CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

This week's flash fiction challenge over at Chuck Wendig's terribleminds blog involved randomly rolling two words and joining them together to become a title. We were allowed to add 'The' in front, if we wanted to. I rolled a '9' and a '1' and came out with 'apocalypse' and 'bride'. My first reaction was that I did not want to write a zombie story. I know it would have worked but... just 'no', okay? So, I ran the words together and the next thought that struck was that this would make a great name for a starship. And the story came from there. The Apocalypse Bride is 1,000 words long - excluding the the title. Enjoy :-) The Apocalypse Bride The Apocalypse Bride came down in a shower of star dust and meteor debris. She took the hit that would have set the world askew, and her fleet sisters did the rest. Her entire crew were snagged from orbit after sending her on her way. Most of the rescue ships even made it plane...

The latest Wendig Terribleminds Challenge revolved around an article in an on-line magazine. I thought of spiders, of moths, of beetles and, finally, I thought of fairy rings, and this is what I came up with. Enjoy: A Choice of Colour Shiloh saw the first tower ring as she stepped out onto the porch. The sight made her heart beat faster. She hadn’t counted on being found so soon. Glancing around, she breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing above the door. Nothing on the opposite lintel. Careful now, Shiloh looked down, butterflies stirring restlessly in her stomach, her toes instinctively curling away from the innocuous palisade of white in her front of her feet. That one had nearly worked. Taking a cautious step backward, Shiloh stood in the doorway, taking stock of the day. Grey, pre-dawn light softened the world outside, drawing long shadows on the red earth beyond her front porch. Cool air touched her skin, something to be relished before the sun rose and the air becam...

This week’s flash fiction challenge consisted of writing a story of 1,000 words or less that combined the theme ‘Love demands Sacrifice’ with two sub-genres randomly chosen from the list provided. Initial Thoughts: Out came the d10. First roll was a ‘9’, second roll a ‘4’. ‘9’ – Wuxia … What the…? I had never heard of wuxia. So, on top of a tight writing schedule, I now had to do some research, which will slow everything down. On the upside, I’m going to learn about a new genre, and that was always fun! ‘4’ – Urban Fantasy . Hah! I know what that one is… at least, I think I know what that one is. Maybe I should do a little bit of research on it as well, just to make sure. I mean, I used to think I knew what ‘sword-and-sorcery’ was, and when I checked that, I discovered I was only ‘almost’ right. I’d rather not be ‘almost right’. Theme – ‘Love demands sacrifice’. Well, this could turn out to be very depressing. I don’t like depressing; there’s so much that’s depressing i...