CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

  This is the last day to purchase the e-version of The Expanding Universe Volume 10 . From the 7th, only the paperback version will be available. If you're interested in stories exploring whether mankind is alone in the universe, and the kind of company we might be keeping if we're not, then now's your chance...and if you're in the UK, or US, it's now at 99c. You can find it here: https://geni.us/TEU10

It's been a busy week, and only a fortnight since I left my day job. This has impacted me more than I thought it would, so bear with me as I work through it - by which I mean you will be seeing a lot more of me as a writer and YouTube creator, while I look for alternate work. However, since one major Life event is more than enough, and I'm already dealing with another two, let's get on with the real news. I've spent much of this month catching up on things I put to one side so I could work unpaid overtime in order to meet the demands of the day job. There was a lot of that, so in the last fortnight, I've done some catch-up. On the YouTube front, I finished processing, uploading and schedulng somewhere in the vicinity of 50 videos for the gaming channel, revamped my publishing schedule, and doubled down on catching up and getting ahead. I have also done more recording, as I work toward finishing some of my longer-running series, and moving into new ones, on both the ...

 Just a quick note to celebrate. The Expanding Universe, Volume 10, edited by Craig Martelle, has accepted my science-fiction short story, 'Six Degrees.' The anthology  is available for pre-order from Amazon, at this link: https://geni.us/TEU10 , and will release on September 9, 2024. In it you will also find stories from Craig Martelle , G. S. Jennsen , Andrew P. McGregor , J.C. Gemmell , Marie-Hélène Lebeault , Mark Henwick , Peter J. Foote , Steve Ruskin , J. Rawlinson , Nicholas Licalsi , J A Mortimore , Jay Veloso Batista , Robert G. Williscroft , A.C. Williams , John W. McIntire , Lawrence M. Schoen , T.D. Wilson , Jerry Shepard, and Alastair Mayer . What's the Anthology about? Explore the universe… with the 10th Volume of The Expanding Universe, a short-story collection to pique your interest and sharpen your mind. “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” Arthur C Clarke penned those words, and th...

There are 20 short stories in the latest volume of Craig Martelle’s The Expanding Universe anthologies. Today, with Craig's permission, we are taking a sneak peek at the start of my story, ‘Mothers’ . Here’s how it begins: ---------------------------------------------------------------- No warrior is so fierce as a mother with young; and, when mothers band together, enemies need beware. Talie watched the alien ship spin, a huge disk, looking continents wide, and she felt her heart sink. Somewhere, in that monstrosity, her little girl was hiding. Her little girl, who wouldn’t be anywhere near as afraid as she should be, and nowhere near as cautious as Talie would like. Her little girl, who would be quick to remind her that thirty-two wasn’t little, and that she had a child of her own—a bonafide ship-talker who had listened to her grandmother far too much, and, at ten, stowed away on an enemy troop carrier so she could make a difference where it mattered. Damm...

There are 20 short stories in the latest volume of Craig Martelle’s The Expanding Universe anthologies. Today, with his permission, we are taking a sneak peek at the start of Kevin McLaughlin’s story, ‘The Burden of Honor’. Here’s how it begins: ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sir Drake returns home to rally his people against an ancient enemy. But threats far closer threaten to turn his mission to ashes before he can even begin. The HMS Armistice broke out into normal space in a blaze of light. For a brief moment it was like a second sun flashed into being, then the light was gone. Transition from warp completed, the ship arced toward the nearby planet at high velocity. Sir David Drake stood at the ship’s helm, staring at the world below as it grew in the ship’s front window. It all looked green and blue from up here, but the place he was going wasn’t either of those colors. No, he was headed for the center of a massive grey spo...