CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

The new cover has been approved for In Full Flight , the third in the Wings series that I write as Carlie Simonsen. Here it is - as dark as the themes in the story. Jack’s dad has a secret—a sad secret. He has never told Jack how he lost his wings. One day he does, and Jack’s world changes. At the same time, someone from his parents’ past comes into their present, and they must work out how to stop things from the past happening all over again.   In Full Flight is the third book in the Wings chapter book series, set around a family with wings and bird-like feet. This book is darker than the other two, dealing with themes of difference, discrimination at a state level, and finding a place to belong.

Missions in Ingress form an important part of my program to keep fit. I used them as an incentive to get out the door, and to stay out until I've walked the minimum time, or more. Usually, I find myself doing more because I want to complete either a series or a long single mission. Last Sunday, I completed this cute little series, called the GTC Wander. It's the cure series of dancing aliens forming a rainbow-flag pattern in the middle of the screen.  This one took me through the town centre of Gungahlin, which was very educational as I haven't visited for a couple of months, and the building that's been going on up there is phenomenal. The shopping centres have expanded, and a multi-level carpark has gone in, and the various construction works just haven't finished. Time to Complete: The average time for each mission segment is about 15 minutes, although I took between a half and three-quarters of an hour because I like to glyph-hack, capture, fully depl

As you all know, Hoenn released on the weekend, so there have been new pokemon to catch. Despite getting out and about on the weekend, I've been a bit busy since Monday, so the only pokemon catching that's happened has been while out running errands. Nevertheless, there have been new pokemon to catch. Here's how we're doing so far: On Monday morning I found a shroomish (sitting under a gym beside a local walking track between two ovals),  and in the afternoon, I hatched a wurmple (from a 2k egg as we crossed the oval on the return journey home). Shroomish was really strong with attack as its best quality and the best stats ever seen, while the wurmple able to battle with the best of them, with HP as its best stat, a great attack, and strong stats. Today was quieter, with only an electrike to confront me on the way across the ovals. It was a decent pokemon with strong stats, and defense as its best quality. This brings th

Writing as Carlie Simonsen, I finished the third chapter book in my Wings chapter book series. It's called In Full Flight and continues the story of Jack and his family, who are winged people living in Australia. This one surprised me be being a lot darker than I expected, but it covers themes of displacement, difference, state discrimination and finding a new home. It will be released in the third week of January, next year, and I should have a cover for it, shortly. Right now, though, the cover looks a lot like this: Jack’s dad has a secret—a sad secret. He has never told Jack how he lost his wings. One day he does, and Jack’s world changes. At the same time, someone from his parents’ past comes into their present, and they must work out how to stop things from the past happening all over again. In Full Flight is the third book in the Wings chapter book series, set around a family with wings and bird-like feet. This book is darker than the other two, dealing w

The cover for A Planet's Ransom   came through on Sunday. This is the second book in the Space Adventures series that I'm writing as Carlie Simonsen. I love the neon affect! Made hostages for a world whose international leaders didn’t know how to behave, we ended up on a new world, one we have to make our own, where every step of civilisation has to be earned, all over again. It’s meant to be a world to hide the secret of our survival—but not all the aliens believe we have a right to survive. Torn between two rival factions of an alien race, we have to save our keepers, defeat our hunters, and get a message to the stars. And that’s just if we want to live. Making a place for humanity, is another task altogether. A Planet’s Ransom is the second book in the Space Adventures series, a series of science fiction adventures set in space, or on the colonies of newly discovered worlds. Each book is a stand-alone story that can be read without needing to read o

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the first little steps of transitioning from full-time-student-looking-for-a-day-job to full-time writer, and I’m going to talk about it some more, this week. The process for turning into a professional writer is going to look different for everyone, but I’ll share bits and pieces of my journey, in case anyone else can find something useful for their own. The last week of November, was the first full week of putting those first steps into practice—and they worked really well. I liked the results, and the way it looks to be a sustainable workload… and then Friday arrived, a disrupted day, where my work schedule fell apart in the morning and never really put itself back together, which left me in a bit of a quandary come Saturday. I had words from Friday to do, and a book that had decided it wanted to go over the planned length, as well as a competition I’d been reminded about, and the tasks I had decided needed doing at the start of each

And we're on fire! This is the cover for January's short story release, The Queen's Game . Loving it! Never get involved with the Otherworld Fey. Take my word for it. I saved the Queen of Summer, and was betrothed to a lord of Winter by way of thanks—and then the human underworld got involved. So what do I do, when every choice is bad? What would you choose: death by troll, or the mercy of an elf?