Laurel Anne Hill

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Attention: Aspiring Horror Writers (Free Writer’s Workshop and Podcast Production Opportunity)

Here’s a great opportunity for aspiring horror writers!  HorrorAddicts.net has featured some of my short stories. 

Horror Addicts Writer’s Workshop Announcement!

Horror Addicts Writer’s Workshop Announcement!
Deadline: December 31st, 2011, 11:59pm PST.

This is an opportunity for aspiring horror or like-genre writers to have their work critiqued by professional writers based on story structure, plot, style, and character development. One lucky writer will have their work produced for a HorrorAddicts.net show for Season 7 in 2012.

Submission criteria:

1)      This workshop is free

2)      You must state you if you are under 18 at the time of submission. If you are a minor, you will be entered in the junior league workshop. We will not accept stories from children younger than 15.

3)      By submitting to the workshop, you are stating this work is yours and yours alone and that you may submit it legally without publication ties. The work cannot be previously published in any form.

4)      Stories must be Gothic, Horror, Steampunk, Clockpunk, Fetish, Dark Fantasy, Horror Romance, or have a horror element of some kind.

5)     All submissions must be emailed to horroraddicts@att.net no later than December 31st, 2011, 11:59pm PST.

6)      Submissions can be excerpts from a novel, up to 4,000 words, or can be a complete short story, no more than 4,000 words. Excerpts from a novel, must include the first chapter.

7)      Manuscripts must be presented in the following format:

a)      Font size 10 or 12 point

b)      Font style Courier or Times New Roman

c)      Double spaced

d)      1st page header to state: author name, email address, type of story, and word count.

e)      Following pages header to state: author name, story name, and page number.

f)       Your manuscript must be in either PDF or RTF Format.

g)      No more than 4,000 words.

h)      In the body of the email, give us 100 words or less about you – a bio.

i)       In the subject of the email state: HA WRITER’S WORKSHOP

8)      We will review the first 20 manuscripts absolutely, after that, it is based on the number of pros available. Manuscripts are first come, first serve. If you do not receive an email stating your manuscript was received within two weeks, please send a polite query to:emzbox@sbcglobal.net.

9)      For any other questions, please email: horroraddicts@att.net

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Heroes Arise: Audio of Chapters 1-10 Now Available (mp3 format for free)

I’ve been recording my award-winning novel, HEROES ARISE, chapter by chapter.  HEROES ARISE is a parable about breaking the cycle of vengeance, about reaching into our own personal darkness and finding the light of reason.  I’ve set HEROES ARISE in the world of Thard.  HEROES ARISE is an adventure and love story, suitable for ages 9 – 90, and also is available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, in hard cover, trade paper and as an ebook. 

Jean M. Auel was kind enough to provide the following endorsement for HEROES ARISE.

Heroes Arise by Laurel Anne Hill is a surprisingly exciting and moving story that gripped my attention from the first word and wouldn’t let me put it down. This author’s first work shows a strong talent and a remarkable future. — Jean M. Auel, author of The Clan of the Cave Bear

The links to my podcasted Chapters 1-10 of HEROES ARISE (on Welcome to my Bedroom Closet) are as follows:

Heroes Arise Chapter 1

Heroes Arise Chapter 2

Heroes Arise Chapter 3

Heroes Arise Chapter 4

Heroes Arise Chapter 5 

Heroes Arise Chapter 6

Heroes Arise Chapter 7

Heroes Arise Chapter 8

Heroes Arise Chapter 9

Heroes Arise Chapter 10

Chapters 11-15 will follow soon.  I hope you enjoy my story,

Warm wishes,
Laurel Anne Hill  (http://www.laurelannehill.com)

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Land Mines Share the Spotlight with Angelina Jolie (by Laurel Anne Hill)

 

Photo of Angelina Jolie from AlertNet News

The photo of the rail-thin woman crouching on one knee occupied the center of my computer screen.  Wide eyes.  Serious expression.  Long hair as golden brown as a loaf of my homemade bread.  Angelina Jolie resided in the journalistic limelight again, this time for her first visit to the Halo Trust’s headquarters in Scotland.

The Halo Trust specializes in the removal of hazardous debris of war and has destroyed over 1.3 million land mines and twelve million large caliber ordnance.  Thus, my initial response to the news about Angelina included a mental bravo to her and her partner, Brad Pitt.  Hadn’t the Jolie-Pitt Foundation provided substantial financial support to Halo, funding humanitarian mine clearance teams in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Kosovo and Afghanistan?  Didn’t Angelina keep the global problem of unexploded land mines in the news?

Then I wondered.  Would Angelina’s visit to The Halo Trust bring long-term attention to that organization or mostly publicize herself?  Did fans just follow the news of her activities–or educate themselves about her cause?  Did the spotlight on Angelina–resulting in hundreds of articles and thousands of comments–dilute news of other deserving organizations engaged in land mine clearance and causality reduction?

I performed some generic Google searches on humanitarian demining and had no trouble finding recent news about Mines Advisory Group, a Nobel Peace Prize winning organization that saves lives and builds futures through the destruction of weapons in conflict-affected countries.

For example, on August 18, 2011, AlertNet http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/landmine-and-uxo-risk-education-for-women-in-eastern-sudan  provided a touching story about twenty-eight-year-old Fawzia Mahmoud Saeed, a MAG Community Liaison Officer working in eastern Sudan.  Fawzia’s work included giving safety instructions to those forced to live in communities threatened by the deadly remnants of conflict.

I found entries about APOPO, too, a social enterprise registered in Belgium and headquartered in Tanzania.  APOPO breeds and trains African giant pouched rats, also known as HeroRATs, to detect land mines and tuberculosis.  Check out their August 2011 newsletter at https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:1406080.7183099914/rid:bf434b101a403a3204cd8dec1c60a9e9.

Next I spotted articles and a YouTube video about Roots of Peace, a humanitarian organization based in San Rafael, California.  They work to eradicate land mines and rehabilitate cleared land, transforming the scars of war into roots of peace.  In other words, “Mines to Vines.”  To view the video about work in Vietnam, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcdljiL_tjY&feature=related. 

Angelina Jolie’s visit to The Halo Trust may have populated cyberspace with comment clones, but had not totally obscured other recent humanitarian demining news.

Then I read that the Roots of Peace founder had established the charity following the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997, in honor of Diana’s memory and commitment to global demining.  A testimony that celebrities can inspire others to make a difference.  Of course, Princess Di had been more than just any celebrity.  She was amazing.

Still, Angelina Jolie received the 2005 Global Humanitarian Action Award from the United Nations Association of the USA, for her role as an ongoing activist for refugee rights.  Perhaps some of Angelina’s fans already engaged in humanitarian work because of her example, or planned to do so in the future.

What’s your opinion on the subject?

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill  (http://www.laurelannehill.com) 
 

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The Day the Nation Grieved: Remembrances of September 11

Where were you on the morning of 9-11?  My daughter was in New York City and that day remains vivid in my mind. And the photo of firefighters raising the Stars and Stripes at Ground Zero stays posted on my wall.  Recently, the Lamorinda Patch interviewed my husband and me regarding our remembrances of September 11.  To read their article, please click on Lamorinda Patch.

May you and your loved ones remain safe.  

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill
Author of HEROES ARISE
(http://www.laurelannehill.com)

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When a Good Gal Goes Wicked…

Where did I go WICKED?

Okay, I know what my website claims.  Laurel Anne Hill crafts stories with inspirational premises, right?  Worthiness is rewarded, right?  Yet many of my short stories these days lurk in shadows of the horror genre.  In fact, Horror Addicts (http://www.horroraddicts.net) just named me “Most Wicked 2011” for my entry, Flight of Destiny, in their Wicked Women Writers Challenge.  How can a gal who believes in worthiness be most wicked?

Worthiness has its reward.  Unworthiness does, too.

But wait, I’ve been known to inflict horror upon my characters who try to live decent lives, even let some of them lose their battles against evil.  How do I reconcile that disparity with my website statements?

Bad things happen to good people every day.  They misread situations.  They miscalculate their own abilities.  Sometimes, through no fault of their own, they end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Encounters with “the dark” forces characters to find strength within their weaknesses or else succumb.

In other words, the power of love, honor, faith and duty really can surmount daunting obstacles and transform lives.  But sometimes such power fails, leaving characters to fend for themselves whatever way they can.

To listen to Flight of Destiny, go to http://www.mevio.com/episode/287550/horror-addicts-wwwbonus-01-laurel-anne-hill.  Flight of Destiny stirs steampunk, infidelity, jealously, and a radioactive poison into a delicious hot-pot of horror.

Warm wishes,

Laurel Anne Hill
(Author of HEROES ARISE)
http://www.laurelannehill.com