Haunted Halloween 2011:Guest Post - Marcus Sedgwick + A Giveaway!

Around ten years ago, my second book, a thing called Witch Hill and inspired by a nightmare I had had, had just been published. One of the things that happens in the book is that the protagonist, Jamie, is nearly killed by a witch, who appears in the night, sitting on him, suffocating him. 

At the the time I was living in Sussex, England, in an ancient timbered cottage, maybe four or five hundred years old, and one night, I had the same experience as the character in my book. I woke, and was paralyzed. I couldn't move a muscle. I was lying face down, and yet somehow I knew that the creature sitting on my back, paralyzing me, was a hideous old witch. Of course, I was terrified, but in my sleepy state, I knew that if I could move, her spell would be broken, and she would disappear. I tried to move again, and found I could move the middle finger of my right hand. I wiggled it, and then found it had freed up my fingers, and when I wiggled them, my whole hand was free. Very soon, my arm and then shoulder could move too, and then she vanished pretty soon after that. Nonetheless, I was still terrified.

And I was terrified despite the fact that I knew what had happened to me, because it was not something I had made up when I put it in my book, it was something I'd researched: cultures all around the world have a folkloric entity called the Old Woman, or the Old Crone, in which this phenomena takes place. Scientists have explained it away: when we sleep, our bodies are at times paralyzed. It's an evolutionary thing to stop us from falling out of trees etc, but if you wake while you're body is still frozen, your mind is terrified and then imagines that some awful creature is sitting on you, suffocating you.

And that's all true, but only raises two more questions in my mind: why, despite that fact that I knew all about the science behind the folklore, was it still terrifying when it happened to me (which it now has done twice), and why, if it's just the mind playing tricks, have various societies from around the world always interpreted the apparition as the same thing: an evil foul old witch...?

 White Crow is currently available from Roaring Brook Press!

Synopsis: Some secrets are better left buried; some secrets are so frightening they might make angels weep and the devil crow. Thought provoking as well as intensely scary, White Crow unfolds in three voices. There's Rebecca, who has come to a small, seaside village to spend the summer, and there's Ferelith, who offers to show Rebecca the secrets of the town...but at a price. Finally, there's a priest whose descent into darkness illuminates the girls' frightening story. White Crow is as beautifully written as it is horrifically gripping.

Order White Crow Online:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Find Marcus Online:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

ONE winner will receive a copy of

WHITE CROW!

Rules and now to enter:

You must be at least 13 years old to enter.
To enter, please fill out the form provided below.
Giveaway open US mailing addresses only, sorry!!
Giveaway ends: November 1st, 2011

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Marcus, thanks so much for sharing this truly scary story. I know for a fact that this happens, it's happened to me and other people that I know. It's not fun and scared the life of out me that night. So, thank you for sharing. Also, a HUGE thank you goes out to Macmillan for donating the book provided in this giveaway.

*I am not compensated at all for any of the links within this page.