Hi everyone! Today we are partnering with Paula Stokes to giveaway a copy GIRL AGAINST THE UNIVERSE to one lucky winner! GIRL AGAINST THE UNIVERSE was one of my favorite books of 2016 and honestly such an important book. It does such a great job talking about mental health issues and also has an incredibly swoony romance.
About the Book
Girl Against the Universe by Paula StokesPublished by HarperTeen on May 17th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Mental Health, YA
Source: HarperTeen
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
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 roller coaster 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 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 may be harder than she thought.
Paula: Hi everyone! Girl Against the Universe releases in paperback on June 6, 2017 and I’m so excited about that I decided to do an entire blog tour of giveaways to celebrate! In the story, main character Maguire creates her own list of seven challenges to help her overcome her fears. This week I have seven challenges for you, and seven chances to win a shiny GATU paperback 😀 These contests are international, but due to shipping costs US winners will receive signed copies sent by me and INT winners will receive their books from Wordery or The Book Depository, with signed bookplates mailed separately.
All contests will end on May 31, 2017. All winners will be contacted via Instagram, Twitter, or email as well as posted on my blog in early June. If you’re going to enter a Twitter or Instagram challenge, be sure your account is set to public during the contest period so I will be able to see your entries.
Ready to work on your own fears, just like Maguire?
Challenge #5:
In the comments below, list one fear you have that you’d like to overcome and two strategies you could use to work on it. Here’s an example from me:
Fear: Public speaking, especially doing author events in places where I don’t know anyone.
Strategy #1: Do Skype sessions with classrooms and book clubs to get more comfortable speaking to strangers.
Strategy #2: Attend more local author events to meet more people and become more comfortable with the format and structure.
To get entry points, your comment(s) must have all three parts. You can enter this contest twice by May 31, 2017. Claim your entries in the Rafflecopter so I’ll have an email address where I can contact you if you win! Questions? Put them in the comments 🙂
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Chelsea
Fear: Dying Alone
Strategy One: Be more outgoing. Try going to well known places and make friends with common interests.
Strategy Two: Get a dog (which I am going to do!) as an emotional support animal and spend all the time with said dog. Then meet other pet owners!
Paula Stokes
Wow! You’re so brave to share such a major fear. I worry about this too and I love your strategies. If only there was a “cat park” I could go to 😉
Lisa @ Reading, Writing, and Random Musings
My fear is dying in a car accident. What can I do to work on this fear?
1. Stop clicking on links for new articles or stories that pertain to car accidents (I don’t need any more images in my head).
2. When nightmares crop up, switch to happy memories and deep breathing to go back to sleep.
Paula Stokes
Great strategies! It’s so true that when we fear something it can be tempting to read all of the horrible stories (without stopping to acknowledge all of the stories not written about all the times nothing bad happened.) Best of luck with your fear. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Belinda Huang
I’m a music performance major. Normally I don’t get performance anxiety but then this semester happened and kind of wrecked me. Now it’s become one of my fears because I don’t ever want to go on stage and not be able to feel my entire body because I’m numb and shaking ever again.
1. Practice performing for people, friends, and family.
2. Over preparing for performances so I can feel secure with my music.
Paula Stokes
I feel this fear so hard as I also suffer from performance anxiety and sometimes it sneaks up out of nowhere when you’re not expecting it or strikes at the worst moments. I actually have to do BLS (CPR) tomorrow for my nursing job and I’m already anxious about being “checked off” on the CPR manikin, which is pretty freaking ridiculous since I have passed this course like six times previously and done CPR on multiple actual human patients and did fine and wasn’t even that nervous.
But anxiety–it’s just not rational. I’m with you, though. All the way. Crossing my fingers you can get back to that place where sharing your music brings you joy. Maybe record yourself playing on a phone or webcam and share it online so we can all tell you how amazing you sound 🙂
Alyssa L.
Fear: Socializing to strangers
Strategy #1: Make sure to be with someone I know/familiar with when I go to an event where I have to socialize.
Strategy #2: Be more brave in initiating a conversation. Do not be self-conscious.
Paula Stokes
I relate to this fear too. I have All the Fears 🙂 I think your strategies are great and #2 is really quite bold. Maybe start small–be chatty with the cashier at the store or tel a salesperson you like their shirt. Service workers are generally nice to customers and maybe practicing on “safe bets” will make it easier to practice on strangers out in the world. Good luck <3
Lisa @ NatureImmerse
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.
Maria Malaveci
Fear: Never making it through all the amazing books I want to read!
Strategy: Finding time to read more! I wish I could read when I am sleeping!
Paula Stokes
Agree! I do love sleeping, but there are so many things I also wish I could be doing for all those hours 🙂
Irma
Fear: My family having a car accident.
Strategy #1: Try to ignore the articles that involve car accidents and kids in them.
Strategy #2: Leave the drivers seat to my partner and let him drive and try to get used to the fealing. It’s time to start trusting others drive.
Irma
Fear: Getting out of the country because of the feeling someone might attact me
Strategy #1: Do a research about ‘that’ perticular country (crime range,safety,…)
Strategy #2: Leave a contry with a group and therefore have a safety feeling
Paula Stokes
Smart strategies!
Khayzelle Cayabyab
Fear: Talking to strangers
A lot of people I know wonder why I have this fear when I am a loud person. A happy-go-lucky as they say. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to talk to strangers because I have this feeling that they may not like me or I might say the wrong things.
Heres my strategy:
1. Think that nothing will go wrong that it’s just a conversation.
2. Initiate the conversation with my friends’ friends or to those who my family, and/or friends know when they’re around.
Paula Stokes
A lot of people who are outgoing are still nervous about talking to someone new. I like that you’re going to try to initiate conversations with friends of friends/family when they’re around. That way you have that person who connects you to make things seem less scary 🙂
Lorena
Fear: dogs
Strategy 1: Spend time with friends who have dogs in order to feel more comfortable around them
Strategy 2: Look up pictures of cute dogs so I see them as less intimidating
Paula Stokes
This is one way the internet is good because there are so many cute pictures/videos/feel-good stories about dogs. I hope you get over this fear, because even if you never have a dog of your own, other people’s dogs can bring so much joy 🙂
Lorena
Fear: heights, especially the possibility of falling from those heights
Strategy 1: Put myself in safe situations involving heights that make me uncomfortable
Strategy 2: Work on being comfortable climbing ladders
brittany marie thompson
Fear: Spiders
Strategy 1: Kill them
Strategy 2: Ignore them
Rhonda Fuller
#1 My fear is of heights
#2 I flew in a private plane
kelly woods
My fear is loosing my kids because I lost a baby girl right at 5 months. She wasn’t strong enough and passed away. Its been almost 15 years but seems like yesterday. I have tried to have Strategies especially praying .
Paula Stokes
Kelly, I am so sorry this happened to you. I think with stuff like this we never truly heal completely, but I hope if you are still struggling a lot with this fear that you have people around you–a close friend, a pastor or priest, a counselor, etc. as a support network that you can talk to. Please reach out to someone if you think you might need some extra help <3