CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

So, after a midnight finish to the writing and research, yesterday, I slept until seven, and then had housework to catch up on. I think I managed a few hundred words on the novel, before heading up to Sydney on an errand. We left at 13:00, and got back at around 20:00. Needless to say, after cooking dinner, and putting the podling to bed, I am knackered. About the last thing I wanted to do in the email round-up was to get my head around yet another new app because my team had decided that was the only way all players could be kept informed for an event, regardless of how they felt about it. So, yay... I get to learn another skill... I guess. Anyway, highlight of the day was the sunset coming back from Sydney. It lifted my spirits. Let's hope it lifts yours, too. And there was rain! Made my day. Here's hoping your days ended just as well. Take care out there - and stay safe.

Short stories - until recently, they were the place new writers were told to cut their writing teeth, and make their writing debuts. In some circles, this is still true. The idea is that the process of searching out, writing for, and submitting to a short story market is a good way for writers - and all writers, not just new ones - to develop the writing habits and story-telling skills that will carry them through their writing careers. In many ways, this 'cracking the short story market' was seen as a vital apprenticeship in a writer's journey. With the coming of independent publishing, many newer (and successful) writers have bypassed the short story phase, and skipped ahead to write, and publish, their first novel.Some of the older hands would argue that skipping this apprenticeship stage has had obvious results in the resulting quality of independently published books. Others will point out that writing a short story, and writing a novel, are two different specialis...

Yeah, everyone gets down. Sometimes the words come, and sometimes they don't. This one, I'll put in the next poetry collection, even though it's neither fantasy, nor science fiction - or anything in between. All and Nothing I am the rage of the mountain the bitter cold of the snow I have fallen from the great clouds flowed to the rivers below been drawn from the oceans as vapour the nothing mist filling all become the thunderhead by the great peaks been the thunder’s rumble, the lightning’s ball I am the mutter of storm clouds all noise but of substance none I am the cold of the shadow the slow-blooming warmth of the sun I am the intangible, the unseen and oft-heard like snow’s cold, and sunshine’s warmth a presence sensed more than felt, and oft negated and ignored.   Peace, fellow sentients - and may your day be blessed, and your mind at ease. And, if you're curious about my earlier forays into verse, you can find ...

Harper & the Unicorn released on October 5, 2018. It is set in the pixie dust world setting, and comes before the short story Harper’s Choice , which features the same character. What’s it About? When Harper goes after a lone unicorn without back-up she’s breaking every rule, and none. The only questions are: will her partner get to her before things go totally to pieces, and exactly how much havoc can one lone unicorn and a P.O.S. officer create before back-up arrives? Here are the first 500 words of that story: Harper & the Unicorn First 500 Words Today, I sat in the old gum tree, looking at the ground below. A footpath left a concrete barrier between the edge of the road and the sparse, dry grass beneath me. I’d been sitting there for almost an hour when I finally saw what I’d been waiting for—a unicorn, trotting happily down the middle of the road, its hooves tap, tap, tapping on the dotted centre line. There you are, I thought, but I did not say i...

October began with a journey. After spending a week with my parents we were returning home, a fifteen hour journey, which we navigated safely. It was good to be home, and I set to work, trying to get as much done as possible before we celebrated a family birthday at the end of the week. Here, in spite of last week being a 6-day week, and in spite of spending a day travelling (and adding to my list of places to return to), is what was achieved in the first week of October 2018: Progress: October 1-6, 2018 New words produced: 27,591 Outlines and Notes: 5,676 Words compiled: 0 Works completed: 2 (submission stories) Works edited: 1 ( Harper & the Unicorn ) Covers created: 0 Works formatted: 1 ( Harper & the Unicorn ) Works published: 1 ( Harper & the Unicorn ) Works released: 1 ( Harper & the Unicorn ) Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 1 Bloggery: 3,654 Hours at Desk—October 1-6: 47 hou...