C.M. Simpson's Blog, page 100

First 500 Words—The Songster & the Pirates

The Songster & the Pirates released on September 10,2018. It is a stand-alone science-fiction short story with elements of fantasy set in the same universe as Odyssey, and the Lunar Wolves.
What’s it About?Once a space merc, now a singer, Taran keeps her identity as a siren secret. When spacewolves join the audience at her current gig, she knows what they’re looking for. The only question is can she slip away, before the wolves and her past can catch up with her?Here are the first 500 words of that story:The Songster & the PiratesFirst 500 WordsTaran looked out into the audience, noting the four hulking figures in dark grey ship suits, mingling amongst them. She knew spacers when she saw them, and she knew werewolves, too—and these were trying way too hard to blend in to be interested in anyone but her. She studied them, as she continued to sing, letting her eyes rove over the audience, and snatching details of her targets as she went. It wouldn’t do to stare, or they might do something rash—like try to take her before she’d finished her set.And Taran wanted to be paid. She needed the credits for the next fare out to the most deserted backwater planet she could find. She needed to be able to stretch her wings where someone wasn’t going to try and pluck them, or force her to sing something she didn’t want to. In the meantime, she’d made the bartender a promise, and she intended to keep it… Right after she dusted the four furry knuckleheads setting up to spoil her day.Once she was sure they hadn’t come with sound suppression—and what idiot would come after her without it?—she ruffled the lyrics of what she was singing, added a spike to the pitch, and smoothed the subsonics. There was a brief surge of patrons to the bar, and one of the wolves’ eyes widened.Sucks to be you, Taran thought, adding an extra layer to the ultrasonics only they could hear. It came out as a brief yip in the lyrics, and she wove ultra and sub together, smiling as she sang of wickedness and desire. The only wolf that had registered the change clapped its hands over its ears and bolted for the nearest exit.One of the others reached out and grabbed hold of a passing waitress, and the other two… Well, that made it difficult to focus on her song. Taran grabbed hold of the urge to laugh, and kept the song running for another twenty seconds, and then she slipped quietly from the stage. No one was going to notice her with the wolves providing that kind of entertainment. That, and the waitress, had a friend or three, and the first punch had already been thrown. Taran sighed.Maybe she was going to need another gig to pay for the next shuttle out.With any luck, she’d gained herself a five minute start, and there’d be a cab waiting in the ranks at the back of the club. Having a dressing room had its advantages, but she didn’t go back to it. If she’dbeen chasing her, she’d have snuck someone into the dressing room, or just back stage. She glanced at the shadowed recesses behind the wings, and was relieved when nothing moved.For just a moment, she regretted turning down the Mentraden Security offer. She’d told them she wanted to leave that kind of work behind. After what had happened to the Knights… Taran shook her head, trying to dispel the memories of ships on fire, atmospheres venting to space, of men trying to beat their way through bulkheads to save those already dead. She tried…--------------------Would you like to read more? TheSongster & the Pirates is set in the Lunar Wolves universe and is available direct from Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, GooglePlay, DriveThruFiction, and multiplestores via Books2Read, as well as via Smashwords and Draft2Digital distribution.

Progress Report: October 7-13, 2018

It's been another disrupted week, but things have still gotten done. Road-tripping aside, it's still school holidays, here, although they end soon, and things will settle back into a more normal routine. This week I've had three days where I've managed less than 5 hours of work; the rest have consisted of long hours at the desk, and I'm now feeling the warning signs of another RSI flare-up.

I may be getting too old for this kind of thing... and, I just need to find the the limits of the new limits - which I don't think I've done, yet. Working on it - hence the outrageous goals set for this month. When it comes to testing how far I can push it, they were it - and according to past experience, they should have been achievable.

Without more ado - here's what was achieved.... followed by what was not:

Progress: October 7-13, 2018New words produced: 23,989Outlines and Notes: 6,000Words compiled: 0Works completed: 0Works edited: 2 (for submission)Covers created: 0Works formatted: 2 (for submission)Works published: 0Works released: 0Works submitted: 2Competitions Entered: 0Bloggery: 3,247Hours at Desk—October 7-13: 47 hours 40 minutesHours at Desk—October 1-6: 47 hours 51 minutesSeptember Hours at Desk (not all recorded): 180 hours, 36 minutesAugust Hours at Desk: 263 hours, 29 minutesJuly Hours at Desk: 264 hours, 18 minutesJune Hours at Desk: 230 hours, 5 minutesMay Hours at Desk: 302 hours, 6 minutesApril Hours at Desk: 167 hours, 41 minutesMarch Hours at Desk: 201 hours, 43 minutesFebruary Hours at Desk: 183 hours, 50 minutesJanuary Hours at Desk: 180 hours, 3 minutesOctober Goals ProgressDuring this week of October, I achieved none of goals set for the month—and succeeded in missing a day on the blog-post goal, meaning I won’t manage to get a blog post out each day for the time period set.
I also made the following progress towards the remainder of the goals:Completed blog posts for October 7, 9-12; and 17, 24, 31, although I officially ‘fail’ at this goal for missing a post on the 13thAdded 23,989 words to the first novel – but am experiencing warning symptoms that continuing to work at the pace required is likely to cause a recurrence of the RSI injury I had in August, so I’m calling the end of the October goals as they stand. I cannot complete them without risking a repeat of thatinjury, and will have to back off on the word output until the most recent flare-up dies down.End October Goals. Goals recalibration now in process. Damn.
Goals for the Year Progress
Some of you will remember that I set some goals at the beginning of the year. The RSI injury in August has put paid to most of them as I can no longer maintain the level of production required to meet them. I’m healing, but it won’t be in time to regain the ground I’ve lost. Because of that, I’m ending those challenges and goals. They will not be achieved - okay, one will be achieved - as long as I edit and publish November's story, and then write and publish December's short story, on time.
This gives me a (mostly) clean slate to start, again, but leaves me feeling quite discouraged.
I’ll post the new options in a few days, when I’ve had time to assess what I can achieve. Apparently I can’t do things at the rate or intensity I used to. This is an unpleasant surprise.
So, I am going to have to work out what the new rate of production is going to be, and go from there.
The one goal I've almost achieved? Well, it looks a bit like this:





Next week, I hope to post these covers again - but with the new cover for November's story - and, at the end of October I hope to post them as part of this goal for the last time, with the news that December's story is complete and up for pre-order. Wish me luck; something tells me I just might need it.

It's Been That Kind of A Day - Have a RoadTrip Sunset

So, after a midnight finish to the writing and research, yesterday, I slept until seven, and then had housework to catch up on. I think I managed a few hundred words on the novel, before heading up to Sydney on an errand. We left at 13:00, and got back at around 20:00. Needless to say, after cooking dinner, and putting the podling to bed, I am knackered.

About the last thing I wanted to do in the email round-up was to get my head around yet another new app because my team had decided that was the only way all players could be kept informed for an event, regardless of how they felt about it. So, yay... I get to learn another skill... I guess.

Anyway, highlight of the day was the sunset coming back from Sydney. It lifted my spirits. Let's hope it lifts yours, too.

And there was rain! Made my day.

Here's hoping your days ended just as well.

Take care out there - and stay safe.

Short Stories - Why Write 'Em?

Short stories - until recently, they were the place new writers were told to cut their writing teeth, and make their writing debuts. In some circles, this is still true. The idea is that the process of searching out, writing for, and submitting to a short story market is a good way for writers - and all writers, not just new ones - to develop the writing habits and story-telling skills that will carry them through their writing careers. In many ways, this 'cracking the short story market' was seen as a vital apprenticeship in a writer's journey.

With the coming of independent publishing, many newer (and successful) writers have bypassed the short story phase, and skipped ahead to write, and publish, their first novel.Some of the older hands would argue that skipping this apprenticeship stage has had obvious results in the resulting quality of independently published books. Others will point out that writing a short story, and writing a novel, are two different specialisations of the base skill set, and that being able to write one well, does not automatically lead to success in writing the other.

As with many arguments, there is value in both sides. It is true that writing a novel is different to writing a short story - just as it is true that writing flash fiction is different to writing poetry to writing a novel or short story. It is also true that valuable skills can be developed in honed in short stories that stand a writer in good stead for writing novels. However, it is not true that you need to be able to write a short story before you tackle a novel. There are some excellent novelists out there, who haven't written a short story in their lives, and many who claim they can't fit a decent story into that few words.

With many independent writers finding that short stories don't sell as well as novels, and the magazine and anthology markets just as hard to crack as they have always been, many writers - new and old - ask what the value is in writing a short story. Why would you do it, if you're not going to receive a commensurate return? What purpose does it truly serve?

Sure, they'll say, there are plenty of readers out there who read short stories - and even a few who prefer them - but there aren't enough of them to guarantee a livable return, so writing and publishing short stories is just a waste of time. They are both right and wrong. Every writer has to look at the form and decide if it's something that suits what they're trying to achieve - and they have to do that from at least three angles: the cold-blooded business and marketing angle, the purely creative angle, and the hard-headed skill-building angle.

We'll explore each of these over the next few weeks.

Tuesday's Verse - All and Nothing (aka Why I Shouldn't Write Poetry When Depressed)

Yeah, everyone gets down. Sometimes the words come, and sometimes they don't. This one, I'll put in the next poetry collection, even though it's neither fantasy, nor science fiction - or anything in between.

All and Nothing
I am the rage of the mountainthe bitter cold of the snowI have fallen from the great cloudsflowed to the rivers belowbeen drawn from the oceans as vapourthe nothing mist filling allbecome the thunderhead by the great peaksbeen the thunder’s rumble, the lightning’s ballI am the mutter of storm cloudsall noise but of substance noneI am the cold of the shadowthe slow-blooming warmth of the sunI am the intangible, the unseen and oft-heardlike snow’s cold, and sunshine’s warmtha presence sensed more than felt,and oft negated and ignored.  Peace, fellow sentients - and may your day be blessed, and your mind at ease.

And, if you're curious about my earlier forays into verse, you can find my poetry collections, 365 Days of Poetry, and 366 Days of Poetry, at most of the major venues. Both are mainly science fiction and fantasy poems, and I'll be working on new covers for them, but, in the meantime, the universal link will guide you there.

First 500 Words - Harper & the Unicorn

Harper & the Unicorn released on October 5, 2018. It is set in the pixie dust world setting, and comes before the short story Harper’s Choice , which features the same character.
What’s it About?
When Harper goes after a lone unicorn without back-up she’s breaking every rule, and none. The only questions are: will her partner get to her before things go totally to pieces, and exactly how much havoc can one lone unicorn and a P.O.S. officer create before back-up arrives?Here are the first 500 words of that story:Harper & the UnicornFirst 500 Words
Today, I sat in the old gum tree, looking at the ground below. A footpath left a concrete barrier between the edge of the road and the sparse, dry grass beneath me. I’d been sitting there for almost an hour when I finally saw what I’d been waiting for—a unicorn, trotting happily down the middle of the road, its hooves tap, tap, tapping on the dotted centre line.There you are, I thought, but I did not say it out loud.Unicorns had very good hearing, and I was already walking the very sharp and slicey edge of a very precarious problem. I watched, and I waited, and I prayed the wind wouldn’t shift. Unicorns also had a very good sense of smell. Pretty soon it was going to…There!It came to a prancing halt, still in the middle of the road, tilting its head this way and that, until I was sure it had scented me. As I watched, it raised its head and snuffed the air, and then it looked up—and then back down—the road, and took a sideways bound off the street and into the shadows of a nearby walking track overhung by pine-like she-oaks.What the hey?It stayed on the tarmac making up the combined bike and pedestrian path, trotting swiftly until it reached the first bend, and then it took another sidewards bound, that landed it four metres off the path, looking back towards the road. I watched the tilt of its head, glad I was screened by a fine film of she-oak needles as well as gum leaves.Whatever it was up to, it was being Hella cautious about it.I stayed up in the tree, following the ghost-white shimmer of its fur as it doubled back towards the bridge. That was curious—as far as I knew the portal to the Other Realms only worked one way, and that was the side of the bridge I was on. The side under the she-oaks… well, I hadn’t thought to try coming through that way.When I couldn’t’ see the unicorn’s ghostly outline, anymore, I scanned the area for anyone else who might be watching, and then slid over the edge of the branch, letting myself dangle by my fingertips, before dropping to the ground. Straightening up, I dusted myself off, and looked around, again. Still no-one—not even the guy across the road, and he seemed to see everything.Well, if he wasn’t out watching the unicorn, then he wouldn’t be out watching me, either, now, would he?I walked across the road and down the path under the she-oaks. It wasn’t hard to find the unicorn’s trail. Like big horses, those things weighed close to half a tonne. It was a bit hard to hide the divots it had left behind when landing. The only thing it had managed to do was stop anyone from finding its back trail.And why, I wondered, would it want to do that?The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t like it. Unicorns usually travelled in threes or fours, and they almost always travelled with a pixie or ten. This one had been completely alone, and was acting like it would like to stay that way. Time to find out why, before it went and got itself into more trouble than even a unicorn could handle.--------------------Would you like to read more? Harper & the Unicorn features Harper in a story that takes place before the events in Harper’s Choice and is available direct from Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, DriveThruFiction, and multiple stores via Books2Read, as well as via Smashwords and Draft2Digital distribution.

Progress Report: October 1-6, 2018

October began with a journey. After spending a week with my parents we were returning home, a fifteen hour journey, which we navigated safely. It was good to be home, and I set to work, trying to get as much done as possible before we celebrated a family birthday at the end of the week. Here, in spite of last week being a 6-day week, and in spite of spending a day travelling (and adding to my list of places to return to), is what was achieved in the first week of October 2018: Progress: October 1-6, 2018New words produced: 27,591Outlines and Notes: 5,676Words compiled: 0Works completed: 2 (submission stories)Works edited: 1 (Harper & the Unicorn)Covers created: 0Works formatted: 1 (Harper & the Unicorn)Works published: 1 (Harper & the Unicorn)Works released: 1 ( Harper & the Unicorn )Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 1 Bloggery: 3,654Hours at Desk—October 1-6: 47 hours 51 minutesSeptember Hours at Desk (not all recorded): 180 hours, 36 minutesAugust Hours at Desk: 263 hours, 29 minutesJuly Hours at Desk: 264 hours, 18 minutesJune Hours at Desk: 230 hours, 5 minutesMay Hours at Desk: 302 hours, 6 minutesApril Hours at Desk: 167 hours, 41 minutesMarch Hours at Desk: 201 hours, 43 minutesFebruary Hours at Desk: 183 hours, 50 minutesJanuary Hours at Desk: 180 hours, 3 minutesOctober Goals ProgressDuring this week of October, I achieved the following goals set for the month:Completed SS02, which was meant to run to 8,000 words, but went to 14,608;Completed SS03, which was meant to run to 8,000 words but went to 11,288; andedited, formatted, uploaded and released Harper& the Unicorn.
I also made the following progress towards the remainder of the goals:Completed blog posts for October 2-6, 8, 15, and 22; andAdded 1,603 words to the first novel.

New Release - Harper & the Unicorn

Harper & the Unicorn released overnight. You can find it at the usual venues: Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, GooglePlay, DriveThruFiction, Books2Read and via Smashwords and Draft2Digital distribution


When Harper goes after a lone unicorn without back-up she’s breaking every rule, and none. The only questions are: will her partner get to her before things go totally to pieces, and exactly how much havoc can one lone unicorn and a P.O.S. officer create before back-up arrives?

October 2018 Goals

Goals are important - and I need to work on setting ones I can achieve. This is what I'm thinking for this month... On my plate: As you know, I have several goals on the run at the moment, including 9 novels as part of a team, and 3 short stories for anthologies. In addition, I have a series of my own, and 1 more short story for December that I want to complete. On top of that, I am currently working on a second edition of my fantasy trilogy, compiling my science fiction series into a three-book compilation, and putting together a gift library for my newsletter subscribers.Given that my life has been kicked on its head, right now, the work I’m doing for, and with, other folk, has to have work priority, and I have to do my best to make sure I fulfil those commitments, so, this month—and most of November, I’ll be kicking that along. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on the rest, just that it needs to come next.This means that my co-written series, which I’m calling MS, for now, and the short stories: SS2, SS3, and SS4, have to come first. Of those, I want to try to complete two novels in the series and all the short stories this month, so MS01 has 69,915 words remaining, MS02 will be around 90,000 words long, SS2 has 4,509 words remaining, and SS3 and SS4 will be around 8,000 words each. That’s a goal of 180,424 words for the month, which is not so bad.There are 29 days left in the month, but I’m going to work on 28 because getting something back on track, or starting something from scratch, takes a little more time.This means I will need to write a minimum of 6,444 words per day on these projects in order to make my goal.If I wanted to finish the fifth novel in my science fiction series on top of that (27,714 words remaining), I would have to write a minimum of 7,444 words each day—and, if I want to add in December’s short story (8,000 words), I would have to write a minimum of 7,719 words each day. All of those daily word goals (6,444, 7,444, 7,719) are doable BUT I also need to do publisher things like putting out this month’s short story, writing on my blog, updating the back matter in the stories I’ve published, adding titles to vendors I’m not on, yet, maintaining my social media presence, and that kind of thing—and all of those take time.With this in mind, I’m going to go for around 6,500 words per day. If I write more, and have enough time to finish off my science fiction novel, I’ll try and fit that in, as well, but not until the main goals are done.And you know what else? I have to hope things stay okay on the health and family fronts. If something comes up on either of those, then my goals will have to shift to accommodate that. Family is important. The work will still be there once I’ve looked after my family—otherwise, what is its purpose? Likewise with health; there’s no point in pushing through work, if it’s going to be second-rate because I’m sick. Working to get ahead of my goals will mean I have some swing room if something goes wrong on either of these fronts.Final Goal Decisions: Having gone through all that, I'm thinking I might try for something like the following: Writing Goals:Complete MS01 (69,915 words)Complete MS02 (90,000 words)Complete SS02 (4,509 words)Complete SS03 (8,000 words)Have SS04 outline completed (500 words)Complete SS04 (8,000 words)This is a total of 6,462 words that need to be completed each day. Publisher Goals:Edit, format and publish Harper & the Unicorn ;Update the 10 short titles each week to each platform for a total of 50 titles this month;Put together newsletter gift;Write one blog post for each day of the month, from October 2nd through October 31st; andCover, edit, format and publish What Happens on Axis 58… for an early November release.Now, let’s see how we go…

Sneak Peek—Stories from The Expanding Universe Anthology #4: ‘Mothers’ by C.M. Simpson

There are 20 short stories in the latest volume of Craig Martelle’s The Expanding Universe anthologies. Today, with Craig's permission, we are taking a sneak peek at the start of my story, ‘Mothers’. Here’s how it begins:----------------------------------------------------------------
No warrior is so fierce as a mother with young; and, when mothers band together, enemies need beware.
Talie watched the alien ship spin, a huge disk, looking continents wide, and she felt her heart sink. Somewhere, in that monstrosity, her little girl was hiding. Her little girl, who wouldn’t be anywhere near as afraid as she should be, and nowhere near as cautious as Talie would like. Her little girl, who would be quick to remind her that thirty-two wasn’t little, and that she had a child of her own—a bonafide ship-talker who had listened to her grandmother far too much, and, at ten, stowed away on an enemy troop carrier so she could make a difference where it mattered.
Dammit! Talie thought. It is all my fault.
It was her fault, too that the child’s mother had gone after her. It’s what mothers did—and now there were two little girls who needed rescuing.
Which was why Talie was here—because mothers had mothers, too.
“Take me in,” she said, although there was no need to say where.----------------------------------------------------------------Would you like to read more? 
The Expanding Universe #4 is now available on Amazon. You can also find Volume 1, The Expanding Universe: An Exploration of Science Fiction Genre , Volume 2, The Expanding Universe: Exploring the Science Fiction Genre , and Volume 3, The Expanding Universe 3: Space Opera, Military SciFi, Space Adventure, & Alien Contact! on Amazon in paperback.