CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

After two years of writing flash fiction surrounding Joss Cutter (the first-person narrator) and Mack, I finally found the story of how they first met. What I didn't expect was to find that Odyssey also featured in the way Joss started out... or that they had a much darker side. The novel was supposed to be the development of a different novel idea, but became its own beast, pushing the original novel in the position of Book 2, and I knew I had a trilogy on my hands. At the end, though, I found a fourth book, and a short story. Plans are to now complete the other three books in the series, and try for an anthology of the short stories and flash before year's end, with all of them coming in around 90k... nothing like aiming high, right?

Happy to say that my science fiction short story, Cloud Door , has just been released as a stand-alone ebook. It's available from Smashwords, DriveThruFiction, and Amazon, and via Draft2Digital distribution, and will be included in the collection of 2017's short work due to be released mid- to late- next year. Cloud Door is a precursor to two novels set in the Mack 'n' Me universe: Mack 'n' Me and Arach . So, we’ve done this job, and I’m checking our tails are clear, and I find they’re not—and then I find the only way to kick clear is to find the Cloud Door. Only trouble is the Cloud Door’s a legend, and Mack? Well, he’s not too fond of chasing legends. Fortunately, this one’s a no-brainer: we want to live, and that’s got to be enough to make anyone chase a legend, right?

Last week, I created four covers, released one short story, and put three other short stories up for pre-release ordering. It was pretty busy, and not a lot of writing got done, but if you don't publish what you write, you'll never find your readers. These are the stories now available for order, or download: Available Now: When Melange feels the pull of utter dread emanating from a road train parked at a rest stop near her home, she investigates. She had no intention of being trapped in the cab on the driver’s unexpected return, nor of being stuck in the truck when he is murdered during the first delivery. But she can’t stay there. She’s discovered the prisoners that were the source of the dread, and the trolls are coming to take them away. With time running short, she must find a way to avoid capture, and summon help, and that means getting past the troll and humans standing guard. Available for Pre-Order; Release Date: January 21, 2017: It was meant to b...

The first cover of the year is one for a short story to be released November 3, 2017. It's a science fiction story set in the universe of Mack and Me, which may or may not yet be connected to the universe of Miss Delight and Odyssey. So, we’ve done this job, and I’m checking our tails are clear, and I find they’re not—and then I find the only way to kick clear is to find the Cloud Door. Only trouble is the Cloud Door’s a legend, and Mack? Well, he’s not too fond of chasing legends. Fortunately, this one’s a no-brainer: we want to live, and that’s got to be enough to make anyone chase a legend, right?