Okay, my 40-year old Kenmore vacuum cleaner died last week and my husband and I made an emergency purchase of a Miele Neptune. Oh, if I had only known the trouble we might have caused as a result.
To find out more, connect to the following link:
“To be” lives at the bottom of the power verbs list these days. Well, sometimes. No lack of power inhabits “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” Already, the collective gay-marriage Grinch prepares to seek annulments of the recent same-sex weddings in New York. A reaction I expected. Pot holes often litter roads to social change.
Hey, I understand both sides of the argument. One half of my old-fashioned brain recites the man-and-woman marriage mantra. The other half would never dream of denying my gay or lesbian friends the opportunity to marry. Yet I manage to reconcile my inner dichotomy of opinion with the following manner of reasoning. No man is less of a man because he loves a guy. No woman is less of a woman because she loves a gal. People are people. Their love–their desire to share a committed relationship–should provide the wedding-license meter of measure.
In other words, I don’t focus on the right to gay marriage. Let others debate that thorny issue. (And they probably will for a long time to come.)
I focus on the right thing to do.
Warm wishes,
Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com
Close to fifty years ago, Zenna Henderson wrote a short story, The Anything Box, about a little girl and an invisible box. The box allowed the child to see the world she wished existed. More recently, “anything box” has come to refer to future nanotechnology devices capable of creating any item requested.
Farfetched? Well, the anything box of science fiction may be closer than you think. View this YouTube video, about Z Corporation creating a wrench: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw&feature=youtube_gdata_player.
I checked the video out on the Snopes Urban Legend site and decided its content is for real. According to Snopes, any differences between the wrench and its copy (shown in the video) happened on purpose. The explanation of those differences was edited out of the video due to time considerations. For a discussion of 3-D print technology, follow the below link to the Snopes Urban Legend entry about the Z Corporation video: http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/3dprinter.asp.
In the meanwhile, I’m not sure what I’d request from an anything box. Manufacturers continually discontinue items I use, such as shoes and undergarments. Hmmm….
Warm wishes,
Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com
I just received some great news about “The Fault Zone: Words from the Edge” (December 2010) edited by Lisa Meltzer Penn. During the week of June 26, this anthology hit second place on the bestseller’s list for paperback fiction at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, CA. I’m proud that my short story, “The Grave of Mario Bandini,” has been included in this collection.
“The Fault Zone: Words from the Edge” is a publication of the California Writers Club (CWC), San Francisco/Peninsula Branch (aka SF/Peninsula Writers). The book still is available at Kepler’s in their Menlo Park store or online at http://keplers.com/local-authors for the price of $7. On Tuesday, July 26, several of the authors featured in this book will be reading at the public library in Belmont, California, at 7 pm.
Members of CWC San Francisco/Peninsula Branch already are hard at work to produce their next anthology, “The Fault Zone: Stepping Up to the Edge.” Although the deadline is July 30 for branch members to submit entries for consideration, one additional work–the winner of the Fault Zone’s 2011 writing contest–will be accepted for publication in the anthology as well. Anyone, including people who aren’t members of SF/Peninsula Writers, may submit entries to this contest which has a deadline of September 30, 2011. Details about the contest can be found at: http://www.cwc-peninsula.org/Jack-London-Media-Clinic.html. (Don’t let the URL wording fool you—this is the contest information.)
Thinking about entering the Fault Zone writing contest? Then be sure to obtain a copy of the initial anthology to see the types of pieces we publish.
Warm wishes and happy writing,
Laurel Anne Hill
(Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com
Ten Wicked Women Writers + Ten Poisons = Ten Stories of Horror.
The 2011 Wicked Women Writers Challenge goes live today on http://wickedwomenwriters.wordpress.com
Listen to all ten stories, then vote for your favorite by midnight on August 1, 2011, via horroraddicts@gmail.com. Include “WWW” in the email subject line. One lucky voter will win a prize.
My story, “Flight of Destiny,” stirs steampunk, infidelity, jealousy and a radioactive poison into a delicious hot-pot of horror. To link directly to “Flight of Destiny,” click on the following or copy it into your internet address window: http://www.mevio.com/episode/287550/horror-addicts-wwwbonus-01-laurel-anne-hill.
So horror addicts, get ready and pick your poison!
Warm and Chilling Wishes,
Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com