Raima Larter's Blog, page 5

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End of an Era?

 

It looks like this might be the end of Twitter. I started this blog on the same day I joined Twitter, back in December of 2008. I've not posted a lot on the blog lately, since so many good connections and conversations were happening for me over on the Twitter platform.

It seems this all might be ending soon. Maybe even today....it's sad to see an admittedly flawed social space come crashing down so spectacularly, but we've all suffered losses before. And survived.

And we'll survive this one. Please leave a comment! I'd love to keep in touch. And I promise to blog more.

Motherhood and Other Magical Realms

 

My book is out in both paperback and e-book formats...and the reviews are starting to come in! See below for the first 5 star review:

"Absolutely loved this book! No short story writer out there today does conflict and tension as well as Larter. Her characters are diverse and well-rounded...each looking for that elusive redemption we all seek in this soup of human condition we wallow in day after day. Not a dud in the bunch! If you have any hesitation about reading short stories, this one will change your mind!"

 

Please consider leaving a review on either Amazon or Goodreads after you've read the book. Thanks in advance!

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Motherhood and Other Magical Realms

A couple of months ago I discovered that yet another of my published short stories had disappeared from the web when the journal that published it went defunct. I had already "lost" several publications this way, including several in print journals that were no longer available.

The problem of disappearing litmags was recently reviewed by CNN, but it's not a new problem. I was able to find some of my lost stories using the WayBack Machine, which archives websites, but this did not seem an ideal solution. 

Once a story of mine is published, I really want it to be available to my readers, and the internet archive would never have my stories that had appeared in print. Also, there's no telling when another literary journal will go out of business, taking my work with them, so I took matters into my own hands. I pulled together a collection of published stories along with a handful of new stories and a couple from my first collection. It took me a few weeks to edit and format everything, but it is now done!

My book is out in both paperback and e-book formats...and the reviews are starting to come in! See below for the first 5 star review:

"Absolutely loved this book! No short story writer out there today does conflict and tension as well as Larter. Her characters are diverse and well-rounded...each looking for that elusive redemption we all seek in this soup of human condition we wallow in day after day. Not a dud in the bunch! If you have any hesitation about reading short stories, this one will change your mind!"

Please consider leaving a review on either Amazon or Goodreads after you've read the book. Thanks in advance!

Publication Day!

 

A couple of months ago I discovered that yet another of my published short stories had disappeared from the web when the journal that published it went defunct. I had already "lost" several publications this way, including several in print journals that were no longer available.

The problem of disappearing litmags was recently reviewed by CNN, but it's not a new problem. I was able to find some of my lost stories using the WayBack Machine, which archives websites, but this did not seem an ideal solution. 

Once a story of mine is published, I really want it to be available to my readers, and the internet archive would never have my stories that had appeared in print. Also, there's no telling when another literary journal will go out of business, taking my work with them, so I took matters into my own hands. I pulled together a collection of published stories along with a handful of new stories and a couple from my first collection. It took me a few weeks to edit and format everything, but it is now done!

I am thrilled to announce that the e-book version of "Motherhood and Other Magical Realms" is being released today. A paperback version is in the works and will be released in late April or early May. Stay tuned for more info!

New Website!

I've changed the look of my website...yet again. This is at least the fourth or fifth style I've used for this site, but times change, and things begin to look dated. Since I've been publishing on this site since 2008, it's definitely time for a new layout. I wanted something a bit more professional and easy to navigate. Let me know what you think!

I hope to be posting more often this year, so watch for the return of Nearly Wordless Wednesday posts, Book Reviews, publishing and writing topics, and maybe other things. No telling what will show up here...

New Website!

I've changed the look of my website...yet again. This is at least the fourth or fifth style I've used for this site, but times change, and things begin to look dated. Since I've been publishing on this site since 2008, it's definitely time for a new layout. I wanted something a bit more professional and easy to navigate. Let me know what you think!

I hope to be posting more often this year, so watch for the return of Nearly Wordless Wednesday posts, Book Reviews, publishing and writing topics, and maybe other things. No telling what will show up here...

Annual Writing Report - 2021

 As the end of another pandemic year approaches, I am finding myself grateful for my writing, which has been central to keeping me sane and productive for almost two years now. 

I've just looked back at last year's "Annual Writing Report" and see that December found me looking forward to the publication of my book, Spiritual Insights from the New Science: Complex Systems and Life. I spent much of January and February finishing the manuscript, which then went through copy-editing, layout and final publication - in May, several months ahead of schedule. It has now appeared in hardcover, paperback and e-book formats. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, through your local bookstore (see BookShop.org) or directly from the publisher, World Scientific Publishing.

This book was nearly three decades in the making, so reaching this publication goal was truly the dream of a lifetime. It seems to have sold well, and was the #1 best seller on Amazon for new releases in Chaos Theory and Chaos & Systems for weeks on end. Very exciting!

I also had a few short pieces published this year: a humorous short story, "The Interview," published by Funny Pearls; another funny piece, "Assembly Instructions for a Love Triangle," published by Janus Literary; a short science fiction story, "Big Blue Marble," published by Utopia Science Fiction; and a short nonfiction piece, "Bedtime Stories," published by Washington Independent Review of Books.

In addition to all this publishing, I wrote a lot of new pieces. I finished a draft of a scifi novel and have started shopping it around to publishers and agents. I also finished another novel draft, but this one is still in first-draft stage and not likely to be done until at least sometime next year. 

I also wrote scads of short stories, flash fiction pieces and poems and have submitted them more than 70 times this year. So, I'm also happy to report that I've received many rejections...and, yes, I am happy about that, because it means I'm finishing things and sending them out.

Finally, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the eighth time this year, working on a story that involves one of the secondary characters in my earlier novel, Belle o' the Waters. This story, about Maggie McPhee, is likely to become a novella, if I can tighten it up and get it down to something closer to novella length. If I succeed, this would be my first novella, but hopefully not my last!

Annual Writing Report - 2021

 As the end of another pandemic year approaches, I am finding myself grateful for my writing, which has been central to keeping me sane and productive for almost two years now. 

I've just looked back at last year's "Annual Writing Report" and see that December found me looking forward to the publication of my book, Spiritual Insights from the New Science: Complex Systems and Life. I spent much of January and February finishing the manuscript, which then went through copy-editing, layout and final publication - in May, several months ahead of schedule. It has now appeared in hardcover, paperback and e-book formats. You can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, through your local bookstore (see BookShop.org) or directly from the publisher, World Scientific Publishing.

This book was nearly three decades in the making, so reaching this publication goal was truly the dream of a lifetime. It seems to have sold well, and was the #1 best seller on Amazon for new releases in Chaos Theory and Chaos & Systems for weeks on end. Very exciting!

I also had a few short pieces published this year: a humorous short story, "The Interview," published by Funny Pearls; another funny piece, "Assembly Instructions for a Love Triangle," published by Janus Literary; a short science fiction story, "Big Blue Marble," published by Utopia Science Fiction; and a short nonfiction piece, "Bedtime Stories," published by Washington Independent Review of Books.

In addition to all this publishing, I wrote a lot of new pieces. I finished a draft of a scifi novel and have started shopping it around to publishers and agents. I also finished another novel draft, but this one is still in first-draft stage and not likely to be done until at least sometime next year. 

I also wrote scads of short stories, flash fiction pieces and poems and have submitted them more than 70 times this year. So, I'm also happy to report that I've received many rejections...and, yes, I am happy about that, because it means I'm finishing things and sending them out.

Finally, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the eighth time this year, working on a story that involves one of the secondary characters in my earlier novel, Belle o' the Waters. This story, about Maggie McPhee, is likely to become a novella, if I can tighten it up and get it down to something closer to novella length. If I succeed, this would be my first novella, but hopefully not my last!

Two New Stories - Just Published!

 

Yesterday was a good day in my writing life; two stories were published on the same day! Utopia Science Fiction published my short story, Big Blue Marble, and Janus Literary published my hermit crab flash fiction piece, Assembly Instructions for a Love Triangle. The two pieces are very different from one another, so please take a look!