CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

The cover for March’s short story, Memory’s Vampire, has arrived. I like it a lot. Not all vampires feed on blood. The ones we hunt take your memories before they take your life—and now they are hunting back. We’ve been compromised, and I don’t know who to trust. That comes later. Right now, I just want to make it back to my body alive

This is just to let you know that Reluctant Liaison has just released and will return to the usual price of 2.99, shortly. It is available on Smashwords , Amazon , and DriveThruFiction, and is available via Draft2Digital distribution. I woke up in a car—upside down, staring into the faces of a half dozen pixies sitting on a tree branch. To one side, was a cliff face, to the other, sky, and things were starting to shift. Apparently, I’d had an interesting night… if only I could remember what it was, and why I’d run, and why following the pixies scared me almost as much as the idea of staying in the car… In Reluctant Liaison the Paranormal Operations Squad is faced with a dilemma outside their usual remit, when Otherworld and ‘real’ world cultures clash.

Granny finds a Gas Mask is now available for pre-order from Smashwords . It will be available for 99c until shortly after its release date of February 17, 2018, when the price will return to $2.99. Helping Gran is a chore, but with her holding their mobile phones hostage, Gareth and Giselle have no choice. Unpacking boxes of books is no surprise. Unpacking the gas mask is—and so is finding themselves back in the war, in Gran’s war, because ‘some things are meant to be changed’. How on Earth, does Gran expect them to help with this? Better yet, how on Earth, can they get back home? Granny Finds a Gas Mask is the first book in a series where the things Granny finds lead to adventure, and Gareth and Giselle have to figure out how to get back to their own time and place.

The fourth cover for this week is for the second book in the Dear Tiger series, which I write as Carlie Simonsen. Dear Tiger: I Don’t Think I’m Human Any More takes up the story, where the first book left off. Trapped in a room, and unable to hug her family, Simone knows she is changing. She just doesn’t know what she’s changing into, or how long it will take. The company doctors won’t tell her, and Tiger seems so far away. But at least he writes back, and he’s trying to help. Maybe, together, they can find a way out.

My teen science fiction story, Dear Tiger: I Miss You , has been re-released. To celebrate, it will remain at 99c on Smashwords until Friday, February 9, 2018   “Dear Tiger, this has been the best day ever… but I lie.” Simone Michaels is in trouble, but she doesn’t know how deep. Her parents’ expedition has gone missing, and that she’s afraid she’ll go missing, too. Will she get the chance to see her mum and dad, again?

Last week saw a drop in hours spent at the desk as other commitments demanded more attention. It also saw a drop in my walking per day, and a continued cessation of language study and sketching. This week, I am working on bringing these back on line, even if it’s only to a small degree, even if it’s the last week of the school holidays, and real life needs a bit of attention. Progress was still made on all writing goal fronts—except the unspecified one to finish Babes in London , and I’m working towards clearing a day of desk space just for that. Here is the writing progress made in the past week:   Progress Overview: January 21-27, 2018 New words produced: 17,531 Outlines and Notes: 2,404 Words compiled: 0 Works completed: 2 (chapter books: 2) Works edited: 1 ( Reluctant Liaison ) Covers created: 4 ( Reluctant Liaison, Dear Tiger: I Miss You, Granny Finds a Gas Mask, Dear Tiger: I Don’t Think I’m Human Anymore ) Works published: 1 ( Reluctant Liaison ) Works release