CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Blood and Iron has been incorporated into An Anthology of Blades . When a murderer follows the barbarian from one city to the next, he knows sorcery is afoot and that he must defeat it. With the help of his roguish friend, Stanislau, he begins his investigations. Blood and Iron is a short tale of sword and sorcery. It is available as a free read on this site or as part of An Anthology of Blades . First Page: Blood and Iron “The difference is not that he kills, but how and why he kills,” Stanislau said. “Every woman he touches. The only thing they have in common is you.” Haft knew where this conversation was going. He’d had it before. Next Stan would be telling him they had to leave another city and Haft had his eye on the prettiest wench yet. Stan did not know about her; Haft could keep his secrets better than the petty sneak gave him credit for. At least Haft did not have to make his living by sneaking. He only had to do that when wenching, sneaking and ...

Here are the books I've managed to read this month. Two that will become classics - if they haven't already -  and two that are already classics. Give them a whirl!

Here is my entry for this week's Flash Fiction Challenge from the terribleminds blog. Barring the title, it is exactly 1,000 words long. Blood and Iron “Every woman he touches. The only thing they have in common is you.” Haft knew Stan would tell him they had to leave and Haft had his eye on the prettiest wench yet. Stan did not know about her; Haft liked it that way. He glared at Stanislau. Stanislau was a tall man, dark-haired and bronze-eyed, handsome and smart enough to turn his hand to anything, but not smart enough to back down. “You know I’m right, Haft,” he said. Haft curled his lip in a snarl. He knew no such thing. They had left the last city because of the killings, and Haft now had a price on his head. “Haft will be blamed,” he said. “Like before.” The words rang like a truth, and the bar stilled. Stanislau looked surprised, and Haft suspected the sneak had known, but chosen not to share. He reached for the wine bottle, contemplating whether...

So, I’ve decided I might just have to make the time to play with the flash fiction challenge s Chuck Wendig posts on his terribleminds blog . They just look like too much fun to ignore any longer. This week we had to pick one word from three lists. I used a d10 for mine. From Column 1, I ended up with: Sword and Sorcery (so far, so good; it could have been ‘erotica’ or ‘body horror’ and then where would I have been?); From Column 2, I ended up with: Serial killer (not too bad, but I was secretly hoping for ‘dinosaurs’ or ‘insects’); From Column 3, I ended up with: Man Versus Himself (YIKES!!!) So, I rolled these at around 09:50 AEST on the 9 September 2012, and then I let it stew while I worked on a couple of other projects (I know I should ‘finish my shit’; I’m doing that, but I can’t do it by writing one thing at a time – sorry, it’s just not how I roll). Anyway, I wanted to make sure I avoided the clichés, the biggest one of these being the serial killer ending up...