CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Last week we had a short joined-worlds fantasy. This week, it’s a very short piece of military science fiction that forms the February 8th entry in 366 Days of Flash Fiction . ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Face “Do you want to live forever?” If I never heard that phrase again, I would be a very happy girl. For now? For now, I shouted ‘Sir, no sir!’ with all the rest, and ran right out into the ambush. When I went down, it was under the Sarge, the machine-gunner and the comms carrier. It was a good thing the tiktaks left the dead where they lay. A good thing, and almost the end of me. By the time the rescue team arrived I was having trouble breathing; the smell of carrion surrounded me, and the weight of the dead bore down on more than my soul. They all thought I was crazy when they dug me out and I picked up the nearest rifle, sedated me before I got fully to my feet. Dayum—I wasn’t crazy; I was mad. Some dumb son...

This week’s verse moves from one fantasy staple to another. It is taken from Another 365 Days of Poetry , a collection of mixed-genre poetry to be released later in the year, once both collection and cover are complete. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Living by the Troll Marsh I lived beside the troll marsh where the long-lived hrudda call where the moorhens cackle nightly where with silence danger falls. I lived beside the troll marsh and learnt each inch of those foul fens and I grew to hunt the monsters that within it made their dens. I lived beside the troll marsh and on its shores I fought the foul, the bestial, and ugly from tiny troll to juggernaut and I grew older near the troll marsh and my reflexes they slowed until another walked the shoreline and took my duty’s load I argued that the troll marsh was no place to raise a child and she laughed and called her youngling and my doubts ...

This week’s short story took us from a world where magic has returned and elves and trolls are real to a distant world where colonists deal with the flora and fauna of a new world. Welcome to Autumnal Threat. Even on a distant colony world, autumn is a time when the leaves fall, and secrets are uncovered—but can it be a time of healing and recovery, too? Autumnal Threat is available as a stand-alone short story at the following links: books2read.com/u/31dA7b .

LAST WEEK, Simone was grounded. This week, she makes a decision that just might change her world. Chapter 4 Excerpt – 'Home' Alone Date: Sunday, 19 August 3049 Hi Again, Tiger It’s been more than a week since we went to the Exploration Center. As well as being grounded, I have to do a project on Jigo, because that’s where mum and dad explored. The project isn’t a problem. I finished it yesterday, after class. Don’t look at me that way. We have classes on a Saturday. It’s not so bad, because I don’t get to think about mum and dad, so much. Anyway, that’s why I haven’t finished your letter, yet. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The complete series is available as short, individual ebooks, and will become available as an omnibus, later this year. In the meantime, you can find them on this blog, until one week after the last chapter in the last book of the series has been posted, at which point this series ...

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 ...