, and she gave the advice of running "superfan" giveaways for readers, as opposed to giveaways where anyone can enter by simply retweeting or liking a post.

Now that I have seven books out in the world, I feel the time is right to heed that advice.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS OPEN INTERNATIONALLY.

Let's start with the prize!

ONE winner will receive ONE signed, annotated copy of ONE of my novels. The winner will get to choose which novel they want to receive. By annotated I mean that I'll go through the entire book of the winner's choice and write little notes in the margins about the importance of certain lines, reasons behind character names, fun facts about the settings, and other behind-the-scenes details I don't typically share anywhere else. I have never done this for any of my books before, so this is an extremely rare, one-of-a-kind prize!

Because this giveaway item is so special and will likely take me several weeks to prepare, I will only select ONE random winner. And I will make you work a little bit to enter. If you've read at least one of my novels, entering should, hopefully, prove to be fun and easy.

How to enter!

You must complete BOTH Step One and Step Two!!!

STEP ONE. Choose one of the following options:

• On a social media site of your choice, post your own original photo of one of my novels. In either the photo or your comment for the photo, you must include your favorite quote from the book. You can post a selfie of you and the book and/or take a photo of the book in a bookstore, a library, an eerie setting, or wherever you wish, but you absolutely must include your favorite quote somewhere in your post.
• On a social media site of your choice, post your fan art for one of my novels. You may use any medium you wish to create your art. Videos are also welcome. Please include the name of the novel somewhere in your post.
• On a social media site of your choice, post a photo of you cosplaying one of my characters. Please include the name of the character and the novel that character is from somewhere in your post.
• On a social media site, post your own original poem or song inspired by one of my novels. You may post the written poem or lyrics, or you may post a video of you reading the poem or singing the lyrics. Please include the name of the novel that inspired your work somewhere in your post.

YOU MUST FILL OUT THE ENTRY FORM BELOW (STEP 2) TO HAVE YOUR ENTRY COUNTED!!!!

All entries must be posted online sometime between 12:00 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) October 1, 2019, and 11:59 pm PDT October 31, 2019. If you've already posted fan art, photos, etc., thank you so much, but you must create a new post or share your post on another social media site during the giveaway dates to be eligible to win.

STEP TWO. You must fill out the entry form below!

To have your entry counted, fill out the form below. You may post on more than one social media site, and you may choose to do more than one of the above-mentioned types of posts and/or create entries for more than one of my books, but please fill out the form every time you create a new post or post on another site. You'll receive an extra entry credit each time you fill out the form, which will increase your chance of winning!

You must be 13 or over to enter. If you're under 18, you must have permission from an adult to enter.

On the form you'll be asked to choose which of my books you'd like to have annotated if you're my winner. Please see the YA Books and Adult Books pages of this site for more information about each of my novels. Please make your selection carefully. Once I start working on the annotation, I cannot change which book I send you.

FILL OUT THE FOLLOWING FORM:

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!

To link up with other people's posts, use the hashtag #catwintersgiveaway (optional). Feel free to also tag me (Twitter/Pinterest: @catwinters; Instagram/Facebook: @catwintersbooks), especially if you'd like me to potentially retweet or repost your entry (also optional). I cannot guarantee that I'll repost or retweet.

I will contact the winner via email by November 3, 2019. If you do not receive an email from me by that date, unfortunately, that means you did not win. Thank you in advance to everyone who enters! I appreciate you joining my online Halloween party!

I know I've included a lot of information. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section of this post here on CatWinters.com. 

Good luck! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!

THE RAVEN'S TALE International Halloween Giveaway!

To celebrate my favorite time of year—and to launch the 6-month countdown to the April 2019 release of The Raven's Tale—I present to you my international Halloween giveaway! In case you haven't yet heard of this newest book of mine, The Raven's Tale is my novel about the teenage years of EDGAR ALLAN POE, master of the macabre.

HALLOWEEN GREETINGS PRIZE PACK

FIVE random winners will receive the Halloween Greetings Prize Pack, which includes signed "You're such a strange boy, Edgar" stickers, designed by author/designer Jenn Reese. The quote comes straight from the pages of The Raven's Tale.

In addition, each of these five Halloween Greetings Prize Pack winners will receive a personalized Halloween greeting from me, written inside a gorgeously Gothic Edgar Allan Poe-themed card, created by CuriousPortraits (the card designs vary and may not look like the one shown above).

💀💀💀

GRAND PRIZE PACK

ONE random grand prize winner will receive the Halloween Greetings Prize Pack plus a signed advance reading copy (ARC) of The Raven's Tale when ARCs become available later this fall!

The giveaway is open internationally. Please enter using the Rafflecopter below. You must be 18 years or older or have the permission of a parent or guardian. Deadline: The final strokes of midnight on Monday, October 15, 2018 (Pacific Time).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

☙PRE-ORDER:❧

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Powell's

IndieBound • Book Depository • Indigo
BAM • Amazon UK • Kobo

☙ADVANCE PRAISE❧

“Winters’s smart, silvery, slithering prose finds beauty in the grotesque—and what is art if not that?”

—Daniel Kraus
Co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Shape of Water

“A captivating and intensively researched tribute to the famous poet and his Gothic muse. Against the tapestry of young Poe’s real-world struggles and tortured relationships, Winters weaves a macabre thread of surrealism through meter and rhyme—at times so dreamy in its rhythms and imagery, it teeters between hypnotic and horrifying.”

—A.G. Howard
Author of the international and New York Times bestselling Splintered Series

“Spellbinding, imaginative, whimsical, and unforgettable. A rattling good tale that is worthy of the master poet himself.” 

—Dwight L. MacPherson
Author of The Imaginary Voyages of Edgar Allan Poe, co-host of The Raven Lunatics

“Haunting and inventive, The Raven's Tale is a heady mix of history and imagination, offering an eerie, original, fantastical window into the man who would become a beloved muse for so many of us.”
—Leanna Renee Hieber
Award-winning author of Darker Still and Strangely Beautiful

“The Raven’s Tale transports readers to the haunted streets of Antebellum Richmond, the city that shaped the teenaged Poe’s melancholy outlook and inspired his chilling poetry.” 
—Chris Semtner
Curator of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, Richmond, VA

(Raven animation: "Raven Sing," by luisbc)

ODD & TRUE Halloween Giveaway

* THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED. I'LL EMAIL THE THREE RANDOM WINNERS ON THURSDAY, NOV. 2, 2017. *

Halloween is my favorite season of the year, so it feels wrong not to do an October giveaway of some sort. So, without further ado, I present to you the Odd & True Halloween Giveaway!

THE PRIZE:

Three random winners will receive the following Odd & True swag pack:

The pack includes three Odd & True bookmarks, a signed bookplate, a bag of monstrously marvelous Odd & True tea, and a whimsical teaspoon (the design of the spoon may vary from the one shown in the photo).

THE RULES:

1. You must be 13 years or older or have the permission of a parent to enter. The giveaway is open internationally.

2. To enter, please do one of the following four options at any time from October 23 through November 1, 2017:

☙ Post a photo of yourself with a copy of Odd & True on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or another social media site and tag it #OddAndTrue.

☙ Leave a review for Odd & True on a site where the book is sold (Amazon, BN.com, Powells.com, etc.). If you've already posted a review on one of these sites before Oct. 23, THANK YOU, but please post it at another online store during the giveaway dates in order to get counted. It does not need to be a glowing review.

☙ Post your original Odd & True fan art on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or another social media site and tag it #OddAndTrue.

☙ Post a photo of you recreating the book's cover, alone or with a friend, on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or another social media site and tag it #OddAndTrue.

3. Fill out the following form. If you post your photo/artwork/review on more than one site or choose to do more than one of the above options, you may fill out the form again, just please list a new URL each time you enter.

**** Form deleted. The giveaway is now closed. ****

THE DEADLINE:

In order for your entry/entries to be counted, you must submit the form by 11:59 pm Pacific Time on Wednesday, November 1, 2017. I will pick three (3) random winners on November 2 and contact them via email.

Good luck, and thank you for reading Odd & True!

☙ORDER ONLINE:❧

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Powell's • IndieBound • Book Depository • Indigo •  BAM • Amazon UK 

Halloween Blog Tour & Treats

Bloggers have been very kind about inviting me to participate in guest posts and interviews this Halloween season. Here's a list of my visits, many of which include giveaways.

October 4 - "The Ghosts in my House"

Horror Writers Association

October 7- Top 10 Favorite Ghost Songs

Bookish

October 20 - Top 10 Favorite Ghost Books

Ruth Silver's Paranormal Palooza

October 22 - Interview
The Book Wars

October 23 - Top 10 Favorite Creepy Characters
Candace's Book Blog

October 23 - Interview

Appraising Pages' Month of the Macabre

October 29 - Top 10 Favorite Haunted Sites

Beauty and the Bookshelf

October 30 - How to Give Your Readers Chills

Daisy Chain Book Reviews

Special Halloween Treat: If you dress like an In the Shadow of Blackbirds character for Halloween, please send me a link to a photo of you in costume. I will mail a signed bookplate and bookmark to anyone who does so. Send photos to catwintersbooks AT gmail.com, or send your link via Twitter (@catwinters).

Halloween Week Giveaway #3: A Signed IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS Poster & Swag

Welcome to the final stop in my Halloween week blog tour for In the Shadow of Blackbirds.

On Monday I was at IceyBooks with one of my Amulet Books siblings, Sarah Skilton, and on Tuesday author Mindy McGinnis interviewed me about the In the Shadow of Blackbirds cover at Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire. At both stops I've provided opportunities to be placed on my list to receive an advance reading copy of In the Shadow of Blackbirds. I'm also over at Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks today discussing the strange history of spirit photography...and explaining that ghostly figure that appears on my book's cover.

And right here on my own site I'm celebrating Halloween with an In the Shadow of Blackbirds prize package that includes a signed bookmark, a signed bookplate, stickers, and a signed 12x18 In the Shadow of Blackbirds poster!

The signed poster.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds bookmark, stickers, and bookplate.

Here's what you need to do to enter the giveaway:  

Find the name of my novel's ghost. 

My ghost likes mysteries and word games and would love to send you on a scavenger hunt. I've slipped his name into one of this week's guest posts. Visit the three guest post sites, find his name, and enter it in the form at the bottom of this post. 

Once again, here are the links to all of my Halloween stops:
IceyBooks
Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire
Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks

ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON WILL BE COUNTED, so please enter only once. I'll pull a name from the correct entries using Random.org. The giveaway is international!

DEADLINE: Tuesday, November 6, 2012, at midnight.

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THE WINNER WAS ANNOUNCED HERE.

Halloween Week Giveaway #2: IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS ARC and Swag

It's Day 2 of the In the Shadow of Blackbirds Halloween Week Giveaways, and I'm making a stop at Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire. Author Mindy McGinnis (Not a Drop to Drink) interviewed me about my book's creepy-cool ghostly cover, so if you want to know the story behind the design (and what I originally envisioned for the cover artwork), head on over to Mindy's amazing site.

We're also giving away an advance reading copy of In the Shadow of Blackbirds (to be mailed when the ARCs are available in November), along with a signed swag pack:

Swag pack with a signed bookmark, stickers, and a signed bookplate.

You can enter either here or at the Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire post. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Halloween Week Giveaway #1: IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS and BRUISED ARCs!

Welcome to Day 1 of the In the Shadow of Blackbirds Halloween Week Giveaways! Over at Iceybooks today, Sarah Skilton and I are discussing our respective 2013 Amulet Books releases. Sarah is the author of the contemporary YA novel Bruised, and my novel is a historical YA, so we're chatting about writing books set in the past vs the present.

The giveaway: We're sending advance reading copies of both Bruised and In the Shadow of Blackbirds to one lucky winner! My ARCs should be arriving mid November, and Sarah's are already available to ship.

We're willing to mail the books internationally, so anyone reading this post should scurry over to Iceybooks for details immediately. Good luck!

IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS Halloween Week Giveaways

I'm gathering In the Shadow of Blackbirds treats to share with readers this Halloween season. Visit the following sites during the last week in October, and you can enter three ghostly giveaways that will include chances to win an advance copy of my novel.

Monday, October 29

IceyBooks

Sarah Skilton, author of Bruised, will be joining me for a combined Amulet Books guest post and giveaway.

Tuesday, October 30

Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire

Mindy McGinnis, author of Not a Drop to Drink, will be interviewing me about the In the Shadow of Blackbirds cover...and offering prize packages.

Wednesday, October 31, Halloween

My Own Website

Return here to learn about a giveaway that will involve the name of one of my major characters. It seems highly appropriate to reveal his name on Halloween.



Feel free to share the banner at the top of this post on your own site.

If you need a little extra help getting into the Halloween spirit,
here's a dark and spooky sample of one of Kristen Lawrence's  
Halloween Carols:

My Giveaway Winners...plus News about Upcoming Giveaways & Halloween Blog Stops

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my cover reveal giveaway!

The winner of a Halloween prize package that includes a copy of Kristen Lawrence's Poe-inspired CD, The Raven, four vintage-style crow bookmarks, and a signed bookplate featuring a line spoken by my In the Shadow of Blackbirds spirit photographer character during the scene pictured on the book cover:

Tonja D.

The winners of signed In the Shadow of Blackbirds bookplates:

Jana

Petra

Caterina T.

Dannielle B.

Susan R.

Congratulations! I'll be sending all of you an email with more details soon.

If you didn't win this time, do not despair! Anyone who's taken a good look at my cover can probably guess that the Halloween season is the perfect time for me to be traveling around the blogosphere to discuss In the Shadow of Blackbirds. Here are my October blog stops, some of which contain more giveaways:

Oct. 5 - The Lucky 13s
I belong to this wonderful group of 2013 debut YA and children's book authors, and tomorrow we're all answering a single book-related question on the blog.

October 8 - Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks
I'll be chatting about my favorite historical time periods. And Disneyland.

Oct. 29 - IceyBooks
Fellow Amulet Books author Sarah Skilton (Bruised) and I will be teaming up for a post. GIVEAWAY INCLUDED!

Oct. 30 - Writer, Writer, Pants on Fire
Fellow 2013 debut novelist Mindy McGinnis (Not a Drop to Drink) will be interviewing me about the In the Shadow of Blackbirds cover. GIVEAWAY INCLUDED!

Oct. 31 - Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks
I'll be celebrating Halloween by sharing some of the spookiness you'll find in In the Shadow of Blackbirds.

The dates are subject to change, of course. Please stop by and visit if you can.

Movies that remind me of Halloween: #3, Ed Wood

Family medical issues, book revisions, and Suburban Vampire interviews have kept me from posting my favorite Halloween movies throughout the month like I originally planned, but I wanted to make sure I squeezed in this next one.

Movie #3: Ed Wood
Stars: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau (who won an Academy Award for playing Bela Lugosi), Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Bill Murray
Director: Tim Burton

Essential Halloween-ish elements: Recreations of monster and sci-fi films created by "The Worst Director of All Time," Edward D. Wood, Jr.; classic TV star Vampira; an aged and drug-addled Bela Lugosi reliving his Dracula days, beautiful black-and-white photography.

When I first saw it: Opening night 2004.  My (brand-new) husband and I loved the TV ads so much that we were certain there'd be a huge crowd, so we got to the theater early.  Aside from the other couple we went with, we were the only people in the audience.

Most memorable line: There are so many quotable lines in this one.  Let's go with "Pull the strings!  Pull the strings!"

Best character names: Bunny, Tor, Criswell.

Bottom line: Burton's homage to movie director Edward D. Wood, Jr., debuted long before Depp gave us Jack Sparrow and Sarah Jessica Parker became Carrie, which makes it all the more a hidden gem.  The movie is hysterical and heartbreaking at the same time, and it's a lovely tribute to Hollywood and dreamers.  One of my favorite Burton films.

Movies that remind me of Halloween: #2, The Watcher in the Woods

Movie #2: The Watcher in the Woods
Stars: Bette Davis, Lynn-Holly Johnson (the Ice Castles girl), Carroll Baker
Director: John Hough

Essential Halloween-ish elements:  A foreboding British manor located in sinister woods with rustling trees, ghostly phenomena that affect two young girls, Bette Davis wandering around with her chilling voice and black clothing, menacing mood music, scenes that make you jump out of your seat.

When I first saw it: I was around ten, and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. I showed it to my daughter last year when she was ten, and she freaked out.  One scene literally caused her to scream and burst into tears.  I told my younger sister about my daughter's reaction, and she said, "Don't even mention that movie!"  I guess that says something about my obsession with ghostly horror from a young age.  P.S. This is a Disney movie.

Most memorable line: Narek--spoken by a girl temporarily possessed by something.
 
Best character names: No dark or clever names stand out in this particular movie.  The missing girl is Karen, and the main character is Jan.  Pretty typical for a film from 1980.

Bottom line: Perfect for the Halloween season, despite some early-eighties hairstyles.

Movies that remind me of Halloween: #1, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Whenever October hits, I feel the urge to watch six or seven films that most remind me of the Halloween season.  This month I'll be randomly spotlighting them and detailing why they make me think of dark autumn nights and huddling under my covers.

Movie #1: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Stars: Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, and Diane Ladd
Director: Jay Clayton
Based on the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Essential Halloween-ish elements:  A circus sideshow run by a sinister man named Mr. Dark, curious young kids who become too curious, lightning rods, a scene with hundreds of spiders crawling over a boy, a circus parade that sounds more like a funeral march, and small-town citizens lured to the dark side.

When I first saw it: As a kid, but it's just as creepy when viewed through adult eyes.

Most memorable line: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.
 
Best character names: Mr. Dark, Jim Nightshade

Bottom line: If you're afraid of clowns and spiders, this movie just might give you nightmares--but isn't that part of the fun of Halloween films?