CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

I haven't been very active in any of my social media channels for the last couple of months, so it's probably time for a quick update on where things are at. Firstly the good news regards publishing. I had a short story accepted into the latest volume of The Expanding Universe, Volume 11 . This is a collection of science-fiction exploration where stories consider the idea that we are not alone in the universe, and contemplate what other entities might share our space. You can find an Amazon link to it here:  https://geni.us/ TEU11 AND The new edition of Stiletto's Luck , a dark fantasy short story about an eternal war, released today, and you can find it at one of the links here on Books2Read : https://books2read.com/u/bwRZG9 Secondly, progress: The following projects are edited and awaiting formatting prior to upload for pre-release: Stand-Alone Short Stories:  The Songster and the Pirates  (Ed.2) Jacob's Vision  (Ed.2) Peace Flower  (Ed.2) Nurse  (Ed.1) T...

...the good news is that I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. The year has been a bit turbulent, with a lot of Life events, leading, as they do, to Life changes. I have written more work-for-hire than I planned, in order to cover an unexpected employment shift, and my parents have both been very sick in the last few months, although one is now recovering as well as can be expected, and the other is doing okay despite being in palliative care. These events and the time taken to look for a more regular day job, have impacted my own writing, which slowed to a complete stop, even though I've completed four joint projects and am working on a fifth. As well as that, I'm also sure those of you who've been following my YouTube channels have seen the effects of these changes, there, as well. Don't worry; we're working to change that, and you'll see some of those changes this month, one of which will involve this blog, which has been long neglected and will ...

Yesterday saw the end of the first month of a brand new year, and I have been working hard on the writer side of things. Yes, some gaming happened, too, but mostly the focus was on writing, as I have some books I'd like to see released this year. So, what did I get up to, you ask? Well, it certainly wasn't mischief...or not much of that, anyway. Writing Ghost writing took up a lot of my time, and I completed 129,690 words across multiple projects. It was a LOT, but buying a house and moving interstate late last year coupled with two week-long reactions to my covid vaccinations slowed me up some, so this took priority. Work on The Undiscovered , the third novel in the Strays of Lunar One series , recommenced very late in the month and received a full revision. Writing commences this month. Work on A Year of Practicing Poetry, the first book in my Playing with Words series commenced with a revision of what I already had and 1,427 words. Editing continued on Another 365 Days of ...

Last week was a slow week for writing. For one thing, I was trying to balance getting better with resting, and, for another, I’d fallen behind on my blog. The most important tasks, however, were updating my royalty records for annual tax visit with the accountant, finalising a submissions for an anthology and a competition, submitting other work to another market, trying to rejig a writing schedule gone wayward due to a month and a half of illness, and writing a guest blog—more on that later. I also spent a lot of time sleeping, or on social media, but that was mainly due to not feeling well enough to focus on anything else. So, a slow week. To give you an idea, I have already written more ‘new words’, in the first three days of July, than all the words tallied below—and I’m starting to feel better, but that’s next week story. In the meantime, here is what was achieved last week: Progress: June 24-30, 2018 New words produced: 5,847 Outlines and Notes: 1,726 Words ...

Yeah, I know, right? You’all thought I was already a writer. Well, so did I, but I was a writer who had to have a day job, who wasn’t allowed to devote herself to being a writer full-time and so I never felt quite real. See, and that’s wrong. Because I was a writer. I wrote with the idea of making a living from it, but I came to realise that I also wrote with the knowledge that I would never be allowed to go full time, that making a living from it was a long way away, even unlikely, and then that wasn’t true any more. In the last six months, I’ve had to come to grips with some fairly major changes, both to things I thought I knew, and to personal circumstances, and that hasn’t been easy. For one thing, I lost my job. Actually, I was forced to choose between accepting having working conditions withheld and keeping my job, or completing the degree I had started with the permission and encouragement of my boss. “We not only support this kind of thing,” he’d said, “but we encourage ...

So, a lot has happened in the last few weeks, and I'm now in the middle of some pretty heavy exam prep. The short version? I now have a lot more time to spend with the family and to write and study. My son became ill, and recovered, but he gave us a fright. I also have four assessments/exams starting in four days' time. Which brings me to NaNoWriMo... I know, crazy, right? Why put myself under the pressure of writing 50,000 words in what will be around 15 days, when I'm under enough pressure already? Because I don't have to start until after exams, because I don't have to succeed, because I wanted to have a reason to focus on one project while I got back into the swing of writing, because I write to relax, because I'll need a break from spring cleaning and gardening, and because 3,500 words a day isn't that much, when there's little else on. So, no pressure at all. Anyway, that's it in a nutshell. I'll post more on the 13th or 14th of Novembe...