CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Pigs Might Fly is now available for sale. All her life Lily has prepared herself for taking over the family farm. The property talks to her, the animals and plants thrive under her care, and even the old tractor bends to her will. Her brothers have other careers planned, and help Lily position herself to take over when they are gone, but her father has other ideas. He wants to pass the farm on to one of his sons. He says pigs might fly before a girl would be any good at running a farm. How is Lily going to convince him that farming is the only thing she has ever wanted to do, and that she is the best of his offspring to take over when he is gone? And what do her dreams and hopes have to do with flying pigs? Pigs Might Fly is a story of magic realism, where the world we see is only nearly as it seems to be. Pigs Might Fly is currently available as a stand-alone title at Smashwords , and will soon be available via Kobo, Kindle, iTunes and Nook, but will one day be incor

This will be my third release this week. I played with magic realism to produce this little exploration of traditional values and how they change between generations.   All her life Lily has prepared herself for taking over the family farm. The property talks to her, the animals and plants thrive under her care, and even the old tractor bends to her will. Her brothers have other careers planned, and help Lily position herself to take over when they are gone, but her father has other ideas. He wants to pass the farm on to one of his sons. He says pigs might fly before a girl would be any good at running a farm. How is Lily going to convince him that farming is the only thing she has ever wanted to do, and that she is the best of his offspring to take over when he is gone? And what do her dreams and hopes have to do with flying pigs? Pigs Might Fly is a story of magic realism, where the world we see is only nearly as it seems to be. Pigs Might Fly is currently availabl

The second of this week's new releases is another short story to do with magic swords, although this blade is a little different from the last. When an Arach raiding party attacks a wagon train and moves on to take on the next town, Dannon is part of the out-riders who must clean up in their wake. The dead girl on the wagon is just one of many reasons he doesn’t like spiders, or the elves that ride them. The Soul in the Sword is a short tale of fantasy battle, which will be incorporated into An Anthology of Blades . It is available as a stand-alone story from Smashwords , and will soon be available from Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.

DSDU = Dark Side DownUnder : A group of Australian writers of romance and other paranormal genres has kindly hosted me today on their regular Magic Thursday blog spot. In return I’m sharing one of the tricks I use to make promoting my work easier. Feel free to come over and join me

Here is the cover for my latest short story. This one's a dark fantasy that will one day grow into a novel. When an Arach raiding party attacks a wagon train and moves on to take on the next town, Dannon is part of the out-riders who must clean up in their wake. The dead girl on the wagon is just one of many reasons he doesn’t like spiders, or the elves that ride them. The Soul in the Sword is a short tale of fantasy battle, which will be incorporated into An Anthology of Blades . It will soon be available as a stand-alone story from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, DriveThruFiction, iTunes, and Nook.

When Michael sees movie star, Ky Lin, taking down the bad guys with her long-hair karate, all Michael wants is to be able to do just that. He convinces his karate teacher to train him, and works hard, even when the kids at school tease him. Michael is super-excited when he finds out Ky Lin and her co-star, Joe Wy, are coming to visit his school, but when thieves strike, the visit is in danger of being cancelled. Can Michael discover who is stealing money from the kids and offices at school before the head master calls the movie visit off? Or will his long hair just get in the way? Set in a world similar to our own, where long hair really can be used as a karate fighting style, Carlie Simonsen's Long Hair is a teen to young adult story that deals with issues of teasing and working towards one’s dreams even when those we want to please most don’t support us. The non-illustrated version of Long Hair can now be found at Smashwords , and will soon be available from Kindle, K

Carlie Simonsen's newest chapter book has a cover and will release shortly.   When Michael sees movie star, Ky Lin, taking down the bad guys with her long-hair karate, all Michael wants is to be able to do just that. He convinces his karate teacher to train him, and works hard, even when the kids at school tease him. Michael is super-excited when he finds out Ky Lin and her co-star, Joe Wy, are coming to visit his school, but when thieves strike, the visit is in danger of being cancelled. Can Michael discover who is stealing money from the kids and offices at school before the head master calls the movie visit off? Or will his long hair just get in the way? Set in a world similar to our own, where long hair really can be used as a karate fighting style, Carlie Simonsen's Long Hair is a teen to young adult story that deals with issues of teasing and working towards one’s dreams even when those we want to please most don’t support us. The non-illustrated ver

At the start of each quarter I make a note of the works being carried over from the last, and how many words were added last quarter. To start this quarter, I’m bringing forward five works from last quarter at a total of 173,063 words. Of these, 41,389 were added last quarter. As part of this process, I usually take a look at what was started, progressed and completed in the previous quarter, and tally up what I ended up publishing. It helps me put things in perspective. So, last quarter I started three new works, completing two, and progressed 16 older works, of which I had to complete two and revise 14. In total, I published 13 pieces of work last quarter, totalling 250,995 words, of which 10,281 words were new, and 240,714 were revised. In addition, I created 11 new covers (two of the covers released were created in late 2012), and several black-and-white line drawings. The final thing I do is a quick average of the words produced per day. Last quarter, I produced 51,760 wo