CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Last week's bout of flu continued to plague the household, and led to more disruptions to the work schedule, but family had to come first, and I had to undertake some self-care...apparently sleep is important to producing words, among other things. We had more medical appointments, some scheduled, others due to a need for medical certificates for missed days of schooling, and one because I'd been sick for a week, and decided I should get it checked. Writing still got done, but video production dropped due to a sore throat and difficulties in focus. Altered taskings to suit. Goals for March 2026, Week 3, ending March 21, 2026 Write 1 short story submission for a second new magazine market;   Publish Book 4 a week ahead of schedule;   Maintain content creation schedule;   And start to learn marketing. Goals Completed March 2026, Week 3, ending March 21, 2026 Struggled with concept for story submission, still working on it;   Book 4 published to pre-release, and...

So - Goals for December Week 2 showed I was still aiming too high...and not accounting for the possibility of losing 28 hours in the week, when I made them. Yes, to unexpected changes, new external requirements, and family health issues...but also to the fallout of mental and emotional exhaustion that followed. Go figure. I have to improve, and get better. Enough excuses. Here are the results: Main Goals:  1. Poems:   5/7 written; 2. Flash Fiction: 0/7 written; 3.  Work Submitted: 1/1 (result: reject); 4. Finish novel: novel finished (3.6k/4-10k written) ; 5. Publish  Mack 'n' Me: Blaedergil's Host:   novel published 6. Publish  Nurse:  short story published; 7. World Shift : 276/1k 8.  Confessions : 0/1k 9. Gameplay videos recorded: 20/16 10.  Gameplay videos-edited: 15/23 (9/0 video readings edited);  13/23 formatted; 15/23 scheduled; Stretch Goals:    1. Arach - not formatted; 2. The Transporter's Favor - edit com...

Well, January sure blew by fast! And December? Don’t even ask; it was a whirlwind. I think I missed the December progress report, but I won’t bore you with it, now. Now is all about January, and a new year, and new beginnings and all that kind of stuff… unless you calculate your year by the Australian financial year – which would make this the mid-year report, instead of the first annual report. Let’s not do that, okay? Tracking Progress & Pulp Speed (PuSp) Having said that, I track progress by both years, now, so you’ll see those records, below, as well. Another new-ish thing I’m doing this year—since four other new things weren’t enough—is tracking my Pulp Speed—something I decided to do after reading Dean Wesley Smith’s article on it, again, late last year (although, I can’t, for the life of me, find it now…) Anyway, I like the challenge of increasing my word output, and this was a handy way of measuring it, so I wrote down the numbers, and, each month, I check to ...

November had a tricky start, and was spent writing the second novel in the current fantasy series, as well as writing a piece of flash, and two short stories: one for December (coming out this Friday), and one for Fireside Creation’s upcoming Apocalyptic Space Anthology, Vol. 2 , which was accepted on Monday, making a great start to the week and the month of December: Progress: November 2018 Administrative Hours: 25 hours, 23 minutes Acceptances: 0 Bloggery: 0 New words produced: 90,979 Outlines and Notes: 14,697 Words compiled: 273,574 ( Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey Omnibus #1 ) Works completed:4 (1 short-story submission, one novel under contract, 1 piece of flash, Where Else but Waverran ) Works edited: 3 (1 short-story submission, 1 novel under contract, Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey Omnibus #1 ) Covers created: 2 ( Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey Omnibus #1 , What Happens on Axis 58… ) Works formatted: 4 (1 short-st...

So the world went a little bit slideways towards the end of October… and I lost all my working records from the main drive – which means I lost about a week’s data, since I’d been slack and not backed up my files as regularly as I should have. Fortunately, the writing projects I’d worked on during that time had all been for external markets and had been sent off or stored off-site, so no work was lost… just a few records from the end of October and the beginning of November. Anyway, with things going haywire, what with the school-based bullying of my child leading me to commence homeschooling, unexpectedly early visitors staying longer than originally planned, and complications with my mother’s on-going illness, I had to triage everything else, so this blog went sideways, too—along with completing Book 5 in the Mack ‘n’ Me series and finishing this month and next month’s short stories. However, everything I had committed to for other people was met, and those endeavours have...

There was a major event for Ingress last weekend, and I took some time to join in—these things don’t come around very often, and it gave me a chance to meet other players, instead of playing on my own. I think I walked over 30km over the two days—Saturday was the Anomaly, a competitive battle between the Enlightened and Resistance teams; and Sunday was Mission Day, which was much more relaxed as players followed the 24-mission series around inner Canberra, trying to complete a minimum of 12 in order to earn their Mission Day medal. I got to meet a bunch of really great people, and got my butt out of the chair for several hours, which did me a lot of good, and reminded me I really need to work on my fitness. I’m extra-thankful to my husband for taking on podling duty for the weekend so I could get out and about and visit with the growed ups for a change. The Mission Day medal hasn’t arrived, yet, but the Anomaly medal has, as you can see and the missions you can see on the screen ar...