CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

    I've decided to celebrate each release with a series of extracts that run for the month it's released in. This month saw the second edition of 366 Days of Flash Fiction released. Links to the collection can be found at Books2Read at: https://books2read.com/u/b6MrN0 . Today's extract is: Raptor Reprisal Written on October 17, 2015, for the March 6 entry of 366 Days of Flash Fiction , this steampunk piece takes us back to Tescher’s world, and the raptors. The kangaroos startled, bounding high over spinifex tussocks and scattering like the red dust before a storm. Overhead the cockatoos took up the alarm, launching themselves into a wheeling, diving cloud of screeching white. Below, the raptors exploded from cover, but they did not look like they were hunting; they looked like they were fleeing like everything else. We watched the ruckus from the cover of red granite boulders on top of a low hill. “You see ’im?” Mandu asked, pointing with his chin, his eyes ne...

This week’s short story takes us from the urban fantasy world of cross-dimensional elven politics and trolls to a steampunk fantasy story set in Australia with raptors and an overdue rendezvous. Welcome to The Rendezvous at the Raptor's Rest . When his flying ship, the Red Horizon, was shot down, Tescher told no-one he had a woman on board. Three years later, he returns to the ship wreck, and finds Marianna not only survived the crash, but left him a message. She found what she was looking for aboard his ship, and she’ll wait for him at the Raptor’s Rest, but once a year—tonight. Tight flying will get him there in time, but it will take more than that for him get clear of the underworld predators circling the criminal shores on which Marianna has landed. Rendezvous at the Raptor's Rest is available as a stand-alone novella-length short story at the following links: books2read.com/u/mqzDGe . You can also find Kristine Kathryn Rusch's latest free short story ...

Just to let you all know that the fifth book in my Otherworld Adventures series has been released on Smashwords in all formats , and that other platforms will shortly follow. Rocky Touches Down Ebook Cover Rocky Touches Down PoD Cover When Rocky finally reaches Tallona, he crash lands. The cargo pod carrying his beloved pony Tank is dropped in, and radio communications are lost with the colony and the space ship. To make matters worse, there is a pack of velociraptors nesting right near the crash site. With help a long way away, someone has to reach the horses and set them free, and the only way to stop his little sister from trying to do just that, is to go himself. Can Rocky sneak out of a dropship full of adults, reach the horses, and then get to the colony before the raptors eat him? With the help of the alien girl, Elita, he can only try. Rocky Touches Down is the fifth book in the Otherworld Adventures series, which is set around Rocky’s jo...

The cover for the fifth book in the Otherworld series has just been completed and approved. When Rocky finally reaches Tallona, he crash lands. The cargo pod carrying his beloved pony Tank are dropped in, and radio communications are lost with the colony and the space ship. To make matters worse, there is a pack of velociraptors nesting right near the crash site. With help a long way away, someone has to reach the horses and set them free, and the only way to stop his little sister from trying to do just that, is to go himself. Can Rocky sneak out of a dropship full of adults, reach the horses, and then get to the colony before the raptors eat him? With the help of the alien girl, Elita, he can only try. Rocky Touches Down is the fifth book in the Otherworld Adventures series, which is set around Rocky’s journey to the world of Tallona, where his parents will farm alongside the aliens who have asked them for help. While I originally thought this one would be the last b...

A response for a Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge . I keep forgetting how much I love the way these exercises ignite a creative spark. This week I rolled a d20 and got to set a story in a penal colony built by elvish astronauts. A thousand words isn't a lot of space to build a character, a history, and establish a setting, especially when you know nothing about it when you start. Now, I want to know a lot more, to explore this new universe of mine and see what other stories lie within. And this is why I love these challenges. This response, excluding the title, is exactly 1,000 words long, so come and meet Hasken: Hasken's Choice The first guard doubled over at 1800 hours. Dusk. According to one movie, ‘magic hour’. None of the inmates had heard of the movie, let alone seen it. If they had, they would have recognized old history – an entire species wiped out by the ingenuity of man. No wonder the elves had been angry. The dragons had been a trap – an elven trap,...