CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Last week we had a a piece of science fiction set in the oceans of our home world. This week, it’s an urban fantasy look at the war on drugs, and the illicit trade in fantasy creatures from the February 22nd entry in 365 Days of Flash Fiction . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Pixies Dance the Storm Dance The pixies danced in the stormlight. They danced with steps that shook with anger, making the leaves tremble and curl at their passing. They danced until their passage burnt a circle in the grass, and then they stopped and raised their hands to the sky. The dust runners didn’t stand a chance, but at least the local chieftain thought enough of me to warn the strike force away from the warehouse. We couldn’t stop them, but we could bear witness. What the dust runners had done to the rest of their clan, deserved something of what they wreaked, and the pixies could not let the remnants of those unicorns run through the city u

This week’s verse moves from science fiction to fantasy, and comes in an experimental 'quinku' form. It is taken from Another 365 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry to be released later in the year, once both collection and cover are complete. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dragons in Mourning Dragons rise wings beating thunder drums on drums Dragons rise scales reflecting light sunrise comes Dragons rise flaming as they soar challenging Dragons rise message loud and clear avenging Dragons rise circling o’er and near a flame-wreathed bier ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can find the first two poetry collections at the links below - although there are plans to reissue them with more genre-appropriate covers in the future. The third collection will be released later in the year. books2read.com/u/mVLQZb b

This week’s short story takes us from a summer camp set on a world far, far away to the moon, which is meant to be a refuge from the now-ravaged Earth. Welcome to Bid the Moon Goodbye.   When Jervis’s son has a melt-down at school, and takes on partial wolf form, it’s just a normal family crisis, but when the nurse warns that anti-Lupine activists have the family’s name on a hit-list, Jervis needs to get them off the moon—and fast. The only question is how—and the only way to find an answer is to find a helpful spacer in the best pizza bar on Lunar One… and then hope there’s a ship with room for three. Bid the Moon Goodbye is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: books2read.com/u/mvYGA8

LAST WEEK, Simone opened her package, and Book 1 ended. This week, we begin Book 2 and discover where Simone ended up. Chapter 1 Excerpt – Bubble Bound Dear Tiger So, they let me send my last letter—all properly decontaminated and all—and I guess you might be worried. It was really dumb of me to keep those jars. Mum and dad said there was this guy who sent a whole bunch of stuff out in other people’s names. Some dude from another corporation. He didn’t make it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The complete series is available as short, individual ebooks, and will become available as an omnibus, later this year. In the meantime, you can find them on this blog, until one week after the last chapter in the last book of the series has been posted, at which point this series will be taken down, and a new series serialised on site. books2read.com/u/4Awrze books2read.com/u/mgrxdR