VICARIOUS: Guess the title to the sequel!

Sometimes I know the title to a book before I even start writing it (like with Liars, Inc.), but more often, the title reveals itself during the writing process (like with Vicarious.) Occasionally the title to the book is decided after all of the writing and revision is completed (like with Girl Against the Universe.) 

The title to the Vicarious sequel was one of those third ones. I kept a running list of title ideas on the document file, and then crossed them off when I decided they didn't quite work. There was one I liked a lot, but it happened to be a single word that had been used in multiple other book titles over the past few years. I try really hard to come up with unique titles when I can, because this makes them easier for readers to find online by searching. The title my editor and I settled on isn't 100% unique, but it's close :)

I thought it would be fun to post clues to the title and let people try to guess. The first person to guess the right title wins their choice of a finished copy of Vicarious or an ARC of the sequel. I'll make this contest international so everyone can guess, but after this I'll be cutting back on INT contests because I've spent over $600 on postage this year already 0_0 If you live outside the US and want access to regular contests, I run them several times a year in my newsletter, and most of those are INT. Subscribe by clicking the "Mailing List" tab and filling out the form.

Here are the rules for this contest:

• All entrants must be at least 13 years old.
• You can only guess here on the blog. I might post clues on Twitter or Instagram, depending on how long it takes people to guess, but all guesses have to be in the comments here.
• You can only guess once per comment.
• You can only comment once per hour.
• I turned off comment moderation temporarily, so you can see that your guess went through, but if you violate the one guess per hour rule, all of your guesses will be invalidated and deleted.
• In order to win, you have to have the right title and spell it correctly.
• I'll add clues to this post sporadically throughout the day (and weekend if no one guesses today.)

Here are a couple of clues to get you started:

Clue #1: The title is one word.

Clue #2: The title ends in US.

Clue #3: The title is a word that can be used to describe at least one of the book's major characters.


Start guessing, or stay tuned for more clues. In the meantime, have you checked out the official VICARIOUS book trailer?

UPDATE: This contest has been won! Add FEROCIOUS to your Goodreads TBR list :)

Five fast facts about Vicarious + a giveaway!

Happy National Book Lover's Day!! My seventh novel, Vicarious, releases one week from today and I still have a couple of ARCs I've been keeping in case of emergency. You know what that means...last minute giveaway :D

This is my first ever print review, in Justine Magazine. I was so honored
that they chose Vicarious as one of the August/September Buzz Books!

Check out these facts about the story and the writing process, and enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win a signed ARC. This contest is international.

Fact #1: I wrote Vicarious as a light sci-fi mystery taking place in an alternate present.
I've seen the book shelved as futuristic, fantasy, dystopian, etc., and if that's the reading experience you have, that's totally fine. We all come to books with a different set of experiences and ideas. Who we are affects how we interpret stories.

Fact #2: This story was inspired by a lot of different things.
First and foremost, the story was inspired by my time teaching English in Seoul. I'll be writing extensively for my blog tour about why I chose to make my main characters Korean, so if you're interested in that, check back here on Monday Aug 15th for the whole schedule. This book was also inspired by a lot of dark or high-tech movies that I love, including The Crow, Strange Days, The Matrix, and Inception. Nineties music like NIN and System of a Down played a big part in creating the book's setting and ambiance.

Bright lights, big city! This pic is from my trip to Seoul in
January 2016, when I went back to do research  for the sequel.

Fact #3: I wrote Vicarious years before I wrote Girl Against the Universe.
I wrote Vicarious from mid 2012 to early 2013, at the same time as I was writing Starling (now called Dangerous Heart.) I was struggling to complete the work-for-hire trilogy (trilogies are hard!) and juggling writing for two publishers, part-time nursing, and full-time grad school back then. Vicarious was the project I worked on for ME. It was a total love project--I didn't even tell my agent about it until I had finished and revised the first draft.


Fact #4: What I originally planned as one book turned into a duology.
My high-tech mystery idea became something a lot more complex while I was outlining. That led to splitting the story into two parts, where the first part involves Winter finding her sister's killer and the second part is about what she does with that information. That means that even though this book was partially inspired by my time in Seoul, none of the characters travel there until the second book.

This isn't quite how they do it in Vicarious ;) [via giphy.com]

Fact #5: I did a great deal of in-depth and varied research for this duology.
From reading the memoirs of trafficking victims to researching Korean culture to furiously Googling to find out how exactly Winter and Jesse could jump off a bridge and survive unscathed, I easily spent more time doing research for this book than I did writing it. Luckily, Vicarious contains a lot of topics that I love and/or find fascinating, so the research hardly ever felt like work.

Click here to read the beginning of Vicarious on my blog. Click here to read the first 100 pages on Net Galley. (Free access to everyone with an account.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want a second chance to win a copy of Vicarious? So far I have only a couple of entries in my Vicarious graphics contest, and one person is going to score a finished hardcover :)

Got questions about the contest or the book? Put 'em in the comments :) And tell me a recent sci-fi book that you enjoyed and what you liked best about it for 4 points in the Rafflecopter.

The Great GATU Graphics Contest!

Last month I was looking for sticker designs to help promote Girl Against the Universe. I got lots of awesome entries, and to be honest, I wish I could have printed them all. Picking a winner and a runner-up was really hard, but I based my judging off overall appearance, sticker message, and how well each design branded/promoted the book. In the end, I selected the design on the left (made by Ri) as the winner and the design on the right (made by Silvana) as the runner-up.

Both stickers will be used in a GATU pre-order campaign later this month. Bonus: Ri's sticker design, with her permission, was selected for use in a major industry campaign, the details of which must remain secret until the book's release. But thousands of her stickers will be printed and distributed. Pretty cool, huh? :)

If you didn't win, don't despair! You can tweak your entry just slightly and have two more chances to score a copy of Girl Against the Universe, because this month I'm just looking for cool fan art or quote/image pairings to share on social media. These images should include the title of the book somewhere and can include quotes from the novel, suggested taglines, your own taglines, etc. They can also be text-free. Here are some examples from last year's contest for Liars, Inc.

By Ri from Hiver et Cafe

By Kim from Divergent Gryffindor

By Eileen from Book Cat Pin (Mixed media)

By Eli from The Silver Words

I am picking two winners for this contest, one based on the artwork I like the best, and one randomly selected from all of the other entries that follow the rules. It's not always just about who has mad design skills. It's also about the fact you took the time to help me promote my book.

Each winner of this contest will get a signed hardcover of Girl Against the Universe if you have a U.S. address or a Book Depository pre-order of the novel + a signed bookplate if you live outside the U.S. If you live in a non TBD country, I will send you an e-book copy. [ETA: Anytime you win a copy of a book from me, if you want one of my other books instead, just ask. I have no problem subbing in a different title as long as it's available.] All winners, regardless of location, will receive swag to include signed bookmarks and a GATU magnet. All submitted designs will be fawned over by me and shared via my social media ;D


Possible text for your graphic:
Your graphic does not need to have text (aside from the book's title), but it can. If you've read the book, you can use anything that stood out to you. You can also use part of one of the quotes that are listed on Goodreads.  You can make up your own tagline or phrase. Or, like last month, consider this huge list of tags I submitted to my editor when I was flailing for a tagline myself.

• Life is risk.
• Luck is a game of inches.
• Worlds are about to collide.
• Everything is riding on this.
• It's time for an upset.
• Don't count out the underdog.
• The ball is in your court.
• Sometimes the Universe just takes what it wants.
• Sometimes you have to fight for everything.
• There's a fine line between luck and tragedy.
• You can't win if you don't play.

Rules: 

• You must share your graphic on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Facebook at least once during the next six weeks. Caption/tag the image similar to: #GirlAgainstTheUniverse by @pstokesbooks releases May 17th from @HarperTeen #GATU @EpicReads
• Aside from the GATU cover which can be freely used, any photography or imagery must belong to you. Polyvore, Wikipedia, etc. images cannot be used unless they are completely open source without even requiring crediting of the source. When in doubt, don't use it.
• Designs can be any shape or size and do not need to be high resolution.
• If you entered the sticker design contest last month, you can use your same design for this contest, provided that you include the book title and share it on social media at least once.
• You can enter up to three graphics, but each one must be shared on social media.

Final designs need to be emailed to me as a .JPG for easy sharing at pstokesbooks [at] gmail [dot] com by May 15, 2016, subject: GATU graphics contest. In your email, also include a link or enough information so I can find your shared image on social media.

General questions? Put them in the comments.

The Great GATU Sticker Design Contest

It's time for another great Girl Against the Universe contest! Maybe you're not the writerly type so designing a book boyfriend wasn't for you. Maybe you want to show off your design skills instead. Well you're in luck! I'm looking for an awesome sticker to use as part of my GATU promotional material. This sticker will be a 2 inch x 2 inch finished product that I will give out at events and as part of a swag pack for future giveaways, including possibly a pre-order incentive.

Here's an example of a sticker designed by Yun-A Kwak. Note that this sticker was not
created specifically for this contest, so it might not fit the template below.

If you're interested in starting a graphic design business or amping up the business you already have, being able to tell potential clients that you've designed for a multi-published Big Five author might be a nice thing to add to your resumé. The contest is open internationally. Winner gets their choice of a signed finished copy of The Art of Lainey, a signed finished Liars, Inc., or a signed ARC of Girl Against the Universe, plus a $25 B&N gift card. If you live outside the U.S., instead of the gift card I'll let you pick one book from The Book Depository, max price $25. If you win and live in a non-TBD country, I'll give you your choice of any second paperback YA book and pay the shipping to your country. Winner(s) will also receive 5 copies of their printed sticker.

In order to win, the sticker will need to incorporate either the title or part of the GATU cover design/colors in some way. You do not need to do both, unless you want to. You can use your own graphics as long as you are the copyright holder, and/or come up with your own tagline or text. Your sticker must fit the template below and the design must keep the critical graphics and text within the safety lines but extend out through the bleed lines.

In other words, what should print out is everything inside the blue dotted line. However, because the machines aren't perfect, for error-margin reasons, the critical elements need to be inside the green and yellow lines, and the image needs to extend out to the red. This template is from Printrunner.com. Here is a link in case you need specs, sizes, color information, etc. You can also download templates specific to your design software. In order for your design to be printable, it will need to be high resolution. Here is a link to a high resolution cover image. Let me know if you can't access it.

If you have never designed for printing before, you might want to hang onto your idea because next month I'm doing a GATU quote/image and fan art contest. The prize will be just one book but there also won't be as many technical requirements.

All submitted designs will be shared via my social media. If I like more than one design enough to print it, I will award runner-up prizes. Please note that if you use the cover design, selling these stickers without permission from the designer and artist is a violation of copyright.


Possible text for your sticker:
Your sticker does not need to have text, but it can. If you've read the book, you can use anything that stood out to you. You can also use part of one of the quotes that are listed on Goodreads.  You can make up your own tagline or phrase. Or, if you like, consider this huge list of tags I submitted to my editor when I was flailing for a tagline myself. (Did you think there was some genius in promotions with the title of Executive Tagline Generator? I wish ;D)

• Life is risk.
• Luck is a game of inches.
• Worlds are about to collide.
• Everything is riding on this.
• It's time for an upset.
• Don't count out the underdog.
• The ball is in your court.
• Sometimes the Universe just takes what it wants.
• Sometimes you have to fight for everything.
• There's a fine line between luck and tragedy.
• You can't win if you don't play.

Rules:

• You can use any part of the cover design and any quotes from the book or make up your own quotes. You can also use one of the suggested taglines from the list above. You cannot use other artwork/images unless they belong to you.
• My skill in design is very limited, so I am unable to help with technical questions beyond referring you to the Printrunner webpage that is linked above. Again, this contest is primarily for people who have designed for print in the past. Next month's contest will be for digital graphics.
• Submitting a design means you are giving me permission to share the graphic on my social media and, if selected, print the image for use in distribution for book promotion.
• You can enter up to three times.

Tips:

• Despite the fact that Printrunner shows a bordered sticker in their image, I recommend a solid or repeating pattern background. The problem with a border is that these are machine-printed and if the machine is off even a hair you're going to end up with a thick line on one side and a thin line on the other.
• Be sure to preview your image at 2 inch X 2 inch size to make sure your text is readable before submitting.
• Don't worry if your design looks like there's too much space on the outside. Again, what's between the blue and red dotted lines isn't going to print.
• Have fun with this :)

Final designs need to be emailed to me in your file format of choice plus a .JPG for easy sharing at pstokesbooks [at] gmail [dot] com by March 31, 2016, subject: GATU sticker design contest.

General questions? Put them in the comments.

The Great GATU Create a Book Boyfriend Challenge

***UPDATE: This contest is now over. I know I said originally I would pick a winner by the end of February, but I got more entries than I anticipated and I want to be sure to give each entry the consideration it deserves. Therefore I am extending the judging period until March 10th. I will announce a winner here and on Twitter by March 10. Thanks to everyone who entered or spread the word.***

Happy Valentine's Day Weekend! Have I got a fun little contest for you. Have you ever wanted to see your name in a published book? What about help design a character in a book? Well today you can create your own perfect YA book boyfriend! And if I like him enough, I'll incorporate him into a 2018 or 2019 novel and credit you in the Acknowledgments :D Bonus: the winner will receive a signed arc of Girl Against the Universe and a second 2016 release of your choice.

I got this idea from the 80s movie Weird Science, totally notable because Robert Downey Jr. is in it and for some reason wasn't one of the leads. This movie is about a couple of guys trying to make the perfect woman via some sort of Maguffin they hooked up to their computer.

Because we're talking about teen boys, they focused mainly on perfecting their special lady's, er, physical attributes...

And because it was the 80s, their version of perfection looked sort of like a cross between...Cher and Lita Ford?

So. I created this challenge as sort of a 20 years later Galentine's Day Girls' Revenge Contest. Because clearly we girls would focus more on what really matters when we're creating people--less about the six-pack abs and sparkling green eyes and more about the future goals and commitment to the environment. Right? We shall see ;)

However, I am all about being inclusive, so anyone can enter this contest regardless of gender, relationship status, etc.

How to enter:

• Don your lab coat and safety goggles and enter the book boyfriend laboratory. You can work by yourself or with a partner. Completed book boyfriends due by Feb 21st.
• Have fun doing it!
• [Optional] Tweet about how much fun you had and link to this post ;)
• I will choose my favorite aspiring book boy (or randomly select from my top five favorites if it's too hard to pick) and announce the winner in the comments by the end of the month.

What you win:

1. A signed ARC of Girl Against the Universe
2. Either a second signed ARC of GATU (for your teammate or a friend) or your choice of any 2016 romantic read 
[Order/preorder from The Book Depository; max cost $20. If you live in a non-TDB country, you can choose between a second GATU ARC, a copy of Liars, Inc., or a copy of The Art of Lainey. Note: Sorry. I cannot be responsible for lost or damaged mail.]
3. I will do my best to incorporate your book boyfriend into a future Paula Stokes novel!!! 
[This is pending stuff like suitability, timing, and editor approval. However, I've run contests to name/design characters for both The Art of Lainey and Girl Against the Universe and had a lot of fun, so I will make this happen if at all possible.]

Questions? Put them in the comments!

The Great GATU Create a Book Boyfriend Challenge is brought to you by my next release, Girl Against the Universe, available May 17th, 2016 from HarperTeen

Maguire is bad luck.

No matter how many charms she buys off the internet or good luck rituals she performs each morning, horrible things happen when Maguire is around. Like that time the rollercoaster jumped off its tracks. Or the time the house next door caught on fire. Or that time her brother, father, and uncle were all killed in a car crash—and Maguire walked away with barely a scratch.

It’s safest for Maguire to hide out in her room, where she can cause less damage and avoid meeting new people who she could hurt. But then she meets Jordy, an aspiring tennis star. Jordy is confident, talented, and lucky, and he’s convinced he can help Maguire break her unlucky streak. Maguire knows that the best thing she can do for Jordy is to stay away. But it turns out staying away is harder than she thought.

First Day of Winter VICARIOUS ARC Giveaway (INT)

Hi :D Happy holidays! If you're still shopping, check out my holiday gift ideas over on the EpicReads blog. There are things you can buy now and still have in time for Christmas.

Today is the official release day for the Liars, Inc. paperback. I'm proud to say that Liars, Inc has received more positive trade reviews than any other book I've written :)

Check out the official Liars, Inc. website for more info about the book, buy links, and fun extras like quizzes and top ten lists. EpicReads also has a post about why fans of How to Get Away With Murder will enjoy Liars, Inc. If you've seen the show, you'll want to check out the post just for the adorable #Coliver GIF.

But I know, I know, none of that is why you're here. You're here for the giveaway, right? Book people...so predictable ;) So today is the first day of winter (for me, anyway--happy summer to you Southern Hemisphere dwellers), and because the main character in Vicarious is named Winter, I thought it'd be fun to give away an ARC. I actually thought about renaming her, because back in 2012 when I was writing the first draft of this, I knew that bestseller Marissa Meyer had a forthcoming book with an MC named Winter. But it's hard to rename a character after you've known her for a while, and I ultimately decided that no one would get my knife-throwing, bridge-jumping stunt girl confused with Snow White :) Plus she has a Korean name too :D [Fun fact: her Korean name actually means "sky."]

It's a snowflake, because Winter. Yes, I continue to excel at graphics ;)

If you've ended up here but don't know if you really want a free signed ARC of Vicarious [spoiler: you do], I'll let these awesome authors try to convince you:

"Reading this book is like tiptoeing through a minefield. Blindfolded. In other words, I'm in love." -Victoria Scott, author of Titans and Fire&Flood

"A mind-bending thrill ride with a female protagonist who’s as smart as she is strong. Readers will love Winter!" -Lindsay Cummings, author of The Murder Complex and The Death Code.

Need more info? Click here for my books page and scroll down to read the official cover copy.

And now for the giveaway: I only have two or three more Vicarious ARC giveaways planned in the next six months, and at least one of those will be for newsletter subscribers only. So if you want a signed ARC, make this Rafflecopter your beotch :) The question for leaving a blog comment is about your favorite YA main character name. Hopefully that'll be a fun one for people to answer :) Happy holidays!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Where in the world is LIARS, INC.???

THE SECOND ARC OF LIARS, INC. HAS BEEN FOUND AND THIS CONTEST IS OVER. CONGRATS TO MY WINNERS RI AND STEPHANIE :-)

It's giveaway time again :) (When is it not giveaway time?) This contest requires that you follow @pstokesbooks on Instagram. If you want to win and you don't have an IG account, you'll have to make one and follow me. But no worries, it's totally fun and means you'll always have something to do while you're stuck in the post office line.

Because one of my kitties is an obsessive licker of books and the other is a destroyer of all things, I safeguarded all my ARCs of LIARS, INC. by hiding them in hard-to reach exotic locales. Your job is to "locate" the book based on the clues I give you on my Instagram feed, clues which are mainly going to be photos. Like this one:

Oh where, oh where can I be?

Only strong-willed, pure of heart, sound of mind, intrepid explorers will be able to locate this well-hidden tome. (Or, you know, if you're a big traveler, good at riddles, and/or Googling you might find it too.)

The logistics:

1. I post clues to the location of the ARC once a day on my Instagram feed.

2. You figure out the location from the clues in order to win.

3. You post your guess in the comments beneath the latest posted IG pic. Be as specific as you can. Just saying the book is in [city, state/country] is not good enough. If I don't respond to your comment, you're not right. Once a new pic is posted, you can no longer guess on the previous pictures.

4. Each intrepid explorer (that’s you) can guess only once per picture clue. You must also follow me on IG and like the picture for your clue to count, because I'm just needy like that ;)

5. This contest is open internationally. If no one guesses the location within 5 days/5 clues, I'll keep the ARC and do a second contest, but you guys are really good at this so I'm betting someone will "find" it quickly.

6. Contests like this can have a little wiggle room where someone's answer is close but not quite there or two people respond almost simultaneously, but one's a little more specific. I'm the sole judge of who wins and I'll do my best to be fair, but my decision is final and not open to appeal.


Questions??? Put them in the comments so I only have to answer them once :) Remember, do not guess the location of LIARS in the comments. You can only guess on Instagram.

10 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS EPIC HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY!!

I know, I know, there are technically 12 days of Christmas. But what can I say? I'm keeping all the sexy drummers and pipers for myself. If you know me at all, that really shouldn't surprise you. I do love me some drummers! Also, I only had 10 prizes :D

We know we do not look it, but we swear we
are Christmas cookies complete with real candy cane pieces.

I once celebrated Christmas in Thailand and was quite surprised by all of the lights and fake trees and garishly decorated shopping malls. "But Thai people are mostly Buddhist, right?" I asked a man on the skytrain. "I didn't know you celebrated Christmas."

"Thai people do not celebrate Christmas because of any religion," he explained. "We celebrate it because it's fun!" It's been probably ten years but I never forgot that. So this giveaway is in the spirit of fun. It's all-inclusive (yep, all prizes are international!) and not meant to alienate or offend those of you who don't celebrate Christmas for religious or any other reasons. And now that the fine print is out of the way, let's get to the presents part! 

PRIZES!! (AKA presents)

1. A LAINEY swag pack, to include buttons, magnets, and bookmarks

2. A LIARS swag pack, to include a notebook, post cards, and mini flashlight (for optimal sneaking around!)

Evil overlord Blogger demands that you view this pic sideways.

3. A candygram of my fave holiday treats, plus bonus swag

4. An e-copy of INFINITE REPEAT

5. Another e-copy of INFINITE REPEAT, because Micah <3

6. An iTunes $15 gift card, because #MusicSaves

7. A LIARS, INC. black or white T-shirt (size small to 2XL)

Sexy front designs.

Stylish back design. (White shirt has stylish plain back.)

8. A signed ARC of LIARS, INC.

9. A signed copy of THE ART OF LAINEY (or TBD order + signed swag for INT)

10. A finished copy/pre-order of any of my books + signed swag 

Enter below via your pal, the Rafflecopter :) I hope you have a bookish and wonderful holiday season. Thanks for visiting my website!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win THE FINE ART OF PRETENDING and INFINITE REPEAT!

Hi guys! Happy holiday weekend to those of you for whom that applies. Happy regular weekend to everybody else.

So last month I was lucky enough to meet Rachel Harris as part of the Mighty Mississippi Book Blast!

Team MMBB-Texas with blogger Sara S!

I love Rachel and her books a lot. See:

My first blurb (as my pen name): for A TALE OF TWO CENTURIES :)

I've already gotten to read her upcoming release THE FINE ART OF PRETENDING, and I loved that too! See:

What's it about? Well, it has a few similarities my own book, THE ART OF LAINEY (no wonder I loved it! Ha, just kidding...mostly :D), but they are definitely two totally different stories. Here's more about TFAOP:

According to the guys at Fairfield Academy, there are two types of girls: the kind you hook up with, and the kind you’re friends with. Seventeen-year-old Alyssa Reed is the second type. And she hates it. With just one year left to change her rank, she devises a plan to become the first type by homecoming, and she sets her sights on the perfect date—Justin Carter, Fairfield Academy’s biggest hottie and most notorious player.

With 57 days until the dance, Aly launches Operation Sex Appeal and sheds her tomboy image. The only thing left is for Justin actually to notice her. Enter best friend Brandon Taylor, the school’s second biggest hottie, and now Aly’s pretend boyfriend. With his help, elevating from “funny friend” to “tempting vixen” is only a matter of time.

But when everything goes according to plan, the inevitable “break up” leaves their friendship in shambles, and Aly and Brandon with feelings they can’t explain. And the fake couple discovers pretending can sometimes cost you the one thing you never expected to want.

Because Rachel is awesome, she has given me a signed ARC of THE FINE ART OF PRETENDING to give away to one lucky winner!

And because I love giveaways, I'm going to throw in some extra prizes, including a copy of my latest release, the e-novella INFINITE REPEAT. This is a prequel to THE ART OF LAINEY from book-boyfriend and punk rock baker Micah Foster's POV, and can be read before or after the full novel. I'm also going to throw in a mystery ARC that I won off twitter not too long ago, and a swag pack full of bookmarks, buttons and other fun stuff from the #MMBB authors. Two runners up will also win #MMBB swag packs.

  

Actual swag received to include some of the pictured items plus more!

This contest is going to involve a lot of mailing costs so I've got to go US only on it. Sorry international peeps. You know I love you :) I love you so much that I'll be doing an international secondary contest for YASH in October where you can win an ARC of my forthcoming twisty murder mystery, LIARS, INC. Did you like GONE GIRL, I HUNT KILLERS, OR DANGEROUS BOYS? If so, you'll probably like LIARS too :)

Who's ready to win? BOOSH! The Rafflecopter is your friend :)



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five Things You Might Not Know About LIARS, INC.

Max Cantrell has never been a big fan of the truth, so when the opportunity arises to sell lies to his classmates, it sounds like a good way to make a little money and liven up a boring senior year. With the help of his friends Preston and Parvati, Max starts a business providing forged permission slips and cover stories for the students of Vista Palisades High. Liars, Inc. they call it. Suddenly everybody needs something and the cash starts pouring in. Who knew lying could be so lucrative?

When Preston wants his own cover story to go visit a girl he met online, Max doesn’t think twice about hooking him up. Until Preston never comes home. Then the evidence starts to pile up—terrifying clues that lead the cops to Preston’s body. Terrifying clues that point to Max as the murderer.

Can Max find the real killer before he goes to prison for a crime he didn’t commit? Paula Stokes starts with one single white lie and weaves a twisted tale that will have readers guessing until the explosive final chapters.

************************************************************

Tis the season for shiny new e-galleys to be downloaded from Edelweiss and read eight months before the books appear in stores. LIARS, INC. is one of the new HarperTeen titles available, and here are a few things you might want to know.

1. The ARC is a WIP.
There’s nothing horribly wrong with the advanced reader copy of LIARS, INC. Multiple people I trust have read it and really enjoyed it, and I didn't make any massive changes like switch the identity of the killer or anything. But I did make over 100 changes—mostly small—since the galley got printed. So if you read an early version, you’ll be reading the text with some legal/weapons inaccuracies, continuity errors, overused phrases, and a couple hazy areas where Max forgets to share his thought process with the reader. You’ll also be missing a few passages added to strengthen some plot/character elements and to tie up a couple loose ends.

Why all the fixes? A lot of reasons, most of them #AuthorFail. When I work nonstop doing several revision rounds back to back, I don’t get enough distance from my MS to see what’s on the page. I see what my brain knows is supposed to be on the page, only sometimes it’s not there because I pulled it out in an earlier revision round. Sometimes it was never there to start with. Then the MS goes away for a month or more to be proofed/printed and when I get it back to look at again I can suddenly see all the things that I missed. I also got last-minute feedback from a beta-reader who had a few questions and I realized I could do a better job clarifying a couple of issues. If you are a reviewer who read the ARC but want to know about the larger revisions I've made to the final book, email me via the info on my Contact page and I'll send you a Word doc summary of the changes.


2. Once again, the main characters are flawed.
I wrote Max as sort of an emotionally unavailable loner. He starts out fairly standoffish with his adoptive parents, and he really only has 2 friends. He does some questionable things at the urging of these friends, because he thinks they're smarter than him and they're the only people he trusts. Because this is in first-person, the reader is inside Max’s head, which is not always the nicest place to be. Max thinks some snarky and hurtful thoughts during parts of this book, but try to keep in mind what he thinks and what he says are different. All teen boys—all humans!—think angry or sarcastic things sometimes, but just like in real life, the best judge of a person is by their actions.

I wrote Parvati to be a high-functioning sufferer of Borderline Personality Disorder. She’s not suicidal, but she does possess most of the other BPD symptoms in various degrees. You don't necessarily SEE all of them, because Max doesn't, but there's a lot playing into some of her actions and choices.

Why did I choose to write about these people? Take your pick:

1.  Max and Parvati came to me with these personality traits already in place.
2. These personalities fit their backstories.
3. There are a lot of people in the world with psychiatric problems (many undiagnosed), and I think these people deserve to be represented in literature.
4. I find White Knight hero archetypes to be unrealistic and boring. (Remember—you only have to spend a few hours with these people. I live with them for a year or more.)
5. I have a degree in psychology and psychiatric issues fascinate me.
6. When you start with people who have problems, there is more room for character development. 

3. This book only barely passes the Bechdel Test.
This bothered me at first because I consider myself a feminist and a writer of girl-power things, and I had been brainwashed by the media to think this test was a gold standard. But then I did a little research about how the Bechdel test originated. And even if you believe this test is a good measure of feminist creative work (After careful consideration, I don’t, though I do think the original context of Bechdel’s cartoon had something important to say about women in Hollywood), you should consider the differences between movies and novels before you start judging. No movie I can think of has ever been shot in first-person limited POV, but many books are written like this, which makes passing the Bechdel Test a lot tougher. And my book features a male protagonist who spends much of the story alone, hiding from the feds and investigating a crime. So no, not a ton of chances for women to talk to other women about non-guy-related things.

But you know what? That’s totally okay with me. For one because there’s plenty of stated/implied women talking to women about non-guy-things going on offscreen. If my book were a movie, could some of this be shown via an omniscient POV? Sure, why not? More importantly, just like the women in the Harry Potter books (some of which I’m told don’t pass the Bechdel test), the women in LIARS, INC. all possess strength and smarts and general badassery. Parvati, even with her flaws, is a fiercely ambitious teen girl who wants to join the CIA someday. She’s reckless, but takes responsibility for her actions. She never lets society tell her who she should be. Her mother is a lawyer who married outside of her race for love, even though that meant being ostracized by some of her family. Max’s mom, Darla, is her own brand of admirable, as is his little sister Amanda, who suffers from cystic fibrosis but never lets it get her down. The whole point of Bechdel’s “test” was to point out that the role of women in film at that time was to focus their attention on men. My women, yeah, they don't do that. If anything, the females of LIARS, INC. overshadow the boys. They are strong, interesting, capable people who know what they want out of life and aren’t afraid to go after it. That’s feminist, if you ask me. For more about the problem of using the Bechdel Test to judge creative works, read this post by Jenny Trout.

4. This book has more objectionable content than THE ART OF LAINEY.
Max is a teen boy, the kind of kid who wears ripped jeans and hoodies and sometimes falls asleep in class. I’m not going to say all of those guys swear, but some do, and Max does. We’re not talking super-profane, but there are about 20 F-bombs, and various numbers of other swears. There is also sex. It’s not gratuitous, but it’s not completely fade to black. There is also mention of past drug use and one instance of underage drinking. I am not apologizing for any of this--I’m merely telling you it’s there so you can skip my book if that stuff offends you. Trust me, sometimes I wish I could be happy writing the kind of super-clean-teen books that make it into a lot of schools and libraries, but I didn't grow up in a G-rated world and I don't live in one now. I have to create my worlds in a way that feels authentic to me and meshes with my plot and characters.

5. This book is a standalone with companion book potential.
LIARS wraps up the mystery threads and addresses the romantic subplot for the most part, but I’ve got at least three ideas for companion novels. One of them is already outlined and partially written. Different story, different main character, but still slightly overlapping in cast. I did this last summer when I had some free time between revision rounds, and it's a really cool tale that takes place mostly abroad and features a racially diverse cast of characters--kind of like Homeland  meets Nikita meets Jennifer Lynne Barnes's The Naturals series. I have no idea what kind of sales numbers LIARS would have to post for my publisher to buy a second INC. book since they’ve already bought more romantic comedies from me, but the thought of letting go of these characters forever makes my insides hurt. This could very well be a book I self pub if the publisher doesn’t pick it up.

Do you want to win an ARC of LIARS, INC.? I'm giving one away (INT) when I reach 1000 Facebook likes, so like my page here. For a second chance to win, RT this twitter status before 8/18.