The Great GATU Create a Book Boyfriend WINNER!

Hi :)

First of all, thanks for your patience. I just turned in an 85,000-word  #SeekritBook to Harper for 2017 publication (I hope) that I wrote in six weeks, so that's part of why I needed more time.

Judging your entries involved the following:

• printing them out so I could read them without knowing who each boy belonged to
• going through each category and highlighting the things that resonated with me in different color pens
• adding up the points, looking at the top three with respect to the books I'll be pitching to HarperTeen and Tor Teen later this year (Mostly Harper, since two of the Tor pitches take place abroad, with stories that limit the major characters somewhat)
• deciding which boy felt like he would fit in one of the books I'll hopefully be writing
• deciding which boy felt like a boy I could competently write without having to make major changes to him

Please note how subjective those criteria are. If your book boyfriend didn't win, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with him, or you. I appreciate how many of you took the time to do this, despite it being a subjective contest. I hope those of you who are writers used this as an exercise and were encouraged to think more deeply about all of your characters.

So, after a lot of waffling, I have picked a winner and a runner-up:

Don't get the wrong idea. I know nothing about Pokemon ;)

Winner is Alice L and her book boyfriend Aaron Jenkins!! Alice wins a signed ARC of GATU and her choice of any book from Book Depository. I am also going to try to incorporate Alice's book boyfriend in a 2018 or 2019 novel.

Aaron Jenkins is half Italian, half Japanese, with dark brown hair and dark eyes. He's 5'11" and has an athletic body type. He is an atheist. He has a little crook in his nose from when broke his nose by accidentally walking into a glass door. He has a dimple on his right cheek, a scar on his chin (from when he went skateboarding and fell), and slightly chapped lips.

Aaron stole my teen girl heart with his chapped lips, his "swishy" hair (it's one of his best features) and his personal ad:

Hi, my name is Aaron, and I love animals (but not in a weird way), puns, and the Oxford comma. I can cook sometimes and I'm really good at kissing (and maybe a little more, wink wink).

I love me some Oxford commas ;) I also really like Aaron's deepest regret "teasing that girl in elementary school relentlessly" and his words to live by "Why bother with a cunning plan when a simple one will do?" I was not familiar with this quote. Google tells me it is credited to Terry Pratchett. Mostly, Aaron feels very real to me, and he also feels like a boy I could incorporate seamlessly into a future romantic contemporary book.

Runner-up is Sarah M and her book-boyfriend Parker Lewis!! Because it was so hard for me to choose, I'm giving Sarah her choice of a signed copy of The Art of Lainey, Liars, Inc., or a signed GATU ARC. Sarah, please email me your choice to pstokesbooks [at] gmail [dot] com

Parker Lewis is half white/half black, bisexual, 5'11, 175 lbs, brown hair, hazel eyes. Has a scar on his forehead after falling out of his treehouse when he was eight, has a particularly dark freckle under his right eye, and when he gets nervous, his stutter comes back.

In addition to being a diverse guy, Parker has really diverse hobbies like rock-climbing and origami. I love that his deepest hope is "to travel the world" and his words to live by are "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all." (Ambrose Redmoon.)

Overall, there were colored pen marks on every single entry meaning that every one of you wrote things that made me stop and go "Ooh, nice." Your personal ads were particularly fun. I will resist the urge to excerpt from them so this blog post doesn't get excessively long, but thank you all for the enjoyable time I spent hanging out with your book boyfriends :) 

And again, there are no losers here, all right? Similar to the same way an agent will read a submission, my decisions were based on gut instinct and personal preference as much as anything else.

Congrats to Alice and Sarah, and thanks again to everyone who entered. And if I can sell more books *fingers crossed* hopefully you'll see Aaron Jenkins in a Paula Stokes book someday :)

In the meantime, are you in the mood for another fabulously fun contest?? Check back next week for the Great GATU Sticker Design Contest. Prizes to be decided :)

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.