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Laurel Anne Hill: My Definition of “Being Hot” Keeps Changing
Once upon a time, I might have equated the thought of the teenage me “being hot” to “being cool.” That is, dressed in the stylish clothes my mom couldn’t afford to buy me. Luckily, living in a three-generation rented flat in San Francisco, I had the use of two sewing machines until I turned sixteen and my grandmother (by then, a widow) decided she’d had it with my father’s drunken rampages and my younger brother’s lack of acceptable social behavior. By age twenty, I’d learned to sew fairly well.
“Being hot” during my early to mid twenties meant dressing to please my first husband. Well, as far as my checkbook would allow. Yes, my checkbook, in both our names. I was the person who fed it, balanced it, soothed it during financially worrisome times–and always kept it up-to-date. Regardless, I was never “hot enough” for my first husband, despite my most intimate outfits. Somehow, other women were. And my first husband let me know it with abusive emphasis.
“Being hot” in my early to mid thirties took on an entirely new definition. Practically anything I did pleased my second husband (although I had to get better at pronouncing a few of my words correctly). I simply could be myself–the person he loved. We aged closer in spirit with each passing year. I lost him to cancer after forty-two years of marriage. The 17th of February, 2017. Every month, I light LED candles in our home in his memory. I miss him beyond belief and will do so until the day I die.
And “being hot” in September, 2022? I refer to the three-digit temperatures influenced by the ignorance, stupidity, apathy and/or greed of the human race, and people’s corresponding lack of adequate planning for the long run, (Myself included, I have to admit.) Without home air conditioning, “Being hot” at the age of 79 has become a matter of endurance for me. And a matter of life-and-death for all-too-many others.
I hope in 2023, “being hot” will refer mostly to the spiciness of the salsa in my refrigerator. But I’m not making any predictions.
With warm regards,
Laurel Anne Hill
Author and Former Underground Storage Tank Operator
Return of the Laurel
Return of the Laurel
Okay, I’ve allowed myself some pensive days during my recovery from Covid-19. Now it’s time to get with the program at hand: The return of the person known as Laurel Anne Hill to her prior productive state of mind. Not that I’ve been unproductive for the past week, quarantining with and happily cooking for my eldest step son, whom I accidentally infected before I knew Covid-19 had caught me. My “normal” state, however, tends to be one of gross over-productivity: succumbing to the impulse to go way beyond what’s needed.
I sip the last drops of wine from my glass. Dinner’s officially over. I offer another prayer of thanks for food, housing, church, family, friends, vaccinations, boosters and antivirals. I pray for all who have lost loved ones to death, whatever the cause. The face of my beloved David drifts into my thoughts. Nearly five-and-one-half years have passed since cancer claimed him.
I’ve caught up on the bills today. Taken care of some of my regular donations. A load of laundry swishes in the washer. One grocery run awaits me in the morning.
I gaze over the crest of my laptop’s screen at my mother-in-law’s old mahogany buffet. The elephant in the room (in the form of my third novel) stares at me from its bookstand. I sigh. We both know it’s time for me to crawl out of my covid cave and start publicizing this book again. Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846 has no ability to leap into the hands of potential readers and sell itself. Too bad. Plague did win award number eleven for me at the end of June. I found out the good news several days before Covid-19 landed on the doorstep of my respiratory system.
Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA):
OZMA Fantasy Fiction 2021 Grand Prize
Have you read my book? If so, please go to Amazon and post your honest review. What you liked and what you didn’t.
Thank you,
Laurel Anne Hill
Author and Former Underground Storage Tank Operator
Improved Health and a New Day
Hello Readers:
A new day dawned this morning. No surprise. After all, scientists have predicted we earthlings have at least five billion years before our sun turns in its future retirement notice. Not that people will be around by then, except maybe in spirit form. The way world politics continues to head, I sometimes wonder if humankind will even manage to survive five hundred years. Unless we learn to permanently disengage the nuclear war button and permanently engage the “Save Our Planet” one. Soon.
My new day included reaching the ten-day milestone that I likely can’t transmit my remaining bits of Covid-19 to others if I follow basic precautionary measures. That aggressive virus made me cough like my lungs would fly out my mouth while my brains shot out my ears. Yikes! Yes, I’ll still wear a mask in public places. Yes, I’ll still practice social distancing and avoid groups that are large or contain vulnerable people. I don’t plan to return to church in person for several weeks. And I’ll chill out for an appropriate while before visiting unvaccinated family members or friends. Or before going to in-person medical appointments. But with the help of vaccinations, boosters and antivirals, I’ve been blessed with this new day, and hopefully, many more to come.
More new days to exercise my body so I can keep walking. More new days to write so I can keep thinking. More new days to communicate with the people I love.
Way back in the early 1960s, I decided to study microbiology in college. The microbial world contains countless “friends” of humankind. Such organisms help us digest our food. They colonize parts of our bodies so their nastier neighbors can’t easily take over the territory. Unfortunately, sometimes the line between friend and foe stretches mighty thin, particularly in the immunocompromised.
But for now, my wonderful allergic-to-so-many-things immune system hasn’t forgotten how to mount a defense against ruthless invaders. I thank it and my hardy resident microbiome for protecting my “castle walls” through my recent bout with Covid-19.
Have you talked to your microbes and white blood cells lately? Thanked them for a job well done? At least take the time to nod and smile.
Laurel Anne Hill
Author and Former Underground Storage Tank Operator
(Who also talks to her plants.)
Laurel Anne Hill Writes IPA “Silver,” But Edits “Gold”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 22, 2022/ Contact: Laurel Anne Hill/ laurelannehill@gmail.com
Local Author Wins Again!
Laurel Anne Hill, born in San Francisco, receives national recognition
through the INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD®!
(Orinda, California) — The INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD recognized Laurel Anne Hill’s most recent fantasy novel in the category of cross genre as a Distinguished Favorite (silver award). Also, the anthology she edited on behalf of California Writers Club (CWC), San Francisco Peninsula Branch, won gold in the anthology category. Both books were published by Sand Hill Review Press in San Mateo, CA. Sixty-plus years ago, while an impoverished student at San Francisco’s Polytechnic High School, Laurel had entered every essay contest she could. She’d won enough money to pay for four years of tuition and books at San Francisco State. “All these years later,” Laurel said, “I’m delighted to be able to inform our CWC anthology contributors—a few of them first-time published authors—that they ALL are now “award-winning” authors and poets.
In 2022, the INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD had entries worldwide. Authors and publishers from countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, New Zealand and Switzerland participated. Books submitted included writers based in cities such as Anchorage to Memphis; from Berkeley to Philadelphia; Calgary to Sydney; from Albuquerque to New York City; from Princeton to Santa Monica as well as others.
“We are thrilled to be highlighting key titles representing global independent publishing.” said awards sponsor Gabrielle Olczak.
The INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD competition is judged by experts from different aspects of the book industry, including publishers, writers, editors, book cover designers and professional copywriters. IPA Award Winners and Distinguished Favorites are selected based on overall excellence.
Plague of Flies: Revolt of the Spirits, 1846, by Laurel Anne Hill is a historical fantasy novel with its roots in magical realism. In 1846 Alta California, Catalina Delgado daydreams about her future: roping cattle, marrying Angelo Ortega and raising children. But now, invaders from the United States—the Bear Flaggers—have declared war against Mexico, her country. Bear Flaggers have imprisoned one close friend of her family and murdered others. What fate might befall her parents, grandfather and younger brothers? And what about her best friend, a Costanoan servant girl? How can Catalina, only sixteen, help protect all those she loves?
The spirits provide Catalina with answers, but not ones she wants. Plus she fears the strange spirit man who rides a black Andalusian stallion through the sky. For the sake of all she holds dear, Catalina must risk her reputation as a chaste young woman, her future with Angelo, her life and her very soul. When hopes and dreams clash with cold reality, Catalina finds the fortitude to accomplish what only she can do.
Fault Zone: Reverse, an anthology for which Laurel Anne Hill served as Editor-in-Chief, consists of a total of 47 pieces of short fiction, short creative nonfiction and poetry. Topics range from a cross-county hitchhiker sleeping with San Francisco Pigeons to old-growth oak trees plotting against humans who have despoiled their California valley.
For more information please visit independentpressaward.com; and to see this year’s list of IPA Winners and Distinguished Favorites, please visit the website pages: https://www.independentpressaward.com/2022winners
https://www.independentpressaward.com/2022distinguishedfavorites
About the Author
Laurel Anne Hill—author and former underground storage tank operator—grew up in San Francisco with more dreams of adventure than good sense or money. Her close brushes with death, love of family, respect for honor and belief in a higher power continue to influence her writing and her life. Laurel classifies her recently-published third novel, PLAGUE OF FLIES: REVOLT OF THE SPIRITS, 1846, as historical fantasy/magical realism. This book relates the gripping tale of a young Latina in Mexican Alta California during the early days of the Bear Flag Rebellion. Her second novel, THE ENGINE WOMAN’S LIGHT (a spirits-meet-steampunk adventure set in an alternate 19th Century California) has won a total of thirteen honors and awards, including a Kirkus Star. So far, PLAGUE OF FLIES has received the Distinguished Favorite award from IPA, plus four honorable mentions from other competitions and some terrific reviews. Laurel is the author of over thirty published short stories and many short nonfiction pieces, including one scientific paper. She also serves as Secretary for the Polytechnic High School Alumni Association. San Francisco closed Polytechnic fifty years ago. Laurel swears that the spirits of her beloved husband and her Mexican ancestors (especially her great-grandmother, a poet, who immigrated from Mexico to San Francisco around 1860) continue to inspire her writing. More information at https://laurelannehill.com.