CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

I finished going over the first 37,000 words of The Dockmaster , today—and then started the writing. Given today’s first words seem a bit boring, I decided to share one of pieces I edited that almost made me cry. In this extract, Tescha is shown her quarters in the sevarthin citadel: ---------------------------------------------------------------- The queen brushed an antenna across Tescha’s cheek, and turned away, her body guards forming a defensive perimeter around her, as she moved between rows of kashta grass that was close to flowering. Tescha did not need a mirror to know more pheromone dust glittered on her cheek, and she found she did not mind. She could not have hidden from the sevarthin, forever, and she did not like to live in fear. They could have kept her as their prisoner, while the queen pulled the information they needed from her head, and, while Tescha knew it was better for them to have it willingly, she could not find it in herself to resent it. ...

Today, apart from the usual end of month administration, some reading for another project, and the creation of a new cover, I spent reading over the existing words for an older project. With only one other project currently under way, it is time to up my game. Pending confirmation of any other projects, this novel marks the start of two projects running concurrently, with the occasional third, shorter work, thrown in. It will also be the first to be sacrificed for higher priorities, and then recommenced once those priorities pass. As I went over what I’d written – way back in 2015 – this reunion between Dockmaster Tescha and a very old acquaintance caught my eye: ---------------------------------------------------------------- They all waited as the queen surveyed them once more, Tescha just as curious about the reactions of those around her, as she was about the queen herself. When the gaze of those golden orbs rested on her, she raised her head, and gave the queen her ful...