Anthem writer finds inspiration

Mother's memory leads to storytelling

At age 8 Georgia Hubley created her own newspapers for fun, writing the stories herself. She also made her own stamps and attempted to mail her work to relatives.

"I was having a good time that summer, counterfeiting at the age of 8," Hubley, an Anthem resident, recalled. "I will never forget the mailman. I remember him telling my dad, 'You better teach your daughter about the facts of life.' "

Today Hubley is just as much a writer as she was growing up in Ohio in the 1940s, but now she abides by the law when submitting her work to magazines and book publishers.

In August, Hubley's short story "Missing" was released in "Chicken Soup to Inspire a Woman's Soul." It's the second time the series published her work. The piece is about Hubley's 50th birthday party and remembering her mother, who could not be there for the event because she was in a care facility suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

"It was an emotional piece but kind of an inspirational story," Hubley said.

Hubley's mother passed away in 1995, having spent her life taking care of others, even helping to care for her seven siblings after her own mother died when she was 10.

"It was very difficult," Hubley said of her mother's childhood. "She really endured a lot."

Hubley said she's inspired by the life her mother led and has written several stories about her.

One sacrifice her mother made for her stood out enough in Hubley's mind for her to write a short story about it called "The Perfect Fit."

Growing up in Alexandria, Ohio, a town of about 500 people at the time, the family did not have a lot of money. Hubley remembers 1945 when World War ll ended. She was hopeful the news meant she could get a new pair of shoes for school because her hand-me-down pair was too large.

"There was just no money," Hubley said. "I realized at that young age what rationing means."

Disappointed to learn there was not enough money for shoes, Hubley went to bed in tears. The next morning her mother had found a way to afford a pair by selling a few dozen eggs their hens had produced overnight.

"She was an inspiration, all the hardships she went through," Hubley said.

Hubley moved from Ohio to California in 1962. Married to her second husband more than 25 years, she has a son from her first marriage and a stepson.

She was able to devote more time to her writing after retiring in the mid-1990s, having managed a California credit union for 20 years. Hubley wrote "Missing" in 2002, just a year before she and her husband moved from the small town of Carmel, Calif., to Anthem.

Hubley's work was first published by the Chicken Soup series in 2001. That piece, "The Rose Babies," was printed in "Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul." The story was again about her mother and detailed her talent in the garden, which she shared with family and neighbors.

"She just had this green thumb," Hubley said.

Besides writing, Hubley also collects rooster statues, is a self-proclaimed "news junky" who thrives on high profile court cases and keeps a late-night writing schedule. A member of the Anthem Authors club, Hubley said she does most of her writing at night, heading to bed around 4 a.m.

Hubley writes because she thinks it's important to leave something behind for family members, which is one reason she writes about her mother.

"My son, he was very close to my mother," she said. "He didn't know all these things I've been writing about."


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