CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Here is the cover for my Australian steampunk horror novella: Rendezvous at Raptor's Rest Ebook cover Raptor's Rest Large Print PoD Cover Raptor's Rest Mass Market PoD Cover When his flying ship, the Red Horizon , was shot down, Tescher told no-one he had a woman on board. Three years later, he returns to the ship wreck and finds Marianna not only survived the crash, but left him a message. She found what she was looking for aboard his ship, and she’ll wait for him at the Raptor’s Rest , but once a year—tonight. Tight flying will get him there in time, but it will take more for him to navigate clear of the underworld predators circling the criminal shores on which Marianna has landed. Rendezvous at Raptor’s Rest is set in the steampunk world of 1840’s Australia, complete with flying ships, landed gentry, velociraptors and those who take their tinkering with the ether just a little too far.

So, earlier this week, someone asked me if independent publishing was “worth it”, and I had to sit back and take a good look. I’m not making anywhere near what I would call a living wage, so I thought about it: My first response was this: Well, it's not a get-rich-quick scheme. And it's a lot of work. Ask me in twelve months’ time when I haven't been neglecting the release schedule. Sales plummet when releases aren't regular, and short work doesn't sell well. If I had to weigh profit against effort right this minute, I'd say no. If I were to take into consideration the sales when I *was* putting things out or writing regularly, I would say I could work towards a living in the young adult and romance genres in the next five or so years. So, now, I'm working at maintaining a regular release of short work, getting the young adult back on-line first, and then following with a mix of novel-length dark fantasy and romance, but I also write under dif...

A busy week, this week. In between Christmas and family and other stuff, writing got done. This is the level of publishable words I want to be doing each week—including after university goes back. The level of formatting and editing will drop once I have the next twelve months’ worth of releases up and out, as will the level of cover creation… maybe. In the meantime, it’s going to be a very busy five weeks, and I am having a blast. Enjoy your writing, folks! Overview New words produced: 14,242 Old words revised: 0 Outlines and Notes: 1,178 Works completed: 0 Works revised: 0 Covers created: 1 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 1 Bloggery: 2,902 University Prep and Assignments: 0 Story-A-Week Challenge Update Completed: ShortStory473— The Sevarine Sidestep to be sent out for submission. Holiday Extension Challenge Update Completed: Chapbook14I— Legacy of Hope (Wheelchair Adventures #2) for an April 2...

This week, I received this cover for the short works I worked on in 2014. This is the first volume of that collection, and it will be released on January 2, 2016. Short Works 2014 - ebook cover Short Works 2014 - PoD large print cover Short Works 2014 - PoD mass market cover Last year’s anthology consisted only of the short stories and poems worked on, created re-written or published in 2013. This year’s anthology consists of all the short stories and poems that I created, or discovered in my files and rewrote in 2014, including the pieces from 365 Days of Flash Fiction and 365 Days of Poetry that have already been included in Volumes 1 and 2 of last year’s collections. The tales and poems are taken from completed anthologies, and anthologies to come, from my blog, and from my notebooks. Most are published, either individually or in a collection, but some are scheduled for release at some time in the future. I have also inc...