Laurel Anne Hill

By

Welcome to my Bedroom Closet (New Podcast by Laurel Anne Hill, Author of "Heroes Arise")

I've started a podcast, "Welcome to my Bedroom Closet."  (The land of out-of-style dresses and dusty shoes provides favorable conditions for recording.)  Some of you have been unable to view my readings of "Reaching for Rainbows" on YouTube.  Therefore, the first entry on my audio-blog is Part One of "Reaching for Rainbows," my award-winning short story of a young girl coping with homelessness, a school assignment about Martin Luther King, and the narrow line separating reality from imagination.  "Reaching for Rainbows," published by "Lynx Eye" in 2005,  is suitable for a broad range of backgrounds and ages.  No need to wait for Martin Luther King Day.  "Reaching for Rainbows" has year-long appeal.

The link to "Welcome to my Bedroom Closet" is:http://laurelannehill.libsyn.com/.

For YouTube users, the link to the concluding episode of "Reaching for Rainbows is as follows:

 

Reaching for Rainbows (Part 3 of 3)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

By

Free Writing Workshop Presented on August 21, 2009, by Laurel Anne Hill (Author of "Heroes Arise")

Come enjoy the San Mateo County Peninsula Festival and attend my free writing workshop.  I'll be presenting in the Creative and Home Arts section of the event, on the Creative Arts Stage.  The San Mateo County Event Center is located at 1346 Saratoga Drive, San Mateo, CA.  My workshop is free, but an entry fee to attend the festival applies.  (Go to http://www.sanmateocountyfair.com/ for more information about the fair.)  And if you like chocolate, be sure to check out the fudge vendor in the same building as my workshop.

Date and Time: Friday, 08/21/2009, 4 – 5:30 pm

Topic:  Breathing Life into your Creative Writing  (Instead of sucking all the life out of it)

A workshop presented by Laurel Anne Hill (Author of "Heroes Arise")

? How to make characters come alive on the page
? Secrets of beginnings, middles and endings
? Unleashing strong forward momentum in stories
? Creating realistic dialogue
? Point of view versus point of narration
? Using the five senses
? Strong verbs and strong writing

Visit my website at http://www.laurelannehill.com

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

By

Laurel Anne Hill (Author of Heroes Arise): Kyle Cassidy Took an Amazing Photo at Anticipation

At Anticipation earlier this month, Kyle Cassidy (Neil Gaiman's photographer) took an amazing photo of me and my three-headed dragon puppet.  I am so unphotogenic and he nailed the shot with only one try.  Please go to Flickr and comment.  If you enjoy the photo, feel free to note the picture as a favorite in Kyle Cassidy's World Con Fan Photo collection.

Go to:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/7725107@N07/3811944803/in/set-72157622013791778/

By the way, I’m still looking for a name for my dragon puppet.  Respond here (Vox members) or Email your suggestions to laurel@laurelannehill.com.  If I choose the name you suggest, I’ll send you a free copy of my book “Heroes Arise.”

Warm wishes,

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

 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

By

Laurel Anne Hill (Author of "Heroes Arise) Schedule at Anticipation/2009 World Con in Montreal

Here's my Schedule at Anticipation in August.  Wow!  I get to talk about steam AND put together a train.

Every Picture Tells a Story , (1-026 Thu 14:00 1hr, P-510B Kids Programming) Laurel Anne Hill:  An artist draws a picture, then we create a story around it, guided by an expert storyteller. Which may lead to another picture…

Wooden Train Building  (1-077 Thu 17:00 1hr, P-510A Kids Programming) Kevin Standlee, Laurel Anne Hill:  Help us set up a massive wooden train layout, and maybe run an engine down the tracks.

Autographs (3-157S Sat 13:30 30min):  Peadar Ó Guilín, Jean-Pierre Guillet, Karen Haber, Colin Harvey, John Helfers, Laurel Anne Hill

Steampunk that Works (3-349 Sat 21:00 1hr, P-518BC Science and Space) Henry Spencer, Laurel Anne Hill, Sean McMullen:  Which of the envisaged steampunk technologies could actually work and how? How far could we take steampunk technologies? Could we have a steampunk quantum computer?

Author Reading  (4-144R Sun 12:30 1hr, P-522A) Joe Haldeman, John Kessel, Laurel Anne Hill

Writing Workshop V  (5-041 Mon 11:00 2hr, D-Royer) Laurel Anne Hill, Steve Miller, Adrienne Foster: Critique session for previously submitted manuscripts

A Century of Atom Smashing (5-107 Mon 14:00 1hr, P-516D Science and Space)  Bill Higgins, Laurel Anne Hill, Stephen R. Cooper:  Ernest Rutherford, the first atom smasher, won a Nobel prize for his work at McGill University in Montreal. We discuss his work, what he did and what it led to.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

By

Is this the desk of Laurel Anne Hill or a scavenger hunt waiting to happen?

While I was at Readercon last week, my friend, Emerian Rich, emailed me a marvelous "tour" of a writer's workspace–a single photo of a highly-organized desk with numbers identifying points of interest.

 Although my own writing workspace is not nearly as tidy, it does possess a unique combination of odds and ends.  Check out the picture below and see if you can locate the following:

 1.  Ergonomic bed pillow used to adjust my husband's 45-year-old swivel chair to fit my dimensions

 2.  Postal meter manufactured when the first class postage rate was 25 cents for the first ounce

 3.  Postal meter manufactured when the first class postage rate was 4 cents for the first ounce

 4.  Cup of cold coffee

 5.  Box of tax records

 6.  Instructions for updating my Garmin G.P.S.

 7.  Model of a single-engine plane my husband sold 30 years ago.

 8.  Vocabulary builder I used circa 1960

 9.  Poster showing a space ship, a Barbie car, an astro-lizard and the working title of my parable, "Heroes Arise."

 10.  Telephone so ancient that Ma Bell used to rent it to me on a monthly basis.

 11.  Stack of writing papers, bills and business cards

 12.  Zip drives for a computer I no longer own.

 13.  Screenie Cleanie that is far too dusty to use

 14.  Wind-up computer angel

 15.  Outdated church directories

 16.  Postal receipt for an item mailed to my daughter in 1997

 17.  Diorama of flowers used in lieu of a real bouquet at my wedding in 1975

 18.  Guilded straw anchor given to me by my husband five years before our wedding.

 19.  Address book used before there were area codes

 20.  A thirty-year-old note from my Mom explaining the origin of her middle name.

Desk of Laurel Anne Hill
Desk of Laurel Anne Hill

Visit the website of Laurel Anne Hill (author of "Heroes Arise") at http://www.laurelannehill.com.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

By

Laurel Anne Hill (Author of "Heroes Arise" Reads "Reaching for Rainbows," Part 2

Five years ago, I first volunteered to cook, serve and share dinner in local shelters for homeless families.  My experiences chatting with shelter residents inspired me to write two award-winning stories: "Heroes Arise" and "Reaching for Rainbows."  "Lynx Eye" published "Reaching for Rainbows" in 2005.  Several weeks ago I recorded the first part of the story to make the piece available again.  Now I've recorded Part 2.

In "Reaching for Rainbows," a ten-year-old girl copes with homelessness, a school assignment about Martin Luther King, and the narrow line separating reality from imagination.  This is a great story for a broad range of ages and backgrounds.  No need to wait for Martin Luther King Day.  This award-winning tale has inspired a number of people to reach out to homeless families and others in need.

Visit my website (http://www.laurelannehill.com) for more about my compelling fiction, including my award-winning parable, "Heroes Arise" (KOMENAR Publishing, 2007).

Read and post comments | Send to a friend