Laurel Garver's Blog, page 32

National Poetry Month, sprained ankles and Eminem

Eminem owes a literary debt to this guy?I'm the featured guest today over at Anne Gallagher's blog, where she interviews me about all things poetry. Stop on by HERE to discover who my favorite poets are, what it means to "think like a poet," how writing can be like having a sprained ankle, and how Eminem fits into the history of poetic expression (I guarantee you'll be surprised). I also suggest how we might make poetry as trendy as knitting and vegan diets.

Can you name the guy in this p...

Tips for getting started in poetry

April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, I'm scattering poetry love among my fellow bloggers. 

Today I'm over at Connie Keller's blog "A Merry Heart," with tips for beginner poets, "Make Words Your Playground." 

Photo credit: imelenchon from morguefile.comMany writers fear poetry based on misperceptions: it is old-fashioned and frivolous, or else it's much, much, much too hard to read or write.

 Honestly, most poetry is not highbrow and esoteric; it can be very FUN to w...

Why choose the Indie path? My story

photo by Richard B., morguefile.comHello friends. I'm not here today, but over at The Innocent Flower, sharing the story of how I sorted through the many questions of what publishing path to take: Skills + Soul = My publishing journey

I hope it will help others make informed decisions about how they want to bring their projects into the world.

Have you wrestled with publishing path decision-making? What questions or concerns do/did you have?

On tap for April

Easter arrived with a flurry of activity. Between a press deadline at work, my daughter's nine-day spring break (still in progress), choir rehearsals, and many details that go along with moving a congregation into a new church building (like making new liturgical hangings and cleaning/organizing nursery supplies), we're feeling a bit stretched thin. A nap might be in order today.

How was your Easter?

A few things I'm looking forward to this month:

April Fool's Day hoaxes and jokeses, precious. A...

"no awe could measure / that brief day's endless length"

Marcin Modestowicz, morguefile.comGood Friday is an odd holiday. It asks us to contemplate how truly broken humanity is. For when God deigns to walk among us, our instinct is always to reject, torture, annihilate.  For today, we must stay here in the deepest dark. Any shining, triumphant reversals to come are thin and pale unless this bleak day is truly lived.  If you want to understand "the dark night of the soul" that has become part of every Western narrative story arc, you have...

Plot stuck? Rewind

I recently returned from my first writing retreat, which was a somewhat tough experience, because I was trying to wrangle a "problem child" manuscript. Forcing myself to write through the block made one thing very clear--I'd taken some wrong turns early on. Last night my critique group met and helped me pinpoint key choices I made in chapter three that are at the root of getting repeatedly stuck and frustrated ever after.

If you find yourself frequently hitting walls as you draft, learn from m...

Book love builds community

One of my neighbors is a wonderfully eccentric homeschooling mom who painted her Edwardian-era home purple, gold and teal and keeps chickens in her tiny yard, a block from the commuter rail station. She's often out in her garden with her rough-and-tumble girls, teaching them about plant life cycles or reading poetry.

So when an adorable miniature house full of books appeared at her front gate, painted to match the main house, I thought it was another one of Sue's cool new ideas. Share books! M...

The beauty of the weird

I'm over at Crystal Collier's blog today, talking about how I got started writing poetry and my attraction to the offbeat and the "beauty of the weird." Please stop on by and say hello!

 In celebration of my new release, I'm also hosting a giveaway of a digital copy of Muddy-Fingered Midnights. The contest ends April 1 (no fooling), just in time for National Poetry Month. Use the widget below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Muddy-Fingered Midnights

The happy day has arrived! It's release day for my first-ever poetry collection.

Muddy-Fingered Midnights
poems from the bright days 
and dark nights of the soul


This thirty-poem collection is an eclectic mix of light and dark, playful and spiritual, lyric and narrative free verse. In an intricate dance of sound play, it explores how our perceptions shape our interactions with the world. Here child heroes emerge on playgrounds and in chicken coops, teens grapple with grief and taste first lo...

Guest post: Maturing a Character Across a Series

by Michelle Davidson Argyle

I have two books out that are considered a series—The Breakaway (about a girl who’s kidnapped and falls in love with her kidnapper) and Pieces (about the same girl, but two years after the events of The Breakaway). To me, the duet feels like a companion set rather than a series, but one thing remains constant, and that is the fact that when I sat down to write Pieces seventeen years after I very first wrote The Breakaway, I had to figure out how to mature Naomi, my...