Short Stories and Poems released as C.M. Simpson in 2016

This year, I focussed on my short story and poetry writing, and on my writing as Carlie Simonsen. These are the short stories, poems, and short work collections I released in 2016:

JANUARY 2016

Short Work from 2014, Vol. 1 EBook Cover

Short Work from 2014 Trade PoD Cover

Short Work from 2014 Mass Market PoD Cover

A collection of flash fiction, short stories, poems and essays where social commentary rubs shoulders with zombies, where poems both celebrate and criticise yearly celebrations and where short stories blend genres, where inspiration is usually grounded firmly in the world and times in which the words were written, but where imagination has occasionally run a bit amok, this three-volume collection consists of all the short work written, published, or prepared for publication by C.M. Simpson during 2014—and this volume focuses on work drawing on the real world, or the romance, horror, steampunk, urban fantasy, and speculative genres for inspiration or execution.

FEBRUARY 2016

A Legacy of Elves EBook Cover

The sun was setting and the trolls were out when we discovered the chapel. From the get-go it seemed almost too good to be true, but we needed refuge from the trolls. Between them, the dust smugglers, the pixie and the unicorns, we mighta bitten off more’n we could chew, but if we could survive this little fracas, we just might have found ourselves a home... we really needed a home…

A Legacy of Elves is a short post-apocalyptic story set in a world where civilisation has been all but wiped out by a tsunami of magic, plague and natural disaster. Trolls and other creatures of legend and fairytale roam the land, and human survivors must build a new life, but everything comes at a cost, and some costs are more visible than others. 

MAY 2016

The 2013 anthology consists of all the short stories and poems that I created, edited or rewrote in 2013, regardless of whether or not they have been released. The tales are taken from completed anthologies, and anthologies yet to come, from my blog, and from my notebooks. Most are published as stand-alone stories, but some are yet to be published.

Also, where last year’s anthology was a single volume, this year’s anthology is two volumes long. I have divided them up chronologically, according to when the stories were first created and completed. This is the second volume, and it covers work completed or released in 2013. It consists of a mix of science fiction, fantasy, horror, urban fantasy and speculative poetry, flash fiction and short stories.
 

When Rocky finally reaches Tallona, he crash lands. The cargo pod carrying his beloved pony Tank is dropped in, and radio communications are lost with the colony and the space ship. To make matters worse, there is a pack of velociraptors nesting right near the crash site. With help a long way away, someone has to reach the horses and set them free, and the only way to stop his little sister from trying to do just that, is to go himself. Can Rocky sneak out of a dropship full of adults, reach the horses, and then get to the colony before the raptors eat him? With the help of the alien girl, Elita, he can only try.

Rocky Touches Down is the fifth book in the Otherworld Adventures series, which is set around Rocky’s journey to the world of Tallona, where his parents will farm alongside the aliens who have asked them for help. While I originally thought this one would be the last book in the series, I’ve had another idea for poor Rocky, so there is at least one more book to come.

 

JUNE 2016

 

Sean is finally home, but everything he hoped for is gone. As far as he can tell, his life is over. His dreams of becoming a garden designer seem done, because he can’t dig or weed. He can’t see how he can be of any use in the School Gardens Program, he used to help to run. And he can’t kick a ball, or ride a skateboard, so how can he continue to be the buddy of a boy who loves to do both? And as for his girlfriend, Angelica… well, Sean feels he has no choice but to send her away. After all, she’ll be better off with a guy who can walk, won’t she? Unfortunately, Angelica and his little buddy Brian have other plans. They just need to get Sean to see that he’s not so useless after all…

Legacy of Hope is a teen to young adult story about how Sean learns to cope with losing his ability to walk, and to see that there is still might be a way to do the things he loves. But even the strongest person needs a little help to learn to hope again.

Legacy of Hope is the second book in the Wheelchair Adventures series, which is based around young people getting their wheels underneath them, after they find themselves in wheelchairs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dumped by her boyfriend, Tomas, because she ended up in a wheelchair, Stella has to rebuild her life. If she hadn’t met Ambrose in hospital, she might never have thought of playing basketball again, but he was just a friend. She never expected to see him when she got out. It comes as a total surprise, when Ambrose meets Stella after her first basketball game in a chair. More surprising is his request to see her again. Can Stella afford to let him keep visiting, or will he end up being just as much of a disaster as Tomas had been?

Legacy of Hearts is the third book in the Wheelchair Adventures series, which is based around young people getting their wheels underneath them, after they find themselves in wheelchairs.

 

JULY 2016 

 

When planet-colonist, Joaquin, takes his daughter, Ry, into the autumn forest to show her the danger lurking amongst the trees, he does not expect to end the day fleeing for his life, nor does he think he can discover more about the spider-like orsovite, or what happened to his wife, one short year ago, but autumn is a time when the leaves fall, and secrets are uncovered. 

 

When Tischa escapes from a warehouse of crooks bent on doing evil to boxes of mice, she’s only trying to escape. She doesn’t expect to encounter unicorns, or fairies, or a hot-looking elf that looks like he’s stepped straight off a movie set. Can she help them? Why, yes, yes she can, but, more importantly, can they help her?

 

When werewolf, Chitin’s, nightly solitude is interrupted by a small child seeking his help, he does not suspect that her plea will touch his dreams for the world of his ancestors. He is determined to refuse her, but she is just as determined to gain his protection, and leaves him little choice but to help—at least at the start.

 

AUGUST 2016  

 

When a mysterious pod is found on the moon, and an alien emerges, the press have a field day.

This science-fiction short story is a first-contact tale that explores the relationship of the press to politics and to reality.

 

 

When Ramana Dewarth sneaks aboard a shuttle being taken on an illegal research mission, she gets into more trouble than she ever thought possible—and the space pirates weren’t the worst of it.

This science fiction short story takes us on another journey with Odyssey’s not-so-delightful Agent Delight.

 

SEPTEMBER 2016

 

 

Jamie has two names, and a whole bunch of secrets that she keeps from everyone, including her employer, Odyssey—which is no mean feat, given what that company does—but, when a mission takes her to Askreya, she has to deal with an old dilemma, an old foe, and something entirely new, and her secrets begin to come to light. Can she finish her mission, without everything being revealed?

In Service to the Pinnacle is a science fiction short story set in the world Odyssey and Miss Delight.

 

Vortex travel—you don’t ask, and I won’t screw up the explanation; closest thing I can get to it is that I pilot a transdimensional skipping stone through the edge of a vortex from one point in space to another, and it gets you where you want to be. Well, most of the time. Just not this time. This time, we’re crashing, and I don’t know where we are.

 

OCTOBER 2016

 

 

People are disappearing on the close archaeological world of Jehornak, including an Odyssey operative’s sister, but that’s not why he’s there. It seems other people have gone missing, too, people with relatives rich enough to pay Odyssey to discover exactly what is happening in the mysterious cavern known as The Ballroom. However, when things go south on the mission, can Agent Delight keep her reputation, and make sure her operative comes out alive?

 

When Melerom escapes the aftermath of his people’s massacre of the humans on Jehornak, he sets himself up as a wealthy wanderer on the Odyssey luxury liners, and acquires the one thing every gentleman needs—a valet—but when his valet begins showing unusually perceptive spurts of initiative, Melerom realises the man is not everything he seems. The only question is, can the man be trusted to help him survive multi-billionaire, Frederico Coleman’s, next party, or betray him?

 

Being a bodyguard isn’t easy, not even when you’re the seventh son in a long line of seventh sons, not even when the magic comes when you call—and especially not when the man you are protecting is a treacherous, lecherous spoilt son of wealth and privilege, who betrays you for a pretty girl. Transported to the far north, Seppelitus must extricate himself from a deal between gargoyles, ogres and a demon lord, and then work out what he’s going to do about the dragon.

 NOVEMBER 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 criminal shores on which Marianna has landed.

 

 

When Grey, the colony’s Head Botanist, disappears, Kiralee worries. When he has not returned after five months, she goes looking for him, for Grey is more than chief botanist, Grey is a storyteller at heart, a believer in the importance of the tale—and so was every single one of those who disappeared before him. Can Kiralee discover where they went, before the stories are lost forever?

 

DECEMBER 2016

  

 

What do you do when your brother betrays you, and you end up on another world, in the employ of a company whose recruiting methods leave a lot to be desired? Well, I guess you keep your head down, while you try to figure out a way to get back home.

And I sure miss home, right now.

 

 

 

 

 366 poems of fantasy, science fiction, speculation and social comment, exploring the darkness, the future and the fear.