THE RAVEN'S TALE, My New Novel about Edgar Allan Poe's Teen Years

Last week on Bustle.com I announced my newest book: The Raven’s Tale, a dark and dreamlike novel about Edgar Allan Poe’s life when he was a troubled but promising teenage poet.

The events of The Raven’s Tale are pulled straight from Poe’s letters, biographies, and firsthand accounts from the people who knew him as a teen, and the book is populated by his real-life friends, foes, and family members . . . as well as his muse.

Yes, the mythical kind of muse.

The novel blends poetry with prose, realism with Poe-esque Gothic horror, and it portrays the obstacles that hindered young Edgar "Eddy" Poe's writing career and happiness.

Me at the site of Poe's home from ages 16 to 18.

This past October, I traveled to Poe’s teenage home of Richmond, Virginia, where I explored the fabulous Poe Museum and other Poe-related sites, such as the graveyards he visited and the church he attended that doubled as a tomb for seventy-two victims of an infamous 1811 theater fire. I also made a trip to his dorm room at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Poe shrine at the Poe Museum.

So much of Poe’s life has been tainted by character assassins who published false biographies of him, starting with lies printed in an obituary written by one of his literary rivals, the nineteenth-century editor and writer Rufus Wilmot Griswold.

My goal as an author is to introduce the world to the real Edgar Allan Poe as best I can. I think readers will be surprised to learn that he was an athletic young man filled with energy and a love of the outdoors, in addition to an angsty teen haunted by his homelife and the early deaths of two beautiful women who loved him in his youth.

Amulet Books/Abrams will release The Raven’s Tale in Spring 2019. I can’t wait to share more about the novel in the coming year!

For a little glimpse at what Poe was like as a teen, head to my article at Bustle, 10 Facts About Edgar Allan Poe That Will Completely Change How You Feel About The Mystery Writer.

To hear the music that inspired me during the writing of the initial draft, head to my Poe Spotify playlist. You can also take a peek at my Pinterest board for The Raven's Tale.

 

Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, VA

Wordstock!

This upcoming weekend I'll be making an appearance at Wordstock here in  Portland, Oregon. I'll be speaking on a YA paranormal lit panel with Teri Brown (Born of Illusion) and April Genevieve Tucholke (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea), and Miriam Forster (City of a Thousand Dolls) will be moderating. (Yep, we're all members of the long-title club.)

Here are the full details about the panel:

Sunday, October 6, 2013 • 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Beyond Twilight: The Future of YA Paranormal Lit
The Mac Store Stage (OCC, D-137)

Devils, magic, séances, and ghosts...three authors of YA fiction discuss the state of paranormal teen lit in our post-Twilight world. 

Directly after the panel, I'll be signing copies of In the Shadow of Blackbirds.

Wordstock is held at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd., Portland, OR. The festival runs from October 3-6, and the book fair runs October 5-6.

Corsets, Cutlasses, & Candlesticks Site Launch & Giveaway!

I'm thrilled to announce the debut of a new blog I'm launching with eight other authors of young-adult and middle-grade historical fiction: Corsets, Cutlasses, and Candlesticks. We're kicking off the site with a major international giveaway that will include signed books, a CD, swag, and other entertaining goodies.

Here's a list of the participating authors:

J. Anderson Coats (The Wicked and the Just)
Sharon Biggs Waller (A Mad, Wicked Folly)
Claire M. Caterer (The Key & the Flame)  
Laura Golden (Every Day After)
Katherine Longshore (Gilt)  
Elizabeth May (The Falconer)  
Jennifer McGowan (Maid of Secrets)
Jessica Spotswood (Born Wicked)  
Cat Winters (In the Shadow of Blackbirds)

Sharon Biggs-Waller pointed out that three of our titles contain the word "wicked" in them, which I thought was an interesting observation. Our novels range from straight historical fiction to sub-genres like historical fantasy and alternate history, and we cover eras from the Middle Ages to the Great Depression.

The blog is located at http://corsetsandcutlasses.wordpress.com, and you can find us at Twitter under the handle @corsetscutlass. We would love for you to stop by, enter our giveaway, leave a comment, and if you can, help us spread the word through places like Twitter and Facebook. Thanks so much!

The Massive Six-Months-Until-2013 Book Giveaway!

The year 2013 is now only six months away, so we debut 2013 authors at The Lucky 13s are celebrating with a major giveaway. Each of us will be mailing the winner a copy of a novel that influenced our writing, as well as swag for own books.

I'll be contributing The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak, two handcrafted crow bookmarks, and a signed bookplate featuring AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK at an In the Shadow of Blackbirds quote, spoken by a spirit photographer character in the novel. Here's a preview of my prize package, with the exclusive quote craftily hidden: 

To enter the giveaway, head over to thelucky13s.blogspot.com by July 7. I'm having to auto-post this message because I'm taking off on vacation July 1, so I'm unable to include the direct link. You may have to scroll down to the July 1 post at The Lucky 13s site if you're visiting on a later date.

I picked The Book Thief as my giveaway novel because of Zusak's ridiculously skilled use of language and brilliant talent for developing characters. He challenged me to make my own writing better. Furthermore, his ability to weave the horrors of history with a fictional tale told by an otherworldly narrator (Death) was a huge inspiration to me. In my own novel, I'm blending the unsettling realities of 1918 America with paranormal nightmares and a ghost. I hope, like Zusak, I've grounded my story in enough human emotions you can feel in your gut to make the fantastical side of the tale believable.

Good luck to everyone who enters the giveaway, and keep in mind I won't be responding to comments and emails until after July 9 due to my trip.

Also, be sure to check out Marta Acosta's Gothic YA debut this week: Dark Companion, available from Tor Books July 3. Marta has been a supportive cheerleader for my own writing during the past few years, and I'm thrilled the world is getting a chance to read her Jane Eyre-influenced tale.

Gothic YA Novels Coming Our Way

Today at Suburban Vampire I blogged about Gothic young adult novels coming our way...and I discussed ADR3NALIN3, a brand-new site that celebrates dark YA and middle-grade fiction:

http://suburbanvampire.blogspot.com

Advance Praise for IN THE SHADOW OF BLACKBIRDS

My agent sent me on a hunt for author cover blurbs this week, and two generous authors responded immediately, saying they were interested. I'm finding the young adult writing community to be extremely kind and supportive, and I'm so thankful for everyone's help.

Saundra Mitchell, who was nominated for an Edgar Award for her YA ghost story, Shadowed Summer, already sent me the following advance praise for In the Shadow of Blackbirds:
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"Cat Winters deftly captures the darkness and the light of human nature with In the Shadow of Blackbirds. I swear, I can smell the smoke from the flash lamps and taste the electricity in the air—and the heroine, Mary Shelley Black's, dark and startling story lingers long after the final page."

     —Saundra Mitchell

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Thank you, thank you, Saundra!!! I'm a fan of Shadowed Summer, so hearing such words from a talent I admire means a great deal. Saundra's next novel is The Vespertine, an otherworldly YA historical that debuts in March.

My chats with two authors branching out to YA fiction

I've been busy with interviews over at Suburban Vampire this month, and my two current guests are award-winning authors who have decided to venture into the realm of young adult fiction.

Today's Suburban Vampire guest is Marta Acosta, author of the Casa Dracula series.  Her young adult gothic novel, The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove, will be published by Tor in 2012, so keep an eye out for her as an up-and-coming YA author. I asked Marta eight random scary questions to celebrate Halloween and to promote her newest release, Haunted Honeymoon. She's also offering a giveaway package that includes a free signed Casa Dracula novel. READ THE INTERVIEW & ENTER THE CONTEST HERE.

Today also marks the release of Sophie Littlefield's young adult thriller, Banished. Last week Sophie gave me the inside scoop about her new novel, and her Suburban Vampire contest for a free signed copy of Banished is still open until Thursday, October 14. Sophie is known for her adult crime novels, A Bad Day for Sorry and A Bad Day for Pretty.  She and I also share the same phenomenal literary agent.  READ THE INTERVIEW & ENTER THE CONTEST HERE.

Thanks for chatting with me, Marta and Sophie!  You're both fabulous.

How my novel, my websites, and I will be spending our autumn

I received suggestions from another critique partner (thanks, Kim!), and now I'm back to revisions for the rest of the calendar year. I feel like this stage resembles the challenges of assembling a jigsaw puzzle: scenes that I thought belonged in one place turn out fitting better in another, pieces of the story that I didn't even know existed show up, and some characters fit better when I view them another way.

I'll primarily be tackling character adjustments with my edits.  I worked on my ghost over the summer after he wasn't quite working right, and I think I've strengthened him as a character, but other folks now need some tweaking.  However, as daunting as the revision process seems when first starting out, I always find a tremendous sense of satisfaction when everything falls into place.

I've been debating altering my working title (Blackbirds), because it's currently too subtle.  I have another, longer one in mind, although my agent mentioned that sticking to one-word titles seems to be the preference of editors of young adult fiction.  What I think I'll do is increase the significance of blackbirds in the novel to keep my original title as a running candidate and see how I feel once I'm ready to submit.

In addition to hunkering down with revisions, I'm busy interviewing guests over at Suburban Vampire. This week I chatted with novelist Denise Verrico and Vampire Mob creator Joe Wilson. In the coming weeks, I'll be hosting Jasper Kent, Marta Acosta, David Michael Slater, Jonathan Maberry, Janice Gable Bashman, and Sophie Littlefield, the latter of whom shares my literary agent, Barbara Poelle (and Sophie happens to be making her debut in young adult fiction with a novel called Banished in October!).  I'm also hosting several giveaways.  Definitely visit.

More proof that YA books get the best covers

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--YA cover designers create gorgeous works of art.  My favorite YA cover of the month is the one for Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel.  Not only are the images beautiful and intriguing, but the design--and the publication of the book in general--further fuels my hope that editors will be willing to look at more manuscripts set in the past.

The setting of Clockwork Angel, the first book in The Infernal Devices series, is a supernatural, steampunk version of 1878 London.  To further get a feel for Clare's world, head over to the very cool website for the series: http://www.theinfernaldevices.com. I can't wait to pick up a copy of the book.

Keep buying supernatural historicals, editors!

More ghostly YA books

I recently finished reading Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown's Picture the Dead, a gothic, illustrated novel set in Civil War-era Massachusetts.  Admittedly, the authors had me sweating for a while because they used some of the same themes that appear in my work-in-progress: a wartime setting, spirit photography, a soldier's mysterious death.  The book was a page turner with gorgeous prose, so it didn't take me long to speed through the haunting story and realize--with a huge sigh of relief--our books have enough differences for me to keep plugging away.  Definitely check it out if you're looking for a book to read while huddled under the covers.  Fans of Poe, the Bronte sisters, and Sarah Waters's darker tales will eat it up.

While vacationing in Washington this past week, I visited the wonderful Village Books in Fairhaven and added another ghostly YA novel to my reading pile: The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.  I've read his adult fiction before and especially enjoyed The Shadow of the Wind. This new novel was actually published in Spanish in 1993, but Little, Brown Books just released an English version in May.  It involves a young teen's experiences in a long-unoccupied--and possibly haunted--house on the Spanish coast during WWII.  Can't wait to read it!

As for my own writing news, I need to plug away at Blackbirds revisions before submitting the manuscript to another critique partner in September.  I've been reading so much info about how crucial it is to be able to write a one-sentence synopsis of one's book, and I think I've come up with one that satisfies me: A sixteen-year-old girl helps both the living and the dead endure the horrors of a troubled era.

The rise of YA supernatural historicals

I've been coming across some wonderful examples of publishers buying up supernatural tales set in the past, which is highly encouraging for me as I sit here revising my 1918-set ghostly fantasy.

Case in point, Libba Bray of the Gemma Boyle Trilogy/Going Bovine/Printz Award fame sold her four-book 1920s-era series, The Diviners, to Little Brown earlier this year. According to Publishers Weekly, "Bray follows a teen heroine she says is reminiscent of two of the era's most famous literary women--Zelda Fitzgerald and Dorothy Parker. Bray, who admitted to having always been fascinated by the Jazz Age, said she's looking forward 'to offering readers a wild new ride full of dames and dapper dons, jazz babies and Prohibition-defying parties, conspiracy and prophecy--and all manner of things that go bump in the neon-drenched night.'" When I met with a Little Brown editor at a recent conference, she described the series to me as The X-Files meets the 1920s. The first book in the series will debut fall 2012.

Last month I interviewed Edgar-nominated novelist Saundra Mitchell over at Suburban Vampire. Mitchell announced today that her 1880s-era novel, The Vespertine, has a publication date of March 7, 2011. Here's how Mitchell described her plot to me: "The Vespertine is about a Victorian teen named Amelia, who gets to spend a summer in Baltimore with family--theoretically, in search of a husband. But when she arrives, she discovers she can catch glimpses of the future at sunset. This makes Amelia and her new best friend very popular--everybody wants to spend time with the girl who can tell their future!... But when Amelia starts to predict disaster instead of delights, the people around her start to wonder if she's not just the seeing these things, but causing them." Mitchell will be sharing the novel's cover in September.

When I first tried selling my historical fiction (written for an adult audience) a decade ago, publishers didn't want anything set in the past, unless it was historical romance. I had an agent fighting for my work, but editors said the historical market was deader than dead. Therefore, it makes me deliriously happy to see YA historicals finding good homes, and I love the fact that the past and the supernatural are being intertwined in creative new ways (I haven't even mentioned the success of YA steampunk, which also makes me smile). I can't wait to read these upcoming novels...and I'm itching to finish up my own book and send it out into a publishing world that isn't so afraid of bygone eras anymore.

How dark can we go with young adult fiction?

I met with an editor recently and mentioned I have some violence in my YA manuscript. I asked if that's a problem, and she said, "Not at all." When I first tried breaking into fiction for adults, violence was an issue...as were love triangles and non-Hollywood endings. The freedom to be edgy and dark and imaginative is exhilarating.

I've read modern YA, and it's clear teens are eating up books that aren't sugar coated. Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series has topped the bestseller lists with a plot that concerns a dystopian reality show in which kids hunt each other to the death. Harry Potter has a staggering body count by the seventh book, and the ending of Markus Zusak's YA bestseller, The Book Thief, is both violent and emotionally intense. I have no idea why I even asked that editor about the darkness of my own novel. Perhaps I'm worried the rules will suddenly change and YA authors will have to treat readers as delicately as the supposed audience of women's books.

My current favorite YA book cover is the one for Brenna Yovanoff's upcoming novel, The Replacement (see above).  On my Suburban Vampire blog I've mentioned how YA fiction gets the best covers, and this one's no exception.  Artistic.  Intriguing.  Deliciously dark.  Can you imagine a cover with scissors and knives dangling over a baby's pram showing up in the aisles of women's fiction?  That would be a no-no. . . yet so many grown women read YA fiction.  I'm guessing I'm not the only adult female who flinches at candy-colored covers and the gentle happily-ever-after tales we're told women want.  Grown-ups gobble up YA fiction alongside teens because YA writers are allowed more freedom with their tales.  Imaginations can soar.  I love that I discovered the pleasure of writing YA; I can let my mind be as creative as it wants to be.  That's why I fell in love with writing in the first place.