Laurel Garver's Blog, page 33

No lie: why we misuse lay

It's phonics Friday again, friends, and because I'm in the thick of preparing to launch a new poetry collection, I dug this post out of the vaults (from 2010) to help with a set of verbs that cause many headaches: lay (to set down or place), lie (to recline) and lie (speak falsehood).

Dear Editor-on-call:

I always have trouble with lay and lie. I've heard that people lie and objects lay but it always sounds odd to me to say,"I'm lying here" instead of "I'm laying here." What is the co...

What every Indie author should know about color

Once you take the Indie plunge, you might be tempted to be very hands-off with the vendors to whom you outsource tasks. Especially your cover designer. Writing is verbal, design is visual. Unless you've had the good fortune to have studied communications or journalism, where you're trained in both sets of skills, you likely will take anything your designer says as gospel.

But here's the rub. Some designers know digital deeply and intimately, but have very little knowledge of the ins and outs o...

Interviews & articles

Welcome! 

This page is a compilation of all my guest appearances around the Internet. Learn more about my fiction, poetry and writing tips.

Contact
To request an interview, guest post, or a copy of my work for review, e-mail me at
laurels (dot) leaves (at) gmail (dot) com

Never Gone ArticlesExploring father-daughter relationships: Why Dads Matter

From high rises to cathedrals--setting a story in NYC and rural England: How I develop setting

Writing realistic romance: Rep...

Cover reveal

My poetry collection, Muddy-Fingered Midnights, is getting ever closer to ready. Here's my cover design, which was all kinds of fun (and hair-pulling hard) to design. Let's just say my Photoshop skills have grown in leaps and bounds.



Coming in mid-March!

Have you tried to acquire any new skills lately? What was your experience?

Ritual: it's what's for dinner

When I was a kid, one of the most interesting things about staying at friends' houses was discovering just how differently their families approached the evening meal.

My family always ate around 6 p.m. It was a sit-down affair that began with my dad's meandering grace, and usually included two or even three vegetable sides with a casserole or meat and a starch. Hot tea was served nine months of the year. One was expected to have a "no-thank-you-helping" of any newly introduced food that looked...

An exciting announcement

Photo: earl53 from morguefile.comI've been hard at work putting together my first-ever poetry collection. It includes select pieces from my undergrad days up through the present, both previously published poems and a number of brand new pieces. It's an eclectic mix of lyrical, narrative, spiritual, humorous, experimental, and fiction-in-verse. I'm excited to share it with you all.

The collection is called Muddy-Fingered Midnights. The title comes from a line in my poem "A W...

Faith in Fiction: The Decision

More or less faith on the page?by Tyrean Martinson, author of Champion in the Darkness

As writers, our beliefs are an integral part of what we write. We can’t really help it, even when we try to downplay it. We’ve all seen that when we read books, right? A writer creates a world of imagination and their values and worldview shines through all of it. (To read more about my thoughts on Faith in Fiction: The Integral Part, visit my post at Ian’s Realm.)

A famous example of a worldview shining...

Kissing blogfest

Just in time for today's "Indie Kissing" blogfest, Every Day Poets published my poem about my first kiss.

NORTH AND SOUTH

That splish-splash summer night you chose me
with a touch of your toe and slow smile....
CLICK TO READ MORE

If you're so inclined, please rate it and like it. The editors include the highest rated pieces in an annual anthology. 

I never did see that sweet guy again. His name was Russell Mc-Something-I-can't-remember. We exchanged a few letters, which was the death of that r...

Interview...and chance to win

I've been interviewed by book blogger Brandi Kosiner at the popular review blog Blkosiner's Book Blog.  Learn a bit about me, inspirations for my debut novel, as well as what other projects are in the pipeline.

Brandi is also hosting an ebook giveaway of Never Gone. Swing on by to enter!

The Joys of Working with an Editor

By Charity Bradford, author of The Magic Wakes

Working with my editor was perhaps the most exciting part of this publishing process. Amie provided a wonderful mix of honesty and ego stroking. My guess is every great editor possesses this talent.

Before I started working with an editor I had plenty of time to get anxious about it. I kept hearing about these gut wrenching, full of red marks, your writing sucks and you’ll have to start all over kind of letters from editors. Well, no one actually s...