CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

This week’s verse moves from an urban fantasy verse about the sphinx and Egyptian myth to a speculative verse about the future of April Fools Day. It is taken from Another 365 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry released in 2019. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Future of April Fools The second month of spring starts as a farce with jokes dressed up as real to bribe and bait, and tease the honest folk until the morning’s past, and fact is fact, and fiction has to wait. One would have thought this practice failed to make its way past the most modern centuries, that ‘neath another sun, it would not bake, and that falsified facts would simply cease. But this was not a practice eas’ly downed since laughter lives in each and ev’ry man and trickery in mankind’s heart abounds so travels time, and space and many lands On April First, must ...

This week’s short story takes us from a fantasy world where elven raiders ride spiders and ghosts are real , to a distant colonial world trying to break free from raiders. Welcome to The Starman's Arrival. Knocking over those crates of beer was a death sentence. I did it on purpose, in front of everyone, and then I did the only thing I could—I ran. I think I saved the starman. Now, the only way I’ll know, is if the supply ship comes in time to drive the raiders away—and I get back out of Blacklegs’ Forest alive. Wish me luck, okay? I’m gonna need it. The Starman's Arrival (Extract) He came in a shower of light, a beam that shot out from the orbiting starship and set him precisely in the centre of the town square. It was lucky the bandits shot him before he had fully formed; the round passed right through. His look of surprise, however, is etched, forever, on my memory. And then I screamed, and knocked over an entire rack of beer, shatteri...

LAST WEEK, Tiger told Simone he was on his way with help. This week, Simone and Delight are teaming up and planning on wreaking a little havoc. Chapter 7 (Extract) – Planning Troubles Dear Tiger Well, Delight and Haskell made it here safely—and so did the rest of their team. I don’t know what made the scientists think they could figure out a cure-all for the Queen-Bee effect without actually, you know, testing it? But they failed. Haskell’s acting just as weird as he did last time, and I’m already sick of apologising. Maybe you can work it out when you get here, or someone on your team? You know, someone who might actually know what they’re talking about. Either way, Delight isn’t impressed, but Gunny thinks it’s as funny as anything she’s ever seen—and we both know that oldster has seen a lot. Oh, yes, we woke her up. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The complete series is available as short, indiv...