CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Long week, short on writing, but lots of catching up. This whole sick child thing, followed by being sick thing… waaay overrated. I also added the walking back in; it fit where it should, up until I got sick, but I had to fit my catch-up study in where I would normally put my writing, so… results as follows: Overview New words produced: 0 Old words revised: 0 Outlines and Notes: 0 Works completed: 0 Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0 Bloggery: 715 University Prep and Assignments: 6,993 Story-A-Week Catch-Up Challenge Update Nil Progress Publishing Tasks Created 3 blog posts for this blog; Created 0 blog post for the C.M. Simpson Publishing blog ; Created 0 blog post for the C.M. Simpson Art and Photography blog ; New Arrivals Nil this week.

Sorry, no pictures, today, folks. I haven't been well, so I'll make it brief. Two missions completed: one at the National Museum of Australia, and one at the National Botanic Gardens... and then I caught the flu. The next mission will be a lovely jaunt up Black Mountain, and I'm still tossing up whether I'll make it a walk or a drive. No new badges to report, but I should have some news on that front, soon. I have four platinum, heading for black at a rapid rate of knots, two golds, seven silver, four bronze, and the usual two that may never get off the starting mark. It's not spectacular, but sometimes I have to let Ingress take a back seat. Other stuff: I think I'll just let events guide what goes on in the Ingress space. If I level a badge, I might talk about that, or - if I remember to take photos - I'll post about the missions, once they're done. If they're a picture series, I'll post up the completed set, because there are some real...

Last December, I undertook two challenges: The Story-A-Week and Holiday Extension Challenges . The criteria for these Challenges were as follows: The Story-A-Week Challenge: Write and submit one short story (of between 1,500 and 12,000 words), each week for the next twelve months (the 55 weeks from December 13, 2015 through December 31, 2016). (55 short stories) The Holiday Extension Challenge: During the summer break, and the mid-semester break next year, write one Carlie Simonsen chapter book each week, and have it uploaded for pre-ordering within six weeks from completion. The periods for this challenge were as follows: Summer Holidays (7 weeks from December 13, 2015 through February 15, 2016); the Mid-Semester Holidays (7 weeks from May 28, 2016 through July 16, 2016); and the End-of-Year Holidays (6 weeks from November 20, 2016 through December 31, 2016). (20 chapter books) An Untimely End and Results In February, when university kicked in, again, I re...

So this is, hopefully, going to be a regular feature for Tuesday. Why Tuesday? Because from Tuesday through Friday, my focus is on Ingress, but on Saturdays and Sundays, my kids like to go pokehunting, so we do that together. And, yes, sometimes I'll go solo, but not often. I'll include those occasions, too. In the meantime... On Monday evening, I caught: a drattini who wanted to know why I was still studying, a spearow who was adamant I give up the books for the day, and a rattata that said I needed to step away from the keyboard... or else. They were followed by...  a psyduck and a rattata. On Tuesday morning's walk, I caught: one exeggcute lurking under a tree, a confrontational rattata, a very determined pidgey, and...  ... a magikarp who couldn't quite jump high enough to escape, another rattata determined to bar my way, and a spearow, who thought I might be good for bread crumbs... boy was  it in for a surprise! The one...

In order to try and cope with my study load, and my desire to manage my writing, I instigated a new challenge. I would prioritise my study and writing, and I’d try to write a story a week. I thought the Story-A-Week challenge might be achievable, but then I went one step further. You guys are familiar with this,right? The whole ‘if one story’s a good idea, why not try two? Well, I thought that it shouldn’t be too much trouble to write a new story each week AND complete an old one, so I named my new challenge the Story-A-Week Catch-Up Challenge . I’ll post a bit later in the week as to how that’s really going. And the new method? Well, it’s to just write a thousand a words at a time on any one project, unless the words are really flowing well. That way, I can meet the writing commitment needed for each of my pen names to have something to add to a regular publishing schedule. When I’m writing, this method works really well, and I often get over the quota with ease. ...

Well, it’s started – change, and don’t we all just love change. I’m switching between writing essays and writing fiction. Very soon, I will start putting the publishing tasks back into the schedule, but not until I’ve managed to balance this new addition. Adding the walking really threw things, so we’re going slow. Changes. Right. I made a few of those. The first one is to add my pokewalking and ingressing to my blog. It’s kinda fun, but it’s also really important for writers to maintain their fitness. After all, who wants their favourite author to keel over from a stroke, or a heart attack, or some diabetes-related issue that could have been avoided if we hadn’t chained them to their desk? Not me, that’s for sure, and, if I’m gonna advise it, maybe I should listen to myself for a change. So, since I tend to pokewalk on weekends, and sometimes Monday, Tuesday will have pictures of the pokemon that were caught during the week, and, since I go ingressing fairly heavily before my t...