Raima Larter's Blog

Another Novel?

Yes, dear reader, I am writing yet another novel, thanks to Novel Writing Month, formerly known as NaNoWriMo. I have been participating in this for years, and as I wrote last month, just because the sponsoring organization folded earlier this year, I wasn’t about to stop in 2025.

I’d decided I was going to do this challenge on my own, and try to write 50,000 words on this new novel project this month. But, then, I talked to some other writers in my critique group, SpecFicWriters, and several people wanted to join me. One of our members found a site, TrackBear, where we could log our word counts and create a progress graph, which is the single most important thing for me in keeping me focused. If I can see that word count graph going up every day and staying close to, or over, the target number, I’m happy and can keep writing.

So...I’ve passed 30,000 words! And, actually, this morning I’m a little over 34,000 words, so pretty much right on target for where I should be 9 days before the end of the month.

By the way, these badges are from the good people at NaNo2, who, just like me, wanted to keep the November writing experience going. Check them out if you are participating and want your own badges.

And now...back to writing. See you in December!

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Novel Writing Month

For many years, I have participated in National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo. Many of us were saddened when, earlier this year, the organization that sponsored NaNo folded - but this doesn’t mean we are not going to try to write a novel this month. We are!

One of my critique groups (SpecFic Writers) will be participating on our own. We are planning to use the TrackBear.app website to log our word counts and cheer each other on. I found out about this site from another person in the group, but had already found another place to log word counts: My Write Club. I might use both! We’ll see.

For those who are still unclear what this means, the idea is to challenge yourself to write 50,000 words in the month of November, usually for a novel, but it can be a bunch of stories or whatever you’re working on. That total works out to 1667 words per day, which is a lot - and that’s the part of NaNo that I’ve always loved. Being totally immersed in a new story as the weather gets grayer and colder is something I look forward to every year. Just a few more hours!

I’ll try to get back here in November to post about my progress, otherwise, I’ll see you in December...oh, and Happy Halloween!

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Publishing and Submitting

It's September, which always feels like the start of the year to me. It brings new pens and notebooks, sometimes even new clothes--but the main thing is that summer is over and my attention is no longer diverted to all those outdoor activities and distractions that keep me from writing.

Still, the summer brought a few publishing successes, including for a brand new story of mine, The Pack, that was published at the end of July by the Literary Fantasy Magazine. You can read my strange little dog tale here, but if you like what you see, you might want to purchase the entire issue, which is available either as a paperback or e-book.

I also started a process of re-publishing some of my short stories that had disappeared when the literary magazines that published them went out of business. First up was The Black Forest, which is now available as a low-priced (99 cents) Kindle e-book. I also just published Master Gardener in this same format. I'll be offering these as free downloads now and then, but if you want to buy them now, they are as cheap as Amazon will allow. As always, if you do read them, please leave a review--pure gold for authors.

The big publishing news this summer was about Silver Rush, my first installment in a new series of novels and novellas. A Goodreads Giveaway contest just concluded for this book, and I'll be sending out some signed paperback copies to the lucky winners. If you didn't win, or didn't submit your name to the contest, you can still buy the book--it's available as either a paperback or e-book. You can also order the paperback from your local bookstore through the Bookshop website.

All these publication successes are possible only because I have submitted my finished work many, many times, persisting even when editors and publishers reject it repeatedly. As an example, The Pack was submitted to 13 different places, all of whom turned it down, before I tried the Literary Fantasy Magazine. Most of the 13 places I submitted to were science fiction publishers and while I really didn't think my story was fantasy, I gave it a try -- and the editor accepted my story in less than 24 hours. I'm so glad I didn't give up on this story, which is truly one of my favorites. If you believe in your work and have done your best with it, it's really just a matter of finding the right home for it.

To help me stay on track with submitting pieces this year, I'm participating in the Rejection Competition with a number of other writers. The idea is to log every rejection you receive each month and compete with the other writers to get the most rejections--which, of course, means you submit a lot. I just received a rejection and when I logged it on the spreadsheet, I moved into 3rd place and am now on the leaderboard. Yay! And just to show you the extent of this, that was my 53rd rejection this year, which shows you how many times I've submitted (over 60). I am aiming to submit 75 times this year and am on track to reach that goal. Onward!

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Saving Another Story

My short story, Master Gardener, was published by Mulberry Fork Review way back in 2016. This online literary magazine, like so many others, eventually went under, taking my story with it. As I explained in last month's post, this has happened to nearly a third of all my published stories, so I have decided to rescue these from whatever black hole on the internet they fell into, and re-issue them as low-cost Kindle singles.

Master Gardener has been re-published, as of today, in this new form. You can get it for just 99 cents at this link. Please consider leaving a review or rating if you read it!

In honor of this new release, last month's re-issued story, The Black Forest, will be available as a free download this coming weekend. Access this link to download your free copy anytime from Aug. 21 - 25, 2025. Start and end times of the free download period are midnight Pacific Time.

Finally, one more bit of writing-related news: my novel, The Kiss Catastrophe (published 2024) just received a fantastic review by the Speculative Fiction Writers Association. Thank you to SpecFic Writers and Dana Cain for this great review!

The Kiss Catastrophe is still available in paperback, hardback or e-book form, either from Amazon or Bookshop. If you haven't read it yet, I hope you will--and, as always, will leave a review. Thanks!

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Saving My Story

I wrote a story that was published back in 2018 by Chantwood Magazine, a press that has since gone under....taking my story with it. The same thing has happened to about a third of my early stories, so I've decided to rescue these from oblivion by publishing them as Kindle singles.

The Black Forest, the story originally published by Chantwood, will be released as a low-priced (just 99 cents) e-book this Wednesday. You can order it now and it will magically appear on your device in a couple of days. I hope you like this modern-day fairy tale as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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Publication Day!

My latest book, Silver Rush, a novella set in the 1850s Western US has been published today! It is available in paperback and as an e-book. Please consider leaving a review on either Amazon or Goodreads. The book is currently available only on Amazon, but once it percolates through the system, you should be able to find it in other locations. I'll keep you posted.

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May Went Well

I've been participating in StoryADay May all month and we are nearly done--two more days to go! I've managed to write something every day, which is the first time I've done this in all the times I've attempted this challenge.

This year, I followed some of the prompts provided by Julie Duffy, who organizes this challenge, but if the prompt didn't resonate with me, I used my own prompt. I have a few up my sleeve that I can pull out when I don't know what to write about it, and they did not fail me this time.

The image above is the chart I've been using to log my progress. So far, I have written over 20,000 new words this month and have started 14 new stories. I've also written a few scenes for one or another of the books I'm working on. I'd set these book projects aside to do this challenge, but if I had an idea for something that would fit in one of the books, I let that be my writing installment for the day.

This feels great, because not only do I have a lot of new pieces to work on, I've also made a bit of progress on existing works-in-progress.

I'm ready to move on to June, though, I have to say. Generating new material is fun and rewarding, but I'm now ready to look back over some of this stuff and start the revision and editing process.

One last thing: my novella, Silver Rush, will be published very soon--in less than 3 weeks! You can pre-order the e-book at this link. The book will also be available in paperback. You can read more about this novella and the series it inaugurates here. I'll be in touch about this again when we reach publication day!

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Write a Story A Day

April is just about to wrap up and May is right around the corner. What are you planning to do with a whole new month? Maybe you'd like to join me in a writing challenge, Story A Day May, in which those of us participating will write a draft of a short story every day in the month of May.

I have started this challenge a couple of times in the past and have always gotten at least one or two stories out of it. This year I am hoping for many more. I'm always optimistic at the start of a challenge, though, so I'll check back in during May and let you know how it's going.

If you'd like to join

me, sign up here. It's free and you'll get daily prompts in your email to help you succeed!

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Pre-Order Silver Rush

My forthcoming novella, Silver Rush, is now available for pre-order as an e-book. Publication day is June 17, 2025, and if you pre-order now, the book will magically appear on your device on that date!

This book will also be available as a paperback on the same day, and I will post a note when it comes out. You can also follow me as an Amazon Author and they will send you a message whenever I publish new items (including this one!)

Silver Rush is the first book in a new series I am launching. The book series, Silverton, will be all about the fictional mining town of Silverton in the territory that will become Idaho partway through the series. The second book in the series will be a revised edition of Belle o' the Waters, one of my first novels. Although a few copies of that book are available at booksellers, the book itself has gone out of print, so I'm planning to re-issue it this fall with a new cover. If you'd like to read

it sooner than that, let me know, as I still have a few signed copies in a box in my closet. I'd be happy to send you one!

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New Book Coming Soon

I'm pleased to announce that I have another book coming out this summer. Silver Rush is the story of Maggie and Silas McPhee as they navigate the sometimes chaotic and dangerous world of late 1850s America. A war is about to break out, but Silas, a doctor in Boston, wants to seek his fortune in the West where he hopes to test his new method for extracting silver from ore and, at the same time, get away from the impending war. When Maggie discovers her hopes for starting a family are not in van she must decide a course of action. It's risky and the still-young country is wild and dangerous--will she follow him?

This book is due out in mid-June and is the first of a planned series set in the fictional town of Silverton in what will become the state of Idaho. More details and pre-order information soon. Stay tuned!

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