CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Most of you know I like to work on my own projects, but what you may not know is that I like working on things with other authors, too. So, when the opportunity arose to submit a short story for Craig Martelle’s latest TheExpanding Universe anthology , I jumped at it—and Craig liked it enough to include it with stories by: himself , Jonathan P. Brazee , David VanDyke , Michael Campling , Terry Mixon , Yudhanjaya Wijeratne & R.R. Virdi , Bill Patterson , Kevin McLaughlin , P.R. Adams , Kayelle Allen , Drew Avera , Justin Bell , David R. Bernstein , Timothy Ellis , Lyn Forester , Nathan Mutch , J.L. Stowers , Jenetta Penner , and David J. VanBergen Jr ... I am honoured. You can find these authors via the links above, and their work on Amazon, and you can find the previous The Expanding Universe anthologies in paperback, at the links below: The Expanding Universe #4 releases ten days from now, on September 17, 2018, (United States time) and will soon be available for pre-...

Today, I tried to focus on the commitments I’d made outside myself. It kept me busy most of the day—well, that, and being a mummy, and a daughter, both of which are more important than the words—so today’s first words are down a little later than I'd like, and I’ve only just reached the minimum 3,000 words on the focus project. Yesterday’s family news was updated, today, and it didn’t get any better. When I can talk about it, I will, but that’s not happening, just yet. In the meantime, the words give me shelter, as they always have, and today, despite being written late in the day (or, perhaps because of it) they came quickly and well. Today’s first words find Cutter in the middle of the job Mack ‘briefed’ her on, yesterday. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The boy was good, so I guessed it would only be a matter of time before they wet-wired someone in to go hunt him down. I sure as shit hoped Tens would be on-line to help him out by t...

Yesterday was a slow day for the words. I was distracted, and not very disciplined about not letting the business side of things interfere with the writing side of things, and, even though I managed to work 1,000 words an hour, it was difficult. You get days like that, as a writer; the trick is to keep working, but let yourself take frequent short breaks, and come back to it. The words get done, and so do other things, and you don’t hate yourself for not being a super-hero, later on. Anyway, I had almost reached 5,000 words by the afternoon, and was on track to reach my 7,000-word goal by shortly after dinner, when my father rang with some really not-so-great family news, and I had to change to track to deal with the implications of that. Family has to come first. Now, I’m still dealing with those implications, and will be for some time to come, but the writing continues, albeit with a slight schedule change, and an understanding that I'm going to need to priorities tasks tha...

There are some days when you realise that the thing that’s worked for you for countless books before, just isn’t going to work for the projects you’re working on. Today was one of those days. Usually I can work between three and four projects simultaneously along a timeline, but I’ve struggled to do that over the last week, and I realised today was going to be another day where I wasn’t going to be able to flip between the two—so I tried something different. The theory is this: If you write 3,000 words a day for 30 days, you can complete the draft for a 90,000-word novel in a month. If you do this for two projects, you can finish up with two novels at the end of a month, AND if you put down a thousand words a day on something else, you can get short stories and part of another novel done in that timeframe, as well. This is true. I’ve done it, before, and was just starting to make a habit of the single novel a month, when June arrived, and I was incredibly sick. I’d almost gotten ...

Today’s words started okay, but were interrupted by the school-run madness, and a walk, so I’m only just getting back to them. Here are the first words from this morning… Honestly, there are some days when I think Cutter has a death wish. ---------------------------------------------------------------- “Answer my question!” barked out with enough force to make me jump. I swallowed down a knot of nerves, and felt Mack inside my head. This time, he was looking through my eyes, and listening with my ears, pulling the data straight from my senses and the implant record—and I was pretty damned sure he was transferring them straight to the screen, too, goddammit! I didn’t have time protest. I’d spent too long in my head, and Varian nudged me. “You were asked a question.” Again, that perfect Gal, and I realised the captain was speaking it, too. Inside my head, I could feel Mack holding his breath, and couldn’t resist the spike of mischief that ran through me. Before Mack, or...

When I designed the cover for this novel, I put in a tentative series title. Today, I realised ex actly how much I needed that. The story is complex and I hadn’t realised just how much. This will definitely be a series, and I entered the plotting stage, to day. If you’re wondering what the ETA will be, I have another project that will replace this one, if it is approved. If that project is approved, then I’ll be looking at around 9 months for that series, during which there will be minimal writing on this one. If the other project falls through, then the main Dockmaster series will take around six months to write, once I have the outline sorted—which should be by the end of the week. Either way, unless the other project is approved earlier than expected, this novel will be complete by the end of the month, and should release at around the same time as Mack ‘n’ Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9 , which I’m also writing, right now. ----------------------------------------------------------...