HOLLYWOOD — Twelve winning writers and twelve illustrators from around the globe–including illustrator, Heather A. Laurence of Sault Ste. Marie–have their winning stories and art published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 36 which was officially released on Apr. 7th.

Heather A. Laurence was born in 1993 in Bremerton, Washington. When she was six, she decided to become an artist, and has not turned back since.

Her father inspired her by teaching her to draw and paint at a young age and telling her that anyone can be an artist. She continued to develop her skills and went to Kansas State University where she achieved a BFA in painting.

She now continues to develop her work, taking advantage of resources such as the Illustration Academy each summer and the online Art Business Bootcamp program. She works from her home studio in Michigan with her seventeen-pound gray cat watching over her. She works hard at creating book-cover compositions for her portfolio, and writing stories to make into original graphic novels and short comics.

Winners in the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests are flown to Hollywood for a week-long professional workshop and awards event. This is normally done in conjunction with the book release. However, due to the Coronavirus situation, the workshop and awards event have been rescheduled to late August.

The 36th Annual L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards Event will be at the Taglyan Complex, on Thursday, Aug. 27 in Hollywood, California. Heather will be honored at this event at which time she’ll receive her award.

The highlight of the ceremony will be the announcement of the year’s two Grand Prize winners who will each receive $5,000. Quarterly winners also receive cash prizes from $1,000 to $500. Their winning stories and illustrations will appear in the annual anthology L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers and Illustrators of the Future Volume 36 (Galaxy Press, April 2020).

Participating in the ceremony will be best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson (Dune prequel series), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Eric Flint (1632), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides, which Pirates of the Caribbean IV was based on), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, Stormlight Archive) and Robert J. Sawyer, referred to as Canada’s Dean of Science Fiction; as well as award winning artists Bob Eggleton (11 Chesley Awards and 7 Hugo Awards), Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons book covers), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal comics and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ciruelo (Eragon Coloring Book), who will all serve as presenters.

Throughout the Contests’ 36-year history, over 774 writers and illustrators have been recognized as winners. “What’s amazing to me is that a good 60 to 70% of winners go on to successful careers,” says New York Times’ best-selling author Anderson. “You could call it ‘The American Idol’ for writers–long before there ever was such a show.”

The Writers of the Future writing contest (“https://www.writersofthefuture.com/”>www.writersofthefuture.com) was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983 to provide “a means for new and budding writers to have a chance for their creative efforts to be seen and acknowledged.” Based on its success, its sister contest, Illustrators of the Future was created five years later to provide that same opportunity for the aspiring artist.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 428 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 1,150 novels and nearly 4,500 short stories. They have produced 32 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The 358 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows and 40 major movies.

For more information and to see the awards ceremony online, go to www.writersofthefuture.com