CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

My speculative (meaning: dark-urban-bushland-setting-fantasy-science-fiction-touched-by-horror) short story, Just a Dinosaur , is now available for pre-order on Smashwords and Amazon-Kindle. The legends hinted at some kind of dinosaur. Oliver hoped it was a new species, and he had Nate believing him. Together, they hope to circumvent the prohibitions of intruding on a sacred site, to prove the creature existed—and all without their boss, and Nate’s lover, finding out. What exactly lies behind the legends—and, more importantly, will they be able to reveal it to the world?

The cover for my science-fiction short story, The Years of Voyage , has been approved. If you like stories of plague, colonists and crashed starships, you might like to check this one out when it releases on July 14.

Three days ago, I was 600 resonator deployments short of completing the second stage of the Magnus Builder's Challenge. Today, with the flu starting to make its presence known, I finished it with 5 days to spare. Pretty happy with that. Progress Report - Day 9 to Completion Day 9: Sunday: I didn't want to go out today, but I'd identified two blocks of portals where I might deploy another couple of hundred resonators. I was just trying to figure out when to go, when my husband suggested a family trip to look at Cooma, a small town about an hour's drive south. I took a quick look at the intel map, saw a bunch of grey portals and figured I could I could fit a small amount of deployment in, while we looked around - and it was worth it. We got to check out Cooma, which has a lot more portals, and a lot more history, than I thought, and we found a nice new area to visit. As we approached the town, there...

Yay! The fantasy short, This Year's Star Fish , is now available for pre-order from Amazon-Kindle and Smashwords. It releases on June 16. Every year the fish come down from the stars, and every year Faulknor hopes they come for him. Well, this year he’s tired of waiting; this year it’s his turn to do the seeking. This year, he’s going to catch himself the fish of his dreams. This year, he’s coming for them… just as soon as he’s finished with the assassin, and the elf with its human and orc sidekicks. Yeah, after that he’s going to find himself a fish.

The cover for, Just a Dinosaur, my third release in June has been approved. I'm a little bit excited and a little bit nervous about this, all at the same time. I've written something contemporary that feels a little bit like horror, and a little bit like urban fantasy, and a little bit like an archaeological adventure story. It's also set in a bush-setting as opposed to an urban environment and, editing it, I thought it touched on some of the stereotypes we see in Australian culture, hopefully both acknowledging and challenging them. It's not what I set out to do on purpose, but something that came through as the story came into being. This tale is due out on June 30.

My first short story for June, The Stars to Guide, is now available on Smashwords and Amazon-Kindle for pre-order. When the stars told me my father would not return, my life changed—and my mother was not amused.