Laurel Anne Hill

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Free Workshops for Writers at the 2012 San Mateo County Fair

Are you a writer?  Has your budget for attending writing conferences shrunk like a cheap cotton shirt in hot suds?  Well, the San Mateo County Fair and the San Francisco/Peninsula California Writers Club (CWC) have a deal for you.

Come to the 2012 San Mateo County Fair (https://www.sanmateocountyfair.com) and for no extra charge — once you’ve paid for admission to the fair and parking — attend the following writing workshops, seminars and panels at the Fair’s Literary Arts Stage:

Saturday, June 9

2 – 3 pm:  Writing Fight/Battle Scenes (Laurel Anne Hill)

3 – 4 pm: Why Facts Matter in Fiction (Geri Spieler)

4 – 5:30 pm: How to Pitch to an Agent/Publisher (Ezra Barany & Beth Barany)

 

Sunday, June 10

2 – 3 pm: Writing Craft (Martha Engber)

3 – 4:30 pm: Local Publishers Panel (Participants to be announced soon)

 

Tuesday, June 12

3 – 4 pm: Creativity Self-Coaching for Writers (Darlene Frank)

 

Saturday, June 16

4-5 pm: Podcasting and Creating Book Trailers (Ezra Barany, Beth Barany, Laurel Anne Hill)

 

Plus there will be many readings, creativity workshops and literary presentations during the week.  I’ll provide a complete schedule by the beginning of June. 

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Horror Takes No Holidays: Laurel Anne Hill to Brew WWW Challenge Assignments on Walpurgisnacht

When witches gather to revel on the Brocken Mountain during Walpurgisnacht this year, they’ll have to do the Beer Barrel Polka without me.  April 30th twill be the night I finalize the potential assignments for the 2012 Wicked Women Writers Challenge.

First, I’ll assemble my four mini-cauldrons on my trusty hearth.  Please forgive the fact that these vessels resemble coffee cups.  It’s the thought that counts.  Next, I’ll add magical ingredients to three of these containers.  No eye of newt or tongue of dog, mind you.  The use of dust bunnies will be far more humane, and I’m tired of seeing them on the floor.

Next, cauldron #1 will receive little slips of paper, each paper containing the name of a single holiday.  The slips of paper going into cauldron #2 will each contain the name of a place.  Mini-cauldron #3 will receive the names of objects.

Then, after sunrise on May 1, I’ll fill cauldron #4 with the names of those wicked gals who have accepted the 2012 WWW Challenge and have sent me their contracts, short bios and headshots.  (Some of the photos and avatars you gals have emailed me are major cool.)

By noon (PDT) on May 1, I’ll draw one slip from each mini-cauldron, record the results, and draw another round, until all the assignments have been made.   Then I’ll send each Challenge participant an email with her assignment.

If your contract, bio and headshot don’t reach me until later on May 1, you can still participate, as long as you sent me your basic entrant information by April 15.  I won’t draw your assignment until I’ve received the requested materials, however.  The deadline for receipt of contracts, bios and headshots is 11:59 pm on Tuesday, May 1.

On May 2, I’ll give the overall list of participants and their assignments to HorrorAddicts.net Hostess Emerian Rich and post the information.  Podcasted story audios will be due July 1, 2012.  On August 11, stories will air and voting will begin.

Warm & Wicked Wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill

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Promote “Safe Socks” on April 4

The Steampunk Hills Promote Safe Socks

On April 4, the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, I’m going to promote safe socks.  Your heard me.  Safe socks.  S-o-c-k-s.  I’ll roll up one leg of my blue jeans, show off my tomato-red sock with the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) logo, and when people ask me what the heck I’m doing, I’ll tell them.

“I’m lending a leg for the day,” I’ll say, “on behalf of landmine survivors, some of whom no longer possess all the limbs they had at birth.  I’m demonstrating my solidarity with all those striving to make landmines as extinct as Tyrannosaurus rex.”

Now, I live in a conservative community, so I might get some strange looks.  Yet over sixty countries contain buried, unexploded landmines–at least 110 million devices total.  Each year, landmines maim or kill over 4,000 people, approximately 25% of the victims children.  The first step in solving this horrendous problem is communicating the fact a problem exists.  That’s why the United Nations, landmine survivors, and various anti-landmine groups devised campaigns to promote global awareness and action on April 4th.  

As an author of science fiction and fantasy, I’m used to receiving odd glances.  Talking about problems is something I can do. Plus, the money I shelled out for my crimson socks will help Mines Advisory Group (MAG) render safe two square meters of mine-infested land.   

Thus, I invite you to roll up one of your pant legs on April 4th.  Roll up a sleeve if you don’t wear jeans or slacks.  Even if safe socks aren’t your thing.  Relay the message to eradicate landmines.

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill
Moderator of the Minds Clearing Land Mines WordPress Blog  

Dance Dedicated to MAG
A Pointe for MAG

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Farewell Flintlocks. Hello Landmines

This morning I sat down to work on my next novel, a fantasy set during Mexican California’s Bear Flag Rebellion.  Then a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) jolted me out of my 1846 mindset.  I landed in 2012.

Farewell funky flintlocks.  Good-bye Mexican lancers.  Hello Syrian landmines.

For months, Syria has sowed landmines along its borders with Turkey and Lebanon.  No new news there.  But now, according to HRW, civilian casualties have started.  In February 2012, for example, a 15-year-old boy from Tal Kalakh in Syria lost his right leg to a landmine while trying to help a wounded friend reach the Lebanese border and medical help.  The blast killed the previously-injured friend.

This incident was not isolated, according to information from the BBC’s Jonathan Head.

“Any use of antipersonnel landmines is unconscionable,” said Stephen Goose, Arms Division director at HRW .  “There is absolutely no justification for the use of these indiscriminate weapons by any country, anywhere, for any purpose.”

Antipersonnel mines are militarily ineffective weapons that mostly kill and injure civilians, HRW indicated.  A total of 159 countries have joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which comprehensively prohibits the use, production, trade, and stockpiling of antipersonnel mines.  (That is, landmines which can be triggered by the weight of a child or an adult person.)  The size and origin of Syria’s stockpile of landmines is not clear, but is thought to consist mostly of Russian-made weapons.  Russia, like China, Syria and the USA, has not signed the international Mine Ban Treaty.

Speaking of Syria, the BBC reported the following United Nations (UN) claim:  230,000 Syrians fled their homes in the past year.  Of those, 30,000 fled abroad while 200,000 remain displaced within Syria.  The UN also claimed more than 8,000 people – many of them women and children – have been killed since the anti-government protests erupted.

That adds up to one heck of a lot of human tragedy.

According to BBC, Kofi Annan (the former UN chief who the UN and Arab League have appointed to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria), had what he called a “useful meeting” with the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC).  The SNC wants democracy established in Syria.  Mr. Annan next plans to meet with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.   Meanwhile, in the UN Security Council, Russia and China have blocked resolutions condemning the actions of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad against the people of Syria.  Alas, diplomacy in complex situations takes time.

During that time, the unrest claims more lives.  And because of landmines:  more legs, arms and eyes.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the United Nations, and others recently launched the “Lend your leg for a mine-free world” campaign.  Campaigners — including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — are asking people around the world to join them in a demonstration against the use of landmines.  The action is simple.  Roll up one of your pant legs on April 4, 2012, the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.

When people ask you what on earth you’re doing, tell them!

For more information, visit the Minds Clearing Land Mines blog which I moderate.

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com

 

 

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“Lend a Leg” and a Brain for a Landmine-Free World

"Should I roll up my right pant leg on April 4th, or my left?"

 

Do you support the idea of a world free of landmines?  If so, show that support on Wednesday, April 4.  Spend the day with one of your pant legs rolled up just below (or if needed, above) the knee.  Which means, gals, you’ll need to wear slacks or jeans that day, too, if your culture permits and you’re allowed to show your legs.  And when people ask you what on earth you’re doing, tell them!

You’re “lending a leg” on behalf of landmine survivors, some of whom no longer have the two lower limbs they were born with.  You’re demonstrating solidarity with all those who hope to make landmines as extinct as Tyrannosaurus rex.

Let me explain.

In December 2005, the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly declared April 4 of each year “International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.”  I just learned about the declaration a few months ago, which suggests that public promotion for the day has been less than ideal.

On the positive side of awareness and action, eighty percent of countries have banned landmines since the global Mine Ban Treaty entered into force thirteen years ago.  Most countries no longer produce them, and millions of mines have been removed.

But landmines still continue to kill, maim and threaten people.  Deaths and injuries from landmines and explosive remnants of war currently total over 4,000 per year.  Civilians comprise approximately seventy percent of the casualties and twenty-five percent of victims are children.  Many lose feet, legs, hands or eyes.

In response, landmine survivors, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the United Nations, and other partners have now launched the “Lend your leg for a mine-free world” campaign.  Campaigners — including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — are asking people around the world to join them by rolling up their pant legs on the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action.  That is, on April 4th.

Over sixty countries contain buried, unexploded landmines.  No one knows how many are out there, but rough estimates start at one-hundred million and climb higher.  Angola has approximately six million.  Afghanistan contains somewhere between ten and thirty million.  “Lending a leg” on April 4th, won’t alter those horrific facts by April 5th.  However, public education about the problem can promote positive change over time through increased donations to appropriate charities, invention of new land mine clearance technologies, community involvement and political action.

And speaking of inventing new land mine clearance technologies, that’s where “lending your brain” becomes vital.  Do you have any creative ideas?  Do you know anyone else who might?  Start your own think tank on Facebook.  Or simply share your ideas on the “Minds Clearing Land Mines” WordPress blog: http://mindsclearinglandmines.wordpress.com/.  You, too, can be as smart as a rat.

Warm wishes from Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com