Introductions and Contest Winners

This week on Paper Hangover we introduced our contributors and hosted contests for some pretty awesome prizes! Today we bring you our final introductions and the announcement of the winners from the contests throughout the week.

Before we announce the contest winners we'd like to introduce you to the Writing Tips Crew. Lauren and Michael will be posting on Thursdays bringing you writing tips every week!

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How do you develop the best name for a magical object? How do you create a magic system that's cool, unique, and consistent? How do you create a language that feels real and is easy to read? How do you plan a series?

Michael and Lauren will attempt to answer these world-building questions and more every Thursday! We'll break each topic down into quick and easy steps that we've found useful in our experience. Once you implement these tools you'll no longer feel like pulling your hair out in frustration. Okay, no guarantees on that, but we've been there. Our hair is growing back and we'll be here to answer your questions to help get you going and not go bald.

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Hey guys! My name is Michael. I'm going to help you build your fictional world with fun tips--emphasis on fun. Because if you're not enjoying it, you shouldn't be doing it. (That's not always true, but it rhymed so I'm keeping it.) Even if you don't write fantasy, all fiction requires some level of world-building. I'm going give you personal world-building techniques that have worked for me. I'll scour the Internet for world-building resources so you don't have to. And I'll recommend the best reads and the coolest apps that'll help make the hard stuff easier for you. Let's build!

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Hi everyone! My name is Lauren, and I write fantasy with one foot in the real world. High fantasy is classic, but low fantasy is increasing in popularity. I'm going to offer you tips on how to give your readers a story that's believable, create a language that's realistic and not just a Quenya knockoff, and scrutinize your magic system for internal consistency. We'll also take a peek into the secret goldmine you can ethically steal ideas from--history! As time goes on I also plan to bring you tips on other aspects of writing any genre, from starting a story to revising it. See you in a couple weeks!

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And now on to the contest winners!

Tuesday's Book Giveaways

Haven and Unearthly

Theresa Milstein

Divergent and Like Mandarin

Janet Johnson

Wednesday's Query Critiques

Erinn

Kelly Andrews

Jennifer Pickrell

Thursday's 1st Page Critiques

Rachel Morgan

Carrie

Tiana Smith

Congratulations to all the winners! Please send us an email at paperhangover(at)gmail(dot)com to claim your prizes!  Thank you all for entering the contests and joining us in our debut this week. We had a lot of fun and there's a whole lot more to come. Stay tuned.