CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Today’s word goal was 3,600—and I honestly thought I’d barely make it… up until three hours ago when the story took off. I’d like to say it was because I’d found the ending, and that’s probably about the size of it. I’d also taken a break after writing the first 1,600 words, and done some publishing, and then come back to it. Another break at the 2,800-word mark, to cook and eat dinner with the family and then a couple of hours to finish the story at 6,400 words. Not what I expected at all. Still, the randomly rolled title was: 03-Legacy and 54-Elves, so the title became A Legacy of Elves and the story rolled from there. End result was that I didn’t write any flash fiction or poetry today, but I did finalise the edit on a young adult novel and release it on Smashwords. Tomorrow, that novel will be released in mass market and large print print-on-demand versiions.. All in all, a very good day’s work, even if I have to focus on studying in the morning. Story Match: Complete — A Le...

Hey all - Carlie Simonsen's young adult fantasy adventure Orb Wielder is now available on Smashwords - and will soon be available in print. When Liralee buys an orb from the Shawl Lady’s stall, she opens a path to another world, for the orb is not just a pretty glass ball that impresses her friends; it’s a symbol of power that produces magic for enchantments. And it’s wanted by two warring kingdoms and a sorcerer with plans of conquest. When strangers try to take the orb, and her friends gather to aid her, Liralee begins an adventure that could end in disaster or victory. The choice is hers.

Today, I had high hopes of writing two stories. I was feeling well, had caught up on my sleep, and got into the writing shortly after getting up. To be honest, I could probably still get another story done, but only if I stayed up until midnight, and didn’t do some of the lesson prep I neglected yesterday. So, even though I’m still fizzing from finishing the latest short story, I have to settle down and do the readings for Monday’s classes—even if one of them might not run. I have had a blast, today. I wrote another science fiction piece and it ended up being another Odyssey tale, and Miss Delight made another cameo. Have to say, I like this universe. Anyway, the day started with me very optimistically rolling two titles. The first one, and the one I worked on today came out as 37-The Tale’s and 57-Slumber, which I left en situ right up until the very end, when it morphed into The Taleteller’s Slumber. I was aiming at 3,350 words and at 2,700 words I was sure I would just abou...

Today I wanted to do something a little different—I wanted to try and write two stories. I remembered that I was a few stories behind, which is my own fault for taking five days to decide what I wanted to do in the months and years lying ahead. So, today, I thought I would try for two stories. Word targets were 3,150 and 4,000. Why’s Behind the Story Match Challenge: To recap, this challenge came out of me wanting to see what real writers did, and then trying it for myself. I was feeling very uncertain of myself, in spite of being free to finally pursue what I had wanted to do for a very long time, and I needed a little direction. I don’t know what you folks do when you feel like this, but I go looking to see if there are people out there who are where I want to be, and then I take a look at what they’re doing and see if there is anything in there that acts as a pointer. And I think the thing that stands out for me is that writers write. Pretty obvious, but how, why and did I ...

The word goal for Day 9 was a merciful 1,650 words; the challenge was going to be to convince the story it liked that length. Again, I randomly rolled for the two title components and came up with 2- Green and 73- in the Moon . Honestly, there are days when I think this generator needs a little more work. The title immediately morphed into Greening the Moon-a Lunar Werewolf Story , because the whole lunar werewolf thing happened when I was writing my first flash fiction collection. The Lunar Werewolves are part of a series of poems and flash fiction that came out of Ode to Hummingbirds … and now I realise that, I will have to put them all in one place fore reference. And speaking of realising things, I’ve noticed that all my science fiction, with one possible exception, is happening in the same universe: the lizardine and Odyssey are not definitely in the same universe, as are pretty much all of my colony stories. And that’s a good thing to realise, because it means that univer...