Thursday, March 3, 2011

Introductions and Prizes: Day Three

This week on Paper Hangover we are introducing our contributors, and hosting contests for some pretty awesome prizes! Tuesday through Thursday we have a new prize each day, and Friday we will announce all the winners. To enter? Leave a comment and become a follower. That's it!

Today we'd like to introduce you to Michelle and Emy, who will be posting on Wednesdays and bringing to you fresh publishing tips and news from conferences and around the blogosphere!

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Michelle was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and now lives on Long Island with her husband (who was also her high school sweetheart) and their three young sons. Sitting down to write with so much commotion, in her house, proves to be a daily challenge, but somehow she manages to squeeze several productive minutes into each day, even if those minutes are at midnight and her eyelids are threatening a boycott.

When she’s not taking care of business at home she works part-time as a children’s librarian. Next to writing, getting paid to be surrounded by books is a dream come true. She hopes one day to see her name grace the YA stacks next to some of her favorites.

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Emy is Biochemistry and English student who spends more time watching Asian dramas and refreshing Twitter than memorizing protein structures. Born and raised in Vietnam, she first learned English through reading YA novels from her school library with a dictionary in hands. When she'd learned enough grammar to not completely butcher the English language, she began writing. And the rest, as they say, is history.

When not studying or procrastinating, Emy writes young adult science fiction with logistically questionable time-traveling.

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For today, we're giving away THREE 1st page critiques by our awesome contributors! To enter, please follow us and leave a comment with your email address.

As a reminder, all winners will be picked and announced tomorrow, Friday, 03/04. Please get your entries in by then. Best of luck!

36 comments:

Remilda Graystone said...

Getting paid to be surrounded by books does sound like a dream come true! I'd love to do that. Emy, I didn't know you were from Vietnam. I thought you were Korean. *facepalm* My aunt is Vietnamese although I'm not. Also, I'm now determined to learn a language through reading books in the said language. I'd never actually considered doing that before because I didn't know if it'd work, but now I know.

Great bios! Nice to meet you, Michelle!

Meredith McCardle said...

Hi ladies, it's nice to meet you! Count me in for the giveaway! :)

merediththewriter at gmail.

Holly Hill said...

Great intro's ladies! :)

Michelle, I'm envious of your job. lol

Emy, I think it is SO amazing that you first learned English through reading!! What a great story!

Alicia Gregoire said...

"who spends more time watching Asian dramas and refreshing Twitter than memorizing protein structures" <-- LOVE

Marquita Hockaday said...

Nice intros Michelle and Emy! Michelle, I would love to work in a library--it must be neat to recommend books and see how much people love them in the end. Emy, biochemistry--my head would explode. I would love to win a first page critique from any of you--thanks for the contests, I can't wait to see all that this blog has to offer.

Taryn said...

This blog makes me more and more excited each day! tarynal AT hotmail DOT com

Abby Stevens said...

I had trouble enough learning the little Spanish I know - I can't imagine learning a whole new language by reading books with a dictionary. That's incredibly cool. :)

abby@abbystevens.com

Lori M. Lee said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tiana Smith said...

Emy - how did I have no idea that English wasn't your first language? Awesome! tianalei (@) gmail (.) com.

Emy Shin said...

Thank you to everybody for following & commenting! <3

Remilda: This is a pen name and "Shin" is totally a Korean last name. I wouldn't have known either if I were you. And it's so cool that you're trying to learn Vietnamese! I did take ESL classes when I first came to the U.S., but reading is the best way to learn, IMO -- it's so much easier to remember vocabularies after you've seen them in context.

Holly: Thank you! <3

Abby: I did take ESL classes in school, but most of what I learned, I did it through reading. Maybe I should've done the same thing with Spanish in high school. :)

Lori: Yay for reading! It's a great way to learn a language because you're learning vocabularies and grammar in context. :)

Emy Shin said...

Tiana: You'd definitely know if we were to meet in person -- since I learned English through reading rather than speaking, my conversational/speaking skills are nonexistent. ;)

Shannon O'Donnell said...

I hopped over from Emy's blog! :-)

Melissa Hurst said...

Great blog! I came over from Emy's blog, too. I'd love to work in a library, too. And wow, biochemistry? No way I could wrap my mind around that! mehlane@gmail.com

Unknown said...

I came over from Emy's blog too. What a fun new blog. Being a Children's librarian sounds like a fun job.
Emy- It is so cool that you learned english through reading YA and now that is what you write.

Kathryn Rose said...

Hooray! I came over from Emy's blog too. Love getting to know you better, now sign me up for that critique! :)

kathryn.kupanoff@gmail.com

Hannah said...

Fab intro, ladies! Michelle, I work part-time in a library too. We should exchange stories. And Emy, how awesome are you--learning English by reading? Didn't know that :D

Christina Lee said...

Hi guys (YAY EMY)--what a great group! :D

JEM said...

Another Emy transplant :). Excited to see such an awesome blog!

Michelle Julian said...

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. Most people don't think being a librarian is a "cool" job, except of course for writers ;)

Tracey Neithercott said...

Wow, Emy, I'm totally impressed at how you learned English!

I agree: children's librarian is definitely a cool job. I mean, you get to tell people about all those awesome books.

Oh, and I'm at tracey(dot)neithercott(at)gmail.com

Jemi Fraser said...

very cool! Emy - I hadn't realized English wasn't your first language - you are good! :)

Marie Rearden said...

Who needs protein structures anyway!? :) These are such interesting intros. Thanks for sharing.

Marie
marie@marierearden.com

Yahong Chi said...

Why do you all sound so smart and fantastic? :P Count me in!

Stephanie Allen said...

Emy, that's so awesome that you learned English by reading YA books! More evidence that kids should read more =)

And Michelle, I totally agree that being paid to be surrounded by books would be an awesome job. If I wasn't going to be a middle school teacher, I'd totally be a librarian.

Stephanie Allen said...

Oh, and allens235@gmail.com is my email =)

Angela Scott said...

Popped over from twitter because you said prizes and so here I am :)

acornmail@gmail.com

Newest follower of your awesome blog.

Logan E. Turner said...

"Logically questionable time traveling" is my middle name.

Kell Andrews said...

Enter me please!!! Thanks for this opportunity.

Unknown said...

I can understand why you'd far rather continuously refresh your twitter feed than memorize protein structures! Don't think I ever successfully rememembered any of those!
*goodbye biochemistry*

Susan Fields said...

Hey Emy, I write logistically questionable time-travel, too! I didn't know that you also write about time travel, how fun!

Susan Fields said...

I hope I'm not too late for the contest. My email is susanfieldswriter(at)gmail(dot)com.

Talli Roland said...

Wow, Emy sounds like a bright cookie! Hi to Michelle, too! (I'm over from Emy's blog.)

Stina said...

I just saw on Emy's blog that she's hanging out here too. :D

Anonymous said...

Yay for new and awesome blogs! :)

dara.sorensen@gmail.com

Amie Kaufman said...

New blog, woo! The schedule down the left hand side looks fantastic!

amiekaufman ~at~ gmail ~dot~ com

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

It looks like you have lots of good things going on over here! :) (*waves Emy*)