CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Today ( March 29, 2026 (PT)  is the last day you can pick up the ebook version of  Trading into Shadow,  the first book in the Magic Below Paris series, for FREE. If you're looking for life after a different kind of apocalypse, with  hyper-intelligent cats, nanite-abilities that manifest as magic, and the ability to communicate mind to mind, then why not give it a try. You can find it here:  https://books2read.com/u/3GnYgd      

  It’s May 16, for those of us on the east coast of the O.Z. and this is my mid-day break and I’m looking back and celebrating the May milestones I’ve already hit for this challenge. To be fair, my private goal was 4k/day, so, knowing Life has been kicking my backside lately, I halved it to 2k/day. This is how the first seven days of the challenge went.   May 1 Started the challenge with a bang, and did 50% more than needed. Happy with that. Hit the 1k word milestone, and surpassed it. Day Total: 3,188; Month Total: 3,188   May 2 Not so good for words. Edited a novel, celebrated an acceptance, and updated my Royal Road and YouTube. Day Total: 122; Month Total: 3,310   May 3 Short on word quota, but made a submission, and focused on getting my YouTube up to date…again. Day Total: 1,224, Month Total: 4,534 May 4 Do not ask me what happened. I am working through a bit of depression and chose today to focus on researching a game…or hiding in...

This week’s short story takes us from a science fiction crime-fighting adventure to banshees in space. Welcome to Screams for the Dying . People die, when I scream. They were going to die anyway, and their deaths cannot be averted. It makes me afraid to make friends. It makes me happy to work alone. even when I’m part of a team. We are the elite, bounty hunters and protectors, on permanent assignment. And there are times when I get to save a life, and prevent a death, instead of just announcing tragedy. For the child’s sake, I hope this is one of them. Screams for the Dying is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: https://www.amazon.com/Screams-Dying-C-M-Simpson-ebook/dp/B009C048XO/ . You can also find Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest free short story over on her blog: kriswrites.com . Why don't you go and check it out?

This week’s verse moves from  a futuristic urban fantasy horror verse to a sci-fantasy verse about a new colony awaiting its fate. It is taken from 366 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry released in 2016. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------   Waiting for Judgement Here we stand, the land sweeps away, falls from the mountains, becomes the plains. The ragged plumes rise of the forested hills that descend to the beach front, where the waves never still. We wait for the judgement. It’s not ours to say if the planet can be home to us, or if we’re to be sent away. That decision lies with the creatures here before, the dragons who came to our aid, who answered when we called. So we wait for their judgment, while the pirate ship’s hot corpse smokes, and slowly blackens, a memorial of sorts to the first piece of teamwork...

This week’s short story takes us from a world of dragons, wizards and dragon pacts to a science fiction story of princes, princesses, trolls and true love. Welcome to Hammer & the Trolls . In a world where trolls can invade a castle from the inside, an interstellar prince finds he’s not the only one who can fire a sun-cannon, and the princess discovers she isn’t the only one who needs rescuing. Hammer & the Trolls is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: books2read.com/u/b5EeRb . You can also find Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest free short story over on her blog: kriswrites.com . Why don't you go and check it out?

Also, good news! Today sees the release of my latest short story, The Songster & the Pirates. You can find it at: Amazon , Kobo , Smashwords , DriveThruFiction, and via links on Books2Read , as well as Smashwords , Kobo and Draft2Digital distribution. If you like to mix your mythological creatures with your space opera, then you might like this story, too. Once a space merc, now a singer, Taran keeps her identity as a siren secret. When spacewolves join the audience at her current gig, she knows what they’re looking for. The only question is can she slip away, before the wolves and her past can catch up with her? And can she kick herself free, if they do?