CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

This week’s verse moves from  a sci-fantasy verse about a colony waiting its fate to a piece of social commentary about a terrorist incident that happened way back in 2004. It is taken from 365 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry released in 2015. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captive on International TV Eight men, paraded on international TV, like a half-dead sparrow allowed to flutter while its captor yowls, drawing the attention of the world. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 books2read.com/u/bxgyLd

This week’s short story takes us from the science fiction story of a pilot whose ship crashes through the vortex into another dimension to the fantasy tale of a very lucky servant. Welcome to Luck Among Servants . I’d always considered myself one of the lucky ones, lucky that the slavers had taken me and left my family, lucky to have found a master as kind as the one I had, just… lucky, so, when my master asked me to ride one of the many-legged spurline on an early morning errand, I considered myself lucky to have the honour. I never thought what it might be like when my luck ran out, and my master wasn’t around to intervene… Luck Among Servants is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: books2read.com/u/me0v99 . You can also find Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest free short story over on her blog: kriswrites.com . Why don't you go and check it out?

LAST WEEK, Tiger reveals he is being hunted by FedExplore. This week, Simone lets Tiger know that Odyssey are trying to get to him first. Chapter 6 Excerpt – Pass Phrase Hey Tiges     Wow! I really hope they pay you for the work you put in. I mean, I’m glad the captain didn’t put you out an airlock, but still… Also, Odyssey want you to stay put. They say they can get to you faster if you’re on-planet than running around in the stars-know-what ship, to the stars-know-where. Yes. I’m paraphrasing. They were nowhere near that polite. Look, by the time you get this, you’ll probably have shipped out, so I hope it gets to you soon, and doesn’t spend half a month hanging in some comms node before you find 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