CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

This week’s verse moves from  a Crapsey cinquain about vampires to a poem I wrote while in university. It is taken from 366 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry released in 2016. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------   To the Writers of the Mandatory Readings Theory schmeory give my head a break. I don’t need your Realism, or Constructivism for God’s sake! Literature schmiterature from which one do I partake? Each one is so tempting, what’s not to love or hate? And for those writers who are concise, whose words are clear and sharp, I lend those bright, rare creatures a place within my heart. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can find the first two poetry collections at the links below - although there are plans to reissue them with more...

This week’s short story takes us from the fantasy world of Tallameera and what happens when a world's deities take an active interest in their world to a tale of elves, dragons, bloodlines, and dragon pacts. Welcome to Gulvane & the Dragon . Preparing for a new era in his life, the wizard Gulvane walks the corridors of his mind, remembering the eras locked behind three doors. Forester, Fighter, Assassin. Behind each door lie the memories and skills of who and what he used to be, inaccessible, unless he chose to return to the professions he had left. Uncertain of where his life will lead him, or of what he will become, Gulvane wakes to find a dragon standing over his bed. Now, what would a creature such as that want with an elf like himself? Gulvane & the Dragon is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: https://www.amazon.com/Gulvane-Dragon-Tales-Tzamesch-Simpson-ebook/dp/B00D18OLJO/ . You can also find Kristine Kathryn Rusch's la...

LAST WEEK, Tiger revealed he knew where Simone's parents and old classmate were. T his week, Simone reveals that the company has discovered her psi abilities and is monitoring her with a psi of their own. Chapter 9 Excerpt –Visits from the Psi Dear TT, I would love to dance with you, but I’m in trouble. I couldn’t hide the mind-reading from the company psi. I’m not sure I could hide anything from her. She came with the doctors, and I was curious. I mean, I could hear the other doctors coming down the corridor, but I couldn’t hear her. I could tell she was there. She was this presence. I tried to reach out and touch her mind, but it was like her mind wasn’t there. There were no thoughts. I couldn’t even sense emotion. I’m sorry if this is coming as a bit of a surprise to you, Tiges, but I didn’t want to write about it. Writing about it made it all too real, and who wants to make being this kind of different real, right? ---------------...

The next cover for Trading by Firelight , the fourth book in The Magic Beneath Paris series was approved late last week. Trading by Firelight will be released Thursday, April 18, ET, U.S. time. Kearick, Marsh’s former boss, is in league with the raiders, and he’s fled to another of the Four Caverns. With Roeglin, Gustav and her usual team of troublemakers, Marsh pursues him from Kerrenin’s Ledge to a waystation on the edge of the Devastation that used to be Paris... only to find he’s already gone. Before they can chase him further, the team must save the waystation, discover the fate of an overdue caravan, and survive the tunnels leading to Dimanche. Can the team survive the dangers of the surface world and an increasingly neglected trade tunnel to reach the settlement, before Kearick sells it out to the raiders?