Friday 16 July 2010

CLOSED! WINNERS BEING DECIDED Win a copy of The Company of Shadows by Ruth Newman INTERNATIONAL ends 12pm GMT Friday 30th July

From the author of Twisted Wing,



the lovely people at Simon and Schuster publicity are offering three copies of The Company of Shadows! 



My copy is currently in the post and a review will be up before the competition deadline. 

Summary from Simon and Schuster

Flicking through her friends' holiday snaps, Kate Benson receives a sudden shock. For there in the background is her husband, Charlie. Dark hair, blue eyes, familiar smile: there's no mistaking him. But that's impossible. Because Charlie died exactly a year ago.
Determined to track down the man in the photograph, Kate follows the trail from Miami to Sicily, where her husband drowned in mysterious circumstances. But when she discovers serious discrepancies in the original investigation, Kate starts to question whether she ever really knew the man she loved so much.
Was Charlie murdered? Was their marriage as perfect as Kate remembers? Who are the people following her? Who can she trust? And is Kate herself to be trusted? Because there are secrets in her past too . .
.

The Prize: 3 entrants will win a copy of The Company of Shadows by Ruth Newman. International competition! 

To Enter: Simply write a comment below about a fright you've had because of a shadow. Please leave a contact email address, putting it like this to hopefully reduce spammers: nayu(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk. 

The Rules: If you are under 18 years of age, you may enter if you get a parent or guardian's permission to enter. This helps keep everyone safe. Wherever you are in the world (apart from space) you can enter! This is an international competition. 

The deadline: 12pm GMT Friday 30th July 2010.  3 winners will be drawn by a random generator. I will notify the winners by email, and pass their details on to the Puffin publicity team. 

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Once I freaked out on a camp because I saw a black thing in my shoe (we're counting this as a shadow, because it's the only remotely shadow-like experience I've had) and thought it was a spider and freaked out, because I hate spiders.
Turns out it was a frog.

Thanks for the giveaway.
sugarcubequeen (at) gmail (dot) com

Silvia_reads said...

This book sounds really nice!

My latest shadow-related scare dates only to a couple of weeks ago. I was on holiday in Austria and the evening before my birthday my partner and I decided to go and wait for the midnight on the shore of a nearby lake. And there we went armed with candles and beers... except that there was no-one around and after 10 minutes I heard a rustling noise and saw a shadow going past some trees next to us. I was up and running back to the car before my partner could even realise what was happening! Still don't know what it was...

sil.0107(at)gmail(dot)com

Anonymous said...

A few years ago, we were in York (UK) and visited the cellars of an old pub, where reportedly in Roman times (i.e., 200AD or so), a Roman road had been (before the pub was built of course). The ghost of a Roman soldier is sometimes seen there.

And when we were there the light was such that for a moment, I was convinced I saw a Roman soldier cross a few meters in front of me. Brrr!

The book looks great!

donnas said...

I had one in the house where I grew up, where I was positive I saw a figure on the back porch late one night wearing a fedora hat. It was a completely shadow figure that I saw though the curtains. More recently I have some that are definitely related to my spider phobia, where I am probably half asleep and I see a black shadow moving or coming down from the ceiling and I completely freak out and jump up awake and search all over to make sure it wasnt actually there.

bacchus76 at myself dot com

buddyt said...

I am one of those scardy cats who doesn't like the dark and as a child I always had a nightlight in my bedroom.

The number of times I woke up during the night and imagined I say everything from witches to trolls to burglars in a corner shadow, are too many to remember.

PS. I still often jump at shadows although lately I keep expecting vampires or werewolves. LOL

Carol T

buddytho{at} gmail DOT com

Nayuleska said...

Teamouse, the frog could have had some manners and croaked! Although that would have made you jump too.

Brighton Blogger: that is very scary! Hopefully it was a cat. Or a fox.

leeswammes: That is definitely creepy! My copy of the book is still in the post. Review will be up as soon as I've read it. If it's anything like Twisted Wing there will be a big twist at the end.

donnas: I, um, once had a spider fall on my head. I was in my bedroom, under 10 years old. I shrieked and raced downstairs to my parents squealing. They got it off me. I have phobias of other things now, and spiders are ok! But at the time it was horrid.

buddyt: I had a nightlight. Still not fond of the dark now. Had night light at uni. Now I just leave the curtains open a little so I can see outside where it is lighter (even when it's dark, there's a bit of light)

Amy Laurens said...

Late at night when my eyes get tired they often start playing tricks on me. If I'm looking at the computer screen, it can look like the shadows in the background are moving - it never fails to give me a fright!

blot.of.ink[at]gmail(dot)com

Cherry said...

I don't usually stay at my computer after 12midnight because for some reason, or maybe because I am already tired, the shadows starts to scare me.

Re-posted your contest at: http://contests-freebies.blogspot.com/2010/07/win-company-of-shadows-at-nayus-reading.html

Cherry Mischievous
mischivus101-warrior [at] yahoo [dot] com

Kulsuma said...

Whenever I come out of my bathroom at night, I have to look to the right because I always think there is a murderer standing there-waiting me-you know that fisherman from I know what you did last summer-that one. It's pretty frustrating. Sometimes my sister is standing there and it scares me.

k_anon(at)hotmail(co)dot(uk)

jen7waters said...

Well, I get scared with pretty much every shadow after seeing a scary movie...I remember that when I watched Dragonfly with Kevin Costner I got so scared with a scene where the lights go out and he goes around the house to fix it and there's a storm outside, so his house is filled with spooky shadows...I was holding my breath the entire time and my heart was beating like crazy, because my own house was under a crazy storm, and everywhere I looked the shadows just spooked the hell out of me, I don't think I moved from my sit until the movie was over *.*

jen7waters (at) gmail (dot) com

EVA SB said...

When I was a child my cat came in through my bedroom window. Unfortunately he was hidden behind the curtain which was puffed out with the breeze and it made his shadow look like a chimpanzee which I was convinced was about to attack me so I ran screaming from the room!!

eva.s.black[@]gmail[.]com

wildchild said...

Once I saw a movement at the edge of a curtain and thought it was a spider - a tarantula at least. Moving the curtain back, thinking I'd laugh when I saw there was nothing there, I discovered.. a huge black thing - it must have been at least 2mm big - funny how shadows can freak you out!

ziggles22(at)gmail(dot)com

emily13 said...

When I was very little my cousin told me about a shadow that would come through her window and jump on her bed at night. This then gave me nightmares for weeks afterwards. It was only when I went to stay with her that I finally worked it out. Shadow was the name of the cat!

emily(at)amorphous(dot)co(dot)uk

Nayuleska said...

Amy and Cherry - those sound like scary shadows!

Kaya - I saw that film too! (Don't get that kind of scare though, which is surprising because I don't like scary movies)

Jen - I think you've learnt a lesson there! (I don't like storms so tend not to watch films in them!)

EVA SB - that's one mighty scare! Silly cat should have known better not to frighten it's owner.

Emily13 - that really is funny. Nice to know there is a friendly shadow in the world.

Tabathia B said...

I was home alone and thought I saw a shadow outside my door and was absolutely terrified and grabbed my gun because I thought there was an intruder
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com

Chantel said...

I remember my biggest shadow scare just like it happened yesterday: I was a child and I had just been put to bed but hadn't fallen asleep yet. I sawa the perfect shadow of a witch on a broom pass by my window. It didn't go across the walls, just the window. I slept with my back against the corner that night trying to tell myself I wasn't going crazy.

cwilliams127 at gmail dot com

doreen lamoureux said...

Awesome book.
I was by myself making coffee and saw a shadow come up to me...and my heart jumped and raced like crazy cause I knew I was alone........or was I.

dorcontest at gmail dot com

Can I subscribe by email?

Sharli said...

When I was little I got really scared after watching a scary movie. When I went to bed there was this big shadow on my wall that really looked liked the creatures in the movie. I couldn't sleep for weeks until my mom finally figured out what was making the shadow. I can't remember what it was though :P

entrelibros_blog at hotmail.com

Chel said...

It was All Souls Day and local channels were airing news about true ghost stories. I was in grade school and a complete scaredy cat but I kept acting cool saying I wasn't afraid of ghosts.
It really made me feel better until I went outside the house and I saw a very dark, very human-shaped shadow on my neighbor's open window. I freaked out and ran all the way to a friend's house. Up until now, I'm still not sure whether it was a shadow or a real ghost but I like to think it was a shadow. :3
ll

royce_a13 at yahoo dot com

Anonymous said...

This isn't exactly a shadow story but here's something I remember: When I was a little girl my cousin and I were playing outside and we ended up running into the back yard of a vacant house that was next door to ours. There was a litter of kittens behind the house we wanted to see. I looked up through the window and I saw a woman sitting in a chair inside, just looking back at me and smiling. I told my cousin to look and she saw her too. Right then we ran away, fast. This house used to belong to my great grandmother, who died a couple months after I was born. Later, after I told my mom about what we saw, she showed me a picture of her and it was the same woman I saw in the house. My mom also told me that chair that I told her the woman was sitting in was my great grandmother's favorite chair that she always sat in. I would say it was just a child's imagination, but I know what I saw and there was another person with me who saw it, too. I will never forget it.

peacelily_2006(at)yahoo(dot)com

happyfox said...

Whispery shadows fill our cellar, silent winged, hanging creatures that tangle in your hair. Dark heaps of coal shift beneath your feet, phantoms forming in the smudged charcoal outlines.

Thank goodness for central heating.

givinganswers(at)googlemail(dot)com

CazApr1 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
CazApr1 said...

walking along under street lamps makes me jump all the time - when you're between two lamps your shadow will leap from behind you to in front of you! You'd think I'd be used to it by now ;o)
carolinesfielding(at)gmail(dot)com