Laurel Garver's Blog

I was deeply immersed in the world of choral music all through high school and college into most of my adult life, so for me, the weeks leading up to Christmas are all about the magical tunes. When writing a novel that takes place during Advent, I couldn't imagine it without choir rehearsals in the mix.

For your listening pleasure, I share the music from Ever Near 's Lessons and Carols service described in the book.












What are some of your favorite songs for Advent and Christmas?

The latest installment of the Dani Deane series, Ever Near, releases today!

Four Advent candles, two teens, a Yule Ball, a grief anniversary, and a quest for the perfect gift.

Christmastime is here and for Dani Deane, the season only brings memories of spending last December in the ICU, watching her dad die. But trying to hide her holiday phobia from her boyfriend is making life a lot more complicated. To truly heal, she will have to face the pain and lean into her faith. Can she learn to trust...

The release of my latest novel in my Dani Deane series is fast approaching!

My goal is to release the ebook shortly before Thanksgiving, and the paperback around December 1 in honor of the beginning of Advent. It's a holiday story especially for those who find the holidays difficult and triggering.

Here's the description, and as promised, the lovely cover:

Ever Near
Christian young adult

Four Advent candles, two teens, a Yule Ball, a grief anniversary, and a quest for the perfect gift.


...

Sorry to have been gone so long, my friends. In February, we pulled my high schooler out of public school to begin cyber school--a tricky change with a steep learning curve for us all. Despite the online curriculum and teacher support, I needed to be fairly hands on during the transition. I'm thankful to report my daughter ended the year strong. My freelance editing business has been thriving and I've made significant progress on a new novel that I hope to release in time for the Christmas ho...

If you haven't seen the BBC miniseries Wives and Daughters, based on the unfinished novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, I heartily recommend it. I found the story more accessible than Austen's works, perhaps because the social faux pas are more evident to a modern reader. I often feel I'm missing something when I read Austen--the manners so central to the comedy are a bit too removed from our own day.

The acting is really first rate. All the characters come across as full-orbed. The heroine, Molly, is...

I confess I wasn't much of a reader in my childhood. From age 4 to almost 9, I lived on a 100-acre farm (most of it forested), where I spent many happy afternoons imagining adventures with a host of imaginary friends, a few barn cats at my heels. Being cooped up inside looking at paper was the stuff of school, the stuff of have-to, must, and you'd better.... Out among the trees was the stuff of color, texture, and life of all kinds. The worlds my imagination built were more real to me than Di...

One surprisingly helpful class from my undergrad days was a theatre course I took called "Basic Movement." In it, we learned some of the tools of the trade of acting--stances, carriage, gestures, playing to the audience, and of course, choreographed violence.

An ongoing assignment throughout the semester was keeping a "movement journal," in which we recorded observations about how certain body types move, motions unique to certain activities, and how people express emotion through movement. Th...

Hello, friends. It's a new year, and high time I return to my neglected blog. To help me get over my inertia, I thought I'd respond to questions I've been asked that are writing process-oriented rather than editing-related, and offer some online writing coaching.

Dear Coach Laurel,

I'm looking to write a mini history of growing up. Something to keep memories alive and to share with my mom.  But I can't seem to get started. Any tips or techniques?

Sincerely,
Forget-me-not

---

That sounds cool,...

Dear Editor-on-Call:

When should you capitalize a noun such as "the Virus"? In my WIP, the characters refer to a virus which ended up wiping out most of the human population. Would it be correct to say "the Virus" when referring to it? If so, when they speak of it as belong to a certain person (the creator) would they say "his virus" or "his Virus"?

--Capitals Conundrum

Dear Cap,

The general rule on capitalization in English is to capitalize proper nouns. In other words, NAMES of specific things....

by guest author Lauren H. Salisbury

Tolkien deployed invented languages to enrich his fantasy.There’s nothing better than opening a new book and being swept away into an imaginary world. I love discovering fantastical realms peopled by strange races and bizarre creatures. I also enjoy the sense of immersion that comes from comprehensive world-building, one of the hallmarks of my favourite speculative fiction.

Using an original language is often part of this. Just as little details add a sense o...