CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

As with the books read this month, I didn't get to read a lot of bloggery. Here are the few I got to: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/08/18/polling-your-intestinal-flora-how-a-writer-cultivates-instinct/ http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/08/17/progress-report-penmonkeys/ http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/08/15/flash-fiction-challenge-color-title-challenge/ http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/08/09/in-which-amazon-calls-you-to-defend-the-realm/ You might notice a theme here, but, hey, there are some days when I just need to be challenged, or to gather courage, and this is one of the first places I go.

Terribleminds Flash Fiction Challenge Response: The Invisible Bookshop Very excited to be able to take part in the first terribleminds flash fiction challenge of the year. Written on January 13, 2014, for the terribleminds flash fiction challenge due midday, January 17, 2014, this piece explores more of my Otherworld setting. I’m beginning to think, this setting and the pixie-dust setting might be one and the same. I’ll write some more to work it out. We had to randomly roll two words, which made up our title, and then we had 1,000 words in which to write a story. This piece is exactly 1,000 words long. The invisible bookshop stood on the corner of Pattinson and Lane. It was not a secretive place, tucked away in an alley or down a side-street. It stood proudly where all could see—or where all would be able to see, if the shop itself was visible. Most of the time, it looked like a big, blank corner of wall, with no windows and no door. I loved the place. As if ...

And here is the result of this week's terribleminds' flash fiction challenge - the first line is from David Novack's entry to last week's challenge . Enjoy!   The Dinabranki in Defeat “Well,” Jimmy muttered, “it was clearly a mistake picking this room to piss in.” He’d give them this: they hadn’t taken the safeties off until he’d closed the door behind him—and then a volley of clicks had clattered around the room. Add the sudden presence of a large, square barrel pressed against his skull, and Jimmy had very nearly wet himself. It was clearly a mistake to have come in here at all, but Jimmy hadn’t been planning on pissing when he’d tickled the lock and slipped quickly inside. Jimmy had been planning on finding out exactly what the dinabranki were hiding behind their corporate front, what interest they had on a colony world so distant from their own. He looked over his shoulder, saw old-fashioned side arms, and well-armoured soldiers, and slowly turned....

Last week's flash fiction challenge over at the terribleminds blog was to write a 15-words-or-less opening line. I missed that by making the mistake of putting it off until later. My bad. This week, however, the challenge is to select one of the 15-words-or-less opening lines and write a 1,000-word-or-less piece of flash fiction. Now don't getting all excited on me; I haven't finished it yet... actually, I haven't started it BUT I have, at last selected an opening line. Of the five pages worth of opening lines, there were a few that were clearly over the limit, and a number that didn't grab my creative conscious by what passes for its throat... and there were a number of opening lines that missed the throat but caught my attention. My first pass brought the number of lines down to 20 written by: Arwa Stone , mikepaul , Jera , Tony Taylor , Kevin George , Alecia Millar , thatcalamity , Jess , jebdarsh , JD , Julia , Brennan , Gabe K , feralbulb , Sean Tadsen ...

This week's flash fiction challenge over at Chuck Wendig's Terribleminds Blog is to show the first day's writing for NaNoWriMo. I can't join in because I'm not NaNoing this year, due to a bunch of other commitments, but there are a bunch of folk who are. If you'd like to check them out, head on over to Flash Fiction Challenge 1,667 . You might also like to check out the finalists and winners of the Horror in Three Sentences challenge from a few weeks' back. You can find that at Horror in Three Sentences: My Faves and the Winners. Enjoy!

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...

This week, we had to randomly roll a conflict and centre our story around it. I rolled 'dark secret revealed' and this is what came out. Once again, I had no idea what to write when I sat down to write this, but once the first sentence had arrived, the story followed. No Secret Safe The first secret was revealed at dawn. Sigrun sweated, hearing her littlest sister deliver it to her father’s fiercest friend and most deadly foe, felt her stomach grow cold. Now Valgerd had what he needed. Sigrun stood a jug of mead on the tray. She did not know when her father and Valgerd’s friendship had soured; she only knew it had. She could mark the day Heldar started keeping secrets from his friend. They had hoped, but not known Ieitha would find her gift so soon, or that she would be alone when she revealed the vital thread. Sigrun shivered as Ieitha’s piping tones filled the hall. “The one you seek. She hides in shadow, but revels in the light. She will put a torch to t...