CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

You should always gloves when gardening in Australia - and you should keep a very careful eye out for the slightest flicker of movement. In May, which is the last month of autumn here, I was preparing my garden for winter when I spotted this lovely little lady. See if you can see her in the photos below. And, yes, she is still somewhere in my garden... I just don't know where.

The terribleminds Flash Fiction Challenge for June 27, 2015 , was to randomly choose a song and use the title as the title for a story. The story didn’t have to be inspired by the song and we had 1,000 words to play with. I googled as suggested and discovered Mega Ran’s song titled Splash Woman , so I started from there. The story was started on June 29, 2015, and completed on July 2, 2015. We had until noon on July 3 to complete it. Splash Woman It was a song in 2010, but I don’t know what it was about. Suzie called it chip-hop and referred to it as nerdcore. It had a lot to do with those retro computer games she used to collect. Whatever it was, she seemed to like it, even if the only words she seemed to know were ‘Splash… splash….’. I guess I couldn’t blame her for being seduced by something that suggested water in such abundance it could be splashed about. Where we were, we didn’t have that luxury. Out there, everything got splashed back into the recycling so we coul...

A little time was found to read bloggery in June, so I only got through the top few in my 'interesting blogs' list - and not all of them, at that. As follows: Writing Tips http://kriswrites.com/2015/06/17/business-musings-gaming-the-system/ : Kristine Kathryn Rusch on gaming the system and the craft of writing;  http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2015/06/03/your-most-frequently-asked-writing-questions-answered/ : Chuck Wendig gives some writing tips http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2015/05/26/how-mad-max-fury-road-turns-your-writing-advice-into-roadkill/ : in which Chuck Wendig uses Mad Max to illustrate some story-telling points http://jakonrath.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/the-path-to-success.html : Joe Konrath on how to be a successful writer Independent Publishing: http://kriswrites.com/2015/06/24/business-musings-why-i-love-taylor-swift/ : Kristine Kathryn Rusch on the business of writing and standing up for yourself on contracts http://kriswrites.com/2015/06/03/busi...

An englyn is a form of Welsh or Cornish verse, with a reputation of being hard to master. It has several different variants, all of which are governed by strict rules. This week, we’ll look at a variant insisted on by novelist Robertson Davies. Davies insisted that the englyn must have four lines. The first line should have 10 syllables, the second should have 6, and the last two lines should have 7 syllables each. His form also states that there must be a break after the seventh, eighth OR ninth syllable, and that this is where the rhyme is introduced. The second line rhymes with the break, and the last syllable of the first line must be linked by either rhyme or assonance with the 3rd or 4th syllable of the second line. The third and fourth lines must rhyme on a weak syllable and must rhyme with the rhyme in the first line—very similar to the first form of englyn. The Troll Queen She stands beneath the ancient-most bridges where there lingers bones lost She defies al...

Some more readjustments to the schedule and a more satisfactory result, especially as my back went, and then I caught the flu. Editing, formatting and publishing will be added in soon, although I have started on that, as well.   Overview New words produced: 7,578 Old words revised: 0 Works completed: 28 (for inclusion in 2 larger works) Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0 Bloggery: 0 Overrun Task This short story decided to be longer than the allotted space, so it will appear as an overrun task until it is complete. ShortStory61-Seppelitus: Added 2,768 wds Formatting YoungAdultNovel1A—Orb Wielder : large print print-on-demand formatting commenced on CreateSpace Publishing Tasks Commenced formatting of works in queue   New Arrivals The following pieces arrived last week: Poem527— Who Knows How Far Our Troubles Fly : a villanelle about life’s trouble...