CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

 Now that all the individual titles in the Mack 'n' Me 'n' Odyssey series are available for purchase or pre-order, I'm concentrating on getting the omnibus collections out for those of you who like to pick up your series in sections or all at once. There will be three collections: one for Books 1-3 ( Origins, Blaedergil's Host, and Arach ) , one for Books 4-6 ( The Transporter's Favor, Wolves of Alpha 9, and Diplomacy 101 ), and one containing all 6 books. While the first two collections will be available in ebook form on all platforms, I'm still deciding whether this will be the case for the 6-book collection, which may be available on all platforms except Amazon, due to some of the restrictions in place there. I need to think on that some more. This First Collection - What's Changed? The first collection, Mack 'n' Me: Odyssey Omnibus #1 , gathers the first three titles - Origins, Blaedergil's Host, and Arach - under one title , a...

The second edition of Mack 'n' Me: Blaedergil's Host released on January 20, and is now available once more. What's changed? Story-wise, not a lot. The book has had a re-edit and received a new cover (courtesy of Moonchild Ljilja at Fantasy Book Design ) and new front and back matter, ensuring it gives a solid base for the stories that follow. What's the Series About? I'd like to say the entire series is about persistence when everything goes wrong...and the hope that, if you continue trying, something will finally go right, but my readers tell me it reminds me of a dysfunctional Firefly - and Heaven knows that crew was dysfunctional enough! - or that its kinda like grim-dark in space - and I'm not sure it's really that dark, but I'll take their word for it. In short, it's a dark, paramilitary, action-adventure science-fiction novel set in a far-distant, and probably alternate, future where a small mercenary company tries to navigate it...

This week’s verse moves from a mixed-language poem based on an Indonesian folk tale to a science fiction (or possibly fantasy) verse about some far-flung moonshine makers. It is taken from Another 365 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry released in 2019. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Badger's Blend If you live in the hollow by the side of the hill, beware of the badgers and their dodgy still. Beware, I say, of their invitation to come and try their home libation. It’s potent as the venom from the creeping carack, or the sliding slon, and deadly to all that enables sense, once the badger brothers start to dance. Don’t be fooled by honeyed words, by human form, by passions stirred, by the products of their home-made still. They’ll thieve affection, and your will, until, beneath thatched roof, or moon, you will succumb to how...