Laurel Garver's Blog, page 10
August 9, 2016
Helping kids find their courage
with guest author Peggy McAloon
Today I'm talking with guest Peggy McAloon about how her own difficult childhood inspired her to write stories to empower children in difficult circumstances, and give them the joy that can be found in imaginary worlds with heroes much like them.
Tell us a little about the fantasy world you've created.
My goal was to create a world where children would not only feel safe but could imagine themselves visiting. The flowers in the dimension of Fiori are as big as tra...
Today I'm talking with guest Peggy McAloon about how her own difficult childhood inspired her to write stories to empower children in difficult circumstances, and give them the joy that can be found in imaginary worlds with heroes much like them.
Tell us a little about the fantasy world you've created.
My goal was to create a world where children would not only feel safe but could imagine themselves visiting. The flowers in the dimension of Fiori are as big as tra...
August 4, 2016
Transforming our struggles into art
with guest author Laurie Lewis
Image credit: jclk8888 on morguefile.com
I was eager to learn more about the story behind the story of The Dragons of Alsace Farm from my guest, author Laurie Lewis. Her new women's fiction novel has some resonances with my new YA novel Almost There: family secrets tucked away in an elderly person's home, a French grandparent, dementia, and the haunting presence of WWII, though I deal with different generations--Millennial, Gen X an...
Image credit: jclk8888 on morguefile.comI was eager to learn more about the story behind the story of The Dragons of Alsace Farm from my guest, author Laurie Lewis. Her new women's fiction novel has some resonances with my new YA novel Almost There: family secrets tucked away in an elderly person's home, a French grandparent, dementia, and the haunting presence of WWII, though I deal with different generations--Millennial, Gen X an...
July 28, 2016
Report from the road
I'm out on a blog tour this week! For the full run-down, see the kick-off post at Bookish Orchestrations.
Many of my hosts are introducing me to their readers by sharing excerpts from my new release ALMOST THERE. I list some of the specific chapters on my Interviews & Articles page.
A few highlights of the tour:
Writing tips! In my interview with Robyn Campbell, I share some of my best tips for making characters feel real and setting descriptions about more than simply the "where" of yo...
Many of my hosts are introducing me to their readers by sharing excerpts from my new release ALMOST THERE. I list some of the specific chapters on my Interviews & Articles page.
A few highlights of the tour:
Writing tips! In my interview with Robyn Campbell, I share some of my best tips for making characters feel real and setting descriptions about more than simply the "where" of yo...
July 21, 2016
Grief, ghosts, and...God?
"A grieving teen believes her dead father is haunting her" --a tagline for my debut Never Gone, often raises this question: how could this topic possibly be Christian fiction?
Photo by http://morguefile.com/creative/whiter... exactly is a ghost, after all? Do people have a consciousness separate from their bodily existence? If so, can it interact with embodied people? Can it do so when it wishes, or must it be summoned by the living? Is this entire mythos something created to expla...
Photo by http://morguefile.com/creative/whiter... exactly is a ghost, after all? Do people have a consciousness separate from their bodily existence? If so, can it interact with embodied people? Can it do so when it wishes, or must it be summoned by the living? Is this entire mythos something created to expla...
July 14, 2016
No mere allusion: building fiction through modeling
By guest author Elise Abram
visiting us from Canada (hence some variant spellings)
Modelling is not (as the title of a previous blog I wrote implied) actually stealing. It's more like borrowing. It happens all the time.
Look over a classic character's shoulder and learn!
Ray Bradbury did it. In the opening of his novel, Graveyard for Lunatics, Bradbury borrows Dickens's "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" parallel structure. In the short story, "The Veldt", Bradbury names the ch...
visiting us from Canada (hence some variant spellings)
Modelling is not (as the title of a previous blog I wrote implied) actually stealing. It's more like borrowing. It happens all the time.
Look over a classic character's shoulder and learn!Ray Bradbury did it. In the opening of his novel, Graveyard for Lunatics, Bradbury borrows Dickens's "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" parallel structure. In the short story, "The Veldt", Bradbury names the ch...
July 2, 2016
Twist on a trope: writing fresh historical fiction
image credit: ranbud at morguefile.comwith guest author Faith BlumIf you have read any mail order bride stories, you've probably noticed that even though the bride and groom never met each other, they are both genuinely good people. It's a rare story that has a scam or a truly bad person either write or respond to the mail order bride advertisement. Faith Blum took that rare theme and wrote three novellas about five young ladies duped into becoming mail order brides only to find out the...
June 30, 2016
How I Create and Develop Characters
by guest author Tyrean Martinson
“Shadow Girl” - Photo Credit: Anna Martinson
1. The character pops into my head, usually after I’ve asked myself a “what if” question about something: · What if the victim of bullying is bullied by shunning because of something dangerous he did as a child? (“Seedling”)· What if a young swordswoman becomes the unexpected recipient of...
“Shadow Girl” - Photo Credit: Anna Martinson1. The character pops into my head, usually after I’ve asked myself a “what if” question about something: · What if the victim of bullying is bullied by shunning because of something dangerous he did as a child? (“Seedling”)· What if a young swordswoman becomes the unexpected recipient of...
June 24, 2016
Ideas in the bottom of our shoes
Image credit: earl53 at morguefile.comYears ago I picked up a gem at a used bookstore, Georgia Heard's Writing Toward Home. The title spoke to my identity crisis of the moment: My parents had retired to Florida, overwhelming me with a sense "you can't ever go home again." Heard's pithy and poetic chapters on developing a creative life are worth savoring. In a chapter entitled "Where does poetry hide?" she includes this poem:Valentine for Ernest Mann
by Naomi Shihab Nye
You can't order a po...
June 16, 2016
A satchel of summer writing prompts
Seasonal prompts can be helpful in your routine, to get you paying attention to your immediate environment and the sensory experiences you can collect. It can also get you thinking about story potential in everyday events. Consider how to spin theses prompts for different genres or milieus. For example, try "the hottest day I've experienced" as memoir, as dystopian fiction, as magical realism, as SciFi, or as middle grade humor.
Photo by http://morguefile.com/creative/pippalouI know...
Photo by http://morguefile.com/creative/pippalouI know...
June 9, 2016
Maps of your world: tips for creating fictional lands
Months ago, I wrote a post about mapping interior spaces for your fiction. I'd fully intended to post next about building fictional outdoor environments, then realized I don't know anything about this topic! So I was delighted to discover a mapmaker offering her services to the author collective I participate in. And I'm even more delighted that she's willing to come here to share her tips on beginning to develop a map for your imagined world. Take it away, Angie....
By guest author Angie Grig...
By guest author Angie Grig...
