CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

March brought change. I started setting goals, again. I started setting writing goals…and not just publishing goals. I’m still ‘failing’ a lot, but I’m finding where my limits are, and learning to allow time for the unexpected. February allowed me get ahead on the content creation schedule that I could begin the pivot to a writing focus…but not far enough, as I discovered. Goals for March 2026, Week 1, ending March 7, 2026   Write 1 short story submission for a new magazine market; Publish the next novel prior to its release date; and Maintain content creation schedule Goals Completed March 2026, Week 1, ending March 7, 2026 Not begun;   Book 3 published with one week to spare;   Book 4 edited and formatted to prenuke stage;   Content creation schedule maintained. Other Factors: Care and medical appointments for sick family members, job-seeker commitments, and ADOS testing took around 20 hours out of the week, either due to the face-time needed, or becaus...

  It’s been awhile. I’ll make no excuses, but will acknowledge that the ongoing Life changes are making it hard to focus and establish any sort of routine. Progress was as follows: 1. Re-establish writing habit: Partially achieved, although publishing progresses 2. Establish exercise habit: Not achieved, life, illness and multiple medical appointments 3. Alter dietary habits: achieved 4. Sleep habits: not achieved: Life, and the need to get things done overrode commonsense and planning; 5. Back-list publication: progressing: Static: 3/20 short stories published, 1/8 novels in formatting; 6. Progress on outstanding series: – publishing takes precedence; 7. Establishment of new projects: publishing takes precedence; 8. Maintain 2 gameplay videos/day release: Some catch-up and forward planning achieved, to whit: 122 videos recorded, 52 videos edited, 123 videos formatted, 120 videos uploaded, 114 videos published 9. Finalize recording for gameplay series: 1 se...

Progress is as follows: 1. Re-establish writing habit: not established 2. Establish exercise habit: establishing: moved from exercising every off day to 2 days exercise, 1 day rest; 3. Alter dietary habits: establishing: coffee at 1/day, water increased, portion-size decreased; 4. Sleep habits: not established, struggling – family routine variations are creating an additional challenge; 5. Back-list publication: progressing: 3/20 short stories published, 1/8 novels in formatting; 6. Progress on outstanding series: not yet begun – publishing takes precedence; 7. Establishment of new projects: projects still in planning stages; 8. Maintain 2 gameplay videos/day release: next week’s videos recorded and in editing phase 9. Finalize recording for gameplay series: 1 series in progress, approximately 67-81 episodes remaining. Additional Completions: Given some of the complications I have needed to deal with recently, and the need to ameliorate any future impact th...

With the rewrite for Dark God's Rise completed - just yesterday, I started on the third book for this trilogy, Dark God's Demise . Words for the day: 8,027. Last words for the day, below. Dark God's Demise (words ending Day 1): The intruder slipped a second blade from somewhere in the suit she wore. She threw it, putting the barbarian off his stroke, as he stepped sideways to avoid its flight, and followed her advantage with a lunge that left her exposed to Grunwol’s off-hand blade. He struck, trying to make it count. His opponent’s build was slight. One truly good hit would put her out of the fight. He heard his blade crunch against bone as the woman gasped. Her eyes flashed wide for a moment, then they narrowed. She barely flinched as he pulled the blade free, and then she laughed, watching as the Northman stepped back, raising his sword for a second strike. Her voice rang high and free, bouncing off the portico’s walls, and giving Grunwol reason to pause. Withi...

Have you ever wondered what a writer does with their time? Or thought how lucky a writer was to just have to jot down a few words each day before getting some time off? Well, here's a really brief overview of what this writer's week looked like, last week. I'm pretty happy with it, in that it was fairly busy and quite productive. I completed a large work-for-hire project, finished the second book in the Strays of Lunar One series (which ended up being 20,000 words longer than expected), started a short story  for my next project, that decided it was going to be a young adult science-fiction-fantasy novel, and then started a second short story that agreed to remain a short story (for which I am grateful). I also recorded a mix of game-play, writer-at-work, and writer-reads-the-first-chapter videos, which will need to be processed and scheduled, this week, and did some research on other games, and some more research on the background needed for my next work-for-hire and pers...