Tattoo Winner

First of all, I have to say that judging this contest was much harder than I expected it to be! I loved seeing what you all came up with, and even more than that, I loved reading your explanations. It was so fun to see how much you all had thought about your entries. I truly wish I could award everybody who played along, because it was so much fun, but I think my publisher might be less than thrilled if I gave that many copies of it away.

Before I reveal the winner, let me just wax poetic (?) for a moment. There were so many great choices, and I debated showing them all. However, a couple of them were actually copyright protected, so I’ve decided to give you a sampling of the entries, and if your entry isn’t included, I really hope you won’t hold it against me! There were a LOT to choose from, and I loved every single one of them!

There were two themes that came up frequently: the tree of life, and the sun. The fact that so many of you went this route really says something about Jared’s character, and I think they are both good choices. Here are a few of those entries (these particular ones are from Heather, Heather, Helena, Wendy and Angela, but there were some others that were absolutely gorgeous!):

Ella had this fabulous idea that the tattoo might be sun with a hole in the center, and that Matt might work through a few of his ‘issues’ while rimming Jared’s tattoo. Phew! How hot is that? I definitely spent a while contemplating that scenario! Heather C also had some great information on Virgos, and I loved how well that sign really did fit Jared (and that you obviously checked his birthday, too!).

I was a bit surprised that only one person (Vladim) came up with the idea of using the Broncos, and the tatt he found is incredibly cool!

Other fun entries were these, sent by Theresa (Theresa, my husband LOVED yours – Jared’s definition of a successful ride came from him), Jodie, Mariana and Anna (who remembered that Jared’s compass points west).

There was also this entry by UKSandy, which I can’t show here, due to the copyright issues, but go check it out, because it’s very cool!

Okay. You’re probably ready for me to shut up and tell you who won, right?

Although I loved so many of the ideas you all sent, in the end I decided that Jared’s first true love was the Rocky Mountains, and so I’ve chosen this tattoo, sent in by Zandra, as the winner:

And how perfect is it that the model is bleeding?

Zandra, please email me at msexton.author@gmail.com and let me know which format you prefer. UKSandy, I’m also sending one to you, because I feel like such an ass for getting your entry confused! Tell me what format you prefer. I’ll email the story to you both as soon as I can (probably later tonight).

Seriously, thank you all so much for indulging me, and I hope you had fun, even if you didn’t win. Also, I’ll say here what I said on Goodreads when we hunted for Jared – he lives in your head as well as mine, so if your Jared has a sunburst (or other) tattoo, I’ll never try to tell you that you’re wrong!

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