CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Lunch on Day 1 of Conflux 8 was over almost before we realised it and many of us had to scramble to make the first after-lunch panel on time. Something I’m going to have to remember to have a better handle on at Conflux 9 . Several interesting panels ran after lunch, but I couldn’t attend them all. Here are the ones I was able to get to, and each one was well worth it. 1300-1400: Romance Writers of the Apocalypse with Tracey O’Hara , Nicole Murphy and Jodi Cleghorn Panelists (from left to right): Tracey O'Hara, Nicole Murphy, Jodi Cleghorn. This panel consisted of a few of the many writers making up the Romance Writers of the Apocalypse blog. The blog was born out of a Twitter conversation about the need to get fit, have fun and write smart. They each spoke about the different ways they got into writing and/or publishing. Jodi Cleghorn spoke about how the lyrics of ‘Deck the Halls’ and the anthology that resulted brought her to the independent publishing field.

This week , we were given ten ingredients and told to choose five. I used a ten-sided dice and this is what came up.  ·       An indestructible tree; ·       A mysterious rabbit; ·       A half-burned notebook; ·       An impossible doorway; ·       A missing corpse. It took me all week to get to this, and in the end I just had to start writing and see where the story took me. Welcome to: Aunt Imelda's Legacy Step through the candle flare to the tree at the end of the world. There ask your question of the king o… The sentence stopped. Nola looked down at Moppet. The black and tan rabbit looked back at her. “I don’t suppose you could have rescued the notebook before Aunt Imelda dropped it into the fire?” Moppet’s ears drooped and the rabbit shook its head. Nola sighed. “I don’t know why I talk to you anyway. It’s not like you understand a word I say.” The rabbit snorted and its tiny tongue protruded from its mouth. Nola glared at it, not at a

Screams for the Dying is a short story exploring the place of mythical creatures in science fiction. How does one immortal kill another? What interest could a banshee have in a single mortal child and why would they defend them? And why does a banshee scream? I had lived here from childhood to my thirtieth year but, in spite of the wattle dancing on the breeze and the eucalyptus-scented air that brushed across my skin, I knew I no longer belonged. My nostrils remembered the faint fizz of Kelfa blossoms from the sun-drenched planet of Bolan, and my eyes recalled the darkness of subterranean living on the asteroid of Quorbet. Screams for the Dying is the last short story in the fourth Simpson Anthology- An Anthology of Worlds .   can be found in An Anthology of Worlds was released mid-September 2012. It is available from Amazon , Smashwords and DriveThruFiction.  .