Early Praise for THE RAVEN'S TALE

“A darkly delicious tale that’s sure to haunt readers forevermore. Fans of Gothic settings, made famous by Poe, will adore this creative spin on his epic poem. Like lightning stretching its fingers across a stormy sky, Winters’s voice is electrifying. The Raven's Tale is a must-read for fans of Poe and fantasy alike.”
—Kerri Maniscalco, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Stalking Jack the Ripper series

“Brooding, macabre, romantic, and surprisingly whimsical, Cat Winters's THE RAVEN'S TALE hits all the right Poe notes. The inspiration of the burgeoning artist. His tragic past. His struggle to break free from the constraints of youth. This one is a must-read for Poe fans and Poe newcomers alike.”
—Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series

“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. I will never look at my own muse the same again, nor will I dare deny it.”
—A.G. Howard, author of the international and #1 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, Virginia

☙PRE-ORDER:❧

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Powell's

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

(Updated 10/29/18)

Halloween Giveaway Winners

Thanks so much to everyone who entered my Halloween giveaway for The Raven's Tale. Wow! There were a lot of you. I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm for this book! I also thoroughly enjoyed reading about your favorite Edgar Allan Poe stories and poems.

Now, without further ado, let's get to the winners!

Rafflecopter did the random choosing for me. Shortened versions of the winners' names are listed below. In a moment, I'll contact the winners directly using the emails they provided.

The 5 Winners of the Halloween Greetings Prize Pack:

Alexa M.

Maria

Azzurra R.

Molly M.H.

Amanda S.

The Grand Prize Winner of an Advance Copy of The Raven's Tale:

Linda H. 

(who won through her entry in which she correctly identified the missing word from the opening line of "The Raven" as "midnight.")

Congratulations, winners! 

If you didn't win this time around, please don't despair. We still have six more months until The Raven's Tale releases (exactly six months from today, in fact!). You'll likely find more giveaways for the novel between now and then.   

Thank you again for participating, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

☙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)

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)

First Blurb for THE RAVEN'S TALE

A finished version of the manuscript for The Raven's Tale is making its way to early readers.

I'm thrilled to share that one of those readers, comics creator Dwight L. MacPherson, has given the novel its first blurb:

“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
_______________

☙PRE-ORDER THE RAVEN'S TALE❧

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Powell's

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

Watch Dwight's interview with me on The Raven Lunatics:

THE RAVEN'S TALE Cover Reveal and Pre-order Links

Hardcover, ISBN 9781683354864

Bustle is generously hosting the exclusive cover reveal for The Raven's Tale, my upcoming novel about a year in the life of seventeen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe. To take a peek at the design—and to see my top three favorite Edgar Allan Poe stories—head to Bustle.com. The designer of the cover is Hana Anouk Nakamura, and the artist is Shane Rebenschied.

Pre-order options for the novel are also now available! If a link isn't working, it means the book hasn't yet appeared on the seller's site. I'll update this post as soon as the missing links go live.

☙PRE-ORDER:❧

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Powell's

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

About The Raven's Tale:

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family—the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: "Let them see me!"

The Raven's Tale will release from Abrams on April 16, 2019.

THE RAVEN'S TALE Has a Publication Date!

The Raven's Tale, my novel about teenage Edgar Allan Poe, has a publication date: April 16, 2019!

Look for the cover reveal during the week of August 13. Pre-order links will be available that same week.

More info soon!

Watch me talk about The Raven's Tale on the Edgar Allan Poe web show The Raven Lunatics:

THE RAVEN'S TALE: Latest News

I have a couple updates for The Raven's Tale, my upcoming novel about a year in the life of teenage Edgar Allan Poe!

☙ The Raven's Tale is currently slated to release in May 2019.

☙ The cover reveal is tentatively scheduled to go live in mid-August.

I'm still awaiting the next stage of revisions from my editor, so I don't have anything new to report in terms of the content of the book. The official catalog synopsis will likely debut at the same time as the cover . . . but I may have already slipped an early version of the summary on my Raven's Tale page as a bonus for visitors to my website.

Pre-order options aren't yet available; however, you can add the novel to Goodreads.

More soon!

My Guest Appearance on a Poe Web Show

I'm so thrilled to announce that I made a guest appearance on The Raven Lunatics, a web show devoted to all things Edgar Allan Poe. If you're arriving at my site because of the episode, welcome! I invite you to subscribe to my posts (see the subscription option at the bottom of the sidebar ⇘) and have a look around.

Amulet Books/Abrams will release The Raven's Tale, my upcoming novel about teenage Edgar Allan Poe, in Spring 2019. Pre-order options aren't yet available, but you can add the novel to your Goodreads shelf.

Thank you so much to comics creator Dwight L. MacPherson and Poe Museum curator Chris Semtner for interviewing me! It was an honor and a delight to appear on their show. 

THE RAVEN'S TALE Updates

I just wrapped up the first round of revisions for my newest book, The Raven's Tale—my novel about Edgar Allan Poe's teen years—which Amulet Books/Abrams will publish in Spring 2019. This was the editorial letter stage of the process, in which my editor, Maggie Lehrman, sent me her comments and suggestions for the book, and I revised the novel accordingly. I spent over 2 1/2 months gutting and rewriting about 70% of the manuscript—an intense yet, ultimately, exciting process—and I'm ecstatic to now have a little break.

Next up will be line edits, which will involve Maggie going through the entire manuscript and marking suggestions ranging from grammar fixes to additional story changes.

Because the plot of the book might still get affected by future revisions, I'll only share a few more details about the novel at this point.

• The Raven's Tale opens shortly after Edgar Allan Poe's 17th birthday in January 1826 and ends in May 1827 when he's 18.
• Poe himself is a point-of-view character, which has been a challenging but ridiculously fun and entertaining viewpoint to write. 
• I'm calling this book my "literary rock opera." As I've hinted before in an Instagram post, there are certain scenes in the novel that unfold like musical numbers.   

I haven't yet seen any signs of early cover plans for the book, but if the novel stays on track for a Spring 2019 publication, I'll probably get to look at a design this summer, and, of course, I'll share the finished cover as soon as I can!

Pre-order links aren't yet available, but you can go ahead and add The Raven's Tale to your Goodreads shelves.

Me and "Eddy" at The Poe Museum in Richmond, VA.

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

New Novel Announcement

I'm so excited to be able to announce my newest book, The Raven's Tale, a novel about Edgar Allan Poe's teenage years! Head to Bustle for the official announcement, which includes more details about the book and 10 strange and startling Poe facts in celebration of the iconic author's 209th birthday today. I'll post more info about The Raven's Tale over here next week.

The Raven's Tale on Goodreads

Announcement of My Secret Project Coming Soon

Look for an announcement about my newest book on Friday, Jan. 19!

via GIPHY