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About C.M. Simpson - Who I Am, and Where to Find Me - 2024

IASFA Promotion - Fantasy Short Stories

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This month's IASFA promotion focuses on fantasy short stories! Whether it's wizards, elves, fae, or dragons, you can join the IASFA mailing list and find some discounted or free short stories to explore. You can find the short stories, here: https://iasfa.org/may25/. Some are free, and others range between 0.99 to 2.99, but they are all fantasy, and all short.  My two offerings for this month are: Gulvane and the Dragon : in which an elven wizards faces the ghosts of his past, and the potential of a future unwritten...and a dragon seeks a familiar. It Starts: Gulvane walked the corridors of his mind, going deep into himself to remember who he was, and explore who he might become. The years of an elf were long, many more times longer than the span of an average mortal, and Gulvane was reaching another century, his third as a wizard, his seventh as an elf. In that time, he’d lived a lifetime in each of four different occupations. Walking down the timber-lined hallway, Gulvane ...

May I Write a Novel Challenge Progress Check – May 08-14, 2025

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  Still on May 16, but here we are, taking stock of the second seven days of the May I Write a Novel Challenge. May 8 No challenge words; background research and notes for videos was the order of the day. Day Words: 0; Month Words: 7,348 May 9 Tried to be more social… This had consequences, and while I did more background research for my game videos, I could not break the on spectrum repercussions enough to make good words. I still got some words, however. I will have to rethink this social thing. Day Words: 376; Month Words: 7,724 May 10 Focused on updating both YouTube channels, but got some words done. Decisions had to be rethunk and followed through on. Day Words: 340; Month Words: 8,064 May 11 No words. RL stressors made a solid impact—ie dealing with medical paperwork, and attempting to be social is a tricksy business and there was internal (on-spectrum) fallout that needed to be dealt with. This cannot be allowed to continue; I have to be better t...

May I Write a Novel Challenge Progress Check – May 01-07, 2025

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  It’s May 16, for those of us on the east coast of the O.Z. and this is my mid-day break and I’m looking back and celebrating the May milestones I’ve already hit for this challenge. To be fair, my private goal was 4k/day, so, knowing Life has been kicking my backside lately, I halved it to 2k/day. This is how the first seven days of the challenge went.   May 1 Started the challenge with a bang, and did 50% more than needed. Happy with that. Hit the 1k word milestone, and surpassed it. Day Total: 3,188; Month Total: 3,188   May 2 Not so good for words. Edited a novel, celebrated an acceptance, and updated my Royal Road and YouTube. Day Total: 122; Month Total: 3,310   May 3 Short on word quota, but made a submission, and focused on getting my YouTube up to date…again. Day Total: 1,224, Month Total: 4,534 May 4 Do not ask me what happened. I am working through a bit of depression and chose today to focus on researching a game…or hiding in...

May I Write a Novel Challenge…and a Confession

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  It’s May…and I’ve been working on trying to prioritise making words over all the other things I need to be doing, both as a publisher and a content creator. I had to find a balance after a bad co-op experience with another writer, a doubly bad experience in the last day job, and several biggish Life hits that came a little close together for easy recovery. So, May…a writing challenge, and a confession: I have been making words, but not as many as I should be, and I’ve been having trouble producing them with the consistency needed. Sure, I could make excuses to go with circumstances: I had a lot to do in the production side of things (which I still do), and RL admin took a lot of time and precedence (and it still does), and blah, blah, blah…and maybe those things are valid and I should be cutting myself some slack, but the end result is the same—not enough words. So, with the work schedule finally sorted eight-and-a-half months post-day-job, it’s time to focus on words—at ...