C.M. Simpson's Blog, page 113

First Words for the Day

In this busy, busy world, writing should be celebrated. I’m going to try to put down the first 100-200 words of each day’s writing. This will consist of the first unpublished (but still under copyright to me), unpolished words written each day on each project worked on. Today’s words were:
Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter's Favour Chapter 22—
It took me most of the long walk to the conference room aboard the Hammer to realise that I was in no condition to take anybody on—and I didn’t relinquish my hold on the big fella’s arm until he’d tucked me into a seat right beside Delight.

“Nice job, sweetheart,” she said. “You nearly got us banned from this station, as well.”

I looked at her, too tired to do anything more than blink. It had been her idea to fill me full of nan-powered stims… again—which had been a really bad idea given the effect they’d had on me the last time.
“Did we get him?” I asked

Progress Report: June 17-23, 2018

Last week, I was still recovering from the flu, but was much improved by Tuesday… which was a good thing, because I had to return to the doctor’s so they could remove the rest of a skin lesion that turned out to be pre-cancerous, and a goodly portion of the area around it. I took it very easy for two-and-a-half days, with minimal walking, and a lot of time resting away from the computer. Thursday, I started to pick up the pace, and Friday was a heavy all-in kinda day.

Because I’d been sick and lost a lot of ground, I dedicated the week to making sure I had my publishing up to date, so that I could focus on writing for the three weeks after that. By Friday night, the publishing was caught up, and  number of other administrative tasks also completed. All in all, it was a good week for publishing and administration, a not-so-good week for the writing, and a week where no serious walking at all was done.

This week also saw updates to my following social media sites:my Facebook Author Page for C.M. Simpson;my Books2Read page for C.M Simpson;my Pinterest page;the G+ page for my Short Fiction and Poetry as C.M. Simpson;the G+ page for my stories as Carlie Simonsen;the addition of a Google Play presence for C.M. Simpson;the addition of a Google Play presence for Carlie Simonsen;the addition of a Facebook page for Carlie Simonsen; andupdates to my Facebook publishing page.
< EDIT> The doctor called yesterday to let me know they'd got the rest of the growth, and that the periphery of the cut was clear of any sign of it. Looks like we're okay on that front, apart from all the mending.

Progress: June 17-23, 2018 New words produced: 7,014Outlines and Notes: 1,702Words compiled: 0Works completed: 0Works edited: 4 (1 submission, The Depredides Dance, The Rocky Adventures Omnibus, Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach)Covers created: 2 (The Rocky Adventures Omnibus)Works formatted: 4 (1 submission, The Depredides Dance, The Rocky Adventures Omnibus, Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach)Works published: 3 (The Depredides Dance, The Rocky Adventures Omnibus, Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach)Works released: 1 (Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach)Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 1 (15 entries)Bloggery: 4,881Hours at Desk—June 17-23: 63 hours 39minutesHours at Desk—June 10-16: 32 hours 52 minutesHours at Desk—June 3-9: 51 hours 34 minutesHours at Desk—June 1-2: 26 hours 21 minutesHours at Desk—May 27-June 2: 73 hours 14minutesMay 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 minutes

Progress Report: June 10-16, 2018

The week before last, I was sick, and spent most of the week in bed with the flu. I let my Ingress streak go, and left a lot pokemon roaming in the wild. I was also still recovering from having a skin lesion removed, and learned that it was pre-cancerous and that more of the area had to be taken out to make sure all of the lesion was gone. (Guess what this week's new fun thing was...) All in all, the week before last was a pretty dismal week for writing, publishing and anything else. The week just gone was better, but I’ll talk more about that, on Sunday.


Progress: June 10-16, 2018New words produced: 4,097Outlines and Notes: 3,858Words compiled: 0Works completed: 0Works edited: 0Covers created: 2 (Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach, The Depredides Dance)Works formatted: 0Works published: 0Works released: 0Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 0Bloggery: 373Hours at Desk—June 10-16: 32 hours 52 minutesHours at Desk—June 3-9: 51 hours 34 minutesHours at Desk—June 1-2: 26 hours 21 minutesHours at Desk—May 27-June 2: 73 hours 14minutesMay 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 minutes  

Progress Report: June 03-09, 2018

Last week, I got moving on the words, but I also had to line up an edit for this week’s release. You won’t have seen a lot of me on the net. Of course, this week was the week, I had two shocking night’s sleep, a bout of depression, and then came down with the flu. I dealt with the source of the depression, but it still ate one day to deal, and then made the next two slow going. When I’m down, I’ve discovered that the only way up is by finding a way forward, otherwise it all piles up on me… and being sick doesn’t help. I’d shaken most of that, if not the flu, by the end of the week.
On the writing front, I got to over half way on the next novel in the Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey series and two thirds of the way through the first Long Hair rewrite. As you can see by the blanks below, I have a busy week ahead. I have to get Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach out the door, and set The Depredides Dance up for pre-order. I’d also like to finish Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter’s Favour, although that one is more likely to take until the 20th. Still, it can’t hurt to try, right?Anyway, this is what was done, this week:Progress: June 03-09, 2018New words produced: 30,854Outlines and Notes: 3,430Words compiled: 0Works completed: 0Works edited: 2 (Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach, The Depredides Dance)Covers created: 0Works formatted: 0Works published: 0Works released: 0Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 0Bloggery: 313Hours at Desk—June 3-9: 51 hours 34 minutesHours at Desk—June 1-2: 26 hours 21 minutesHours at Desk—May 27-June 2: 73 hours 14minutesMay 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 minutes  

Progress Report—May 27-June 02, 2018

This week I found a break between publishing tasks and sorted a few things out. I was also very happy to get kicking with the words, again. Mind you, the words were easy, given I had strict orders for two days’ rest after having a skin lesion removed from my leg, and then restricted movement for a bit of time after that. My much better half took over much of the daily household tasks for a few days, and I had no excuse not to write. All in all, I produced, in the last few days, just over half what my total was for the entirety of May.

This week also saw updates to my following social media sites:my Facebook Author Page;my Books2Read page for C.M Simpson.my Pintrest page, the G+ page for my Short Fiction and Poetry, andthe G+ page for my stories as Carlie Simonsen’s.And I continued to upload my backlist to the Kobo store as well as to Draft2Digital for distribution.Progress: May 27-June 02, 2018New words produced: 28,962Outlines and Notes: 5,801Words compiled: 0Works completed: 0Works edited: 1 ( Harper's Choice )Covers created: 1 ( Harper’s Choice )Works formatted: 1 ( Harper’s Choice )Works published: 1 ( Harper’s Choice )Works released: 1 ( Harper’s Choice )Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 0Bloggery: 2,349Hours at Desk—June 1-2: 26 hours 21 minutesHours at Desk—May 27-June 2: 73 hours 14minutesMay 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 minutes 
 

May 2018 – Writing Round-Up

There was not a lot of writing progress, during May, but that is my own fault, as I allowed the publishing pile to build up, and also did some work on my on-line presence. Last week's progress was as follows:

 Progress: May, 2018New words produced: 54,065Outlines and Notes: 14,689Words compiled: 0Works completed: 0Works edited: 3 (Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil's Host, The Dear Tiger Omnibus, Harper's Choice)Covers created: 2 (Rocky & the Raptors, Harper’s Choice)Works formatted: 5 (Destiny’s Queen, Rocky & the Raptors, Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host, The Dear Tiger Omnibus, Harper’s Choice)Works published: 4 (Destiny’s Queen, Rocky & the Raptors, Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host, The Dear Tiger Omnibus)Works released: 4 (Destiny’s Queen, Rocky & the Raptors, Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host, The Dear Tiger Omnibus)Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 0Bloggery: 6,372Hours at Desk—May 27-31: 46 hours 53 minutesHours at Desk—May 20-26: 72 hours 18 minutesHours at Desk—May 13-19: 63 hours 39 minutesHours at Desk—May 6-12: 70 hours 50 minutesHours at Desk—May 1-5: 48 hours 26 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 minutes
In addition to all this, I also created:
a Facebook Author Page for C.M. Simpson; anda Books2Read page for C.M Simpson.
I also updated
my Pintrest page, the G+ page for C.M. Simpson’s Short Fiction and Poetry, andthe G+ page for Carlie Simonsen’s Stories.
All of that took a bit of time, but it should make my work a bit easier to find, and explains what happened to the words in May. Here's looking to June being more with the story, and less with the updating of things. Have a great month, all!

The Writing Life—The April-May (2018) Learning Curve

Four weeks ago, I set a couple of goals: write 4k/day, improve my outlining, and catch up with my publishing schedule, or something like that.
Results: 4k was successfully written, every day, and all on the one project - M3 is now over half-way complete at 47,215 words. My outlining improved, and I now have a 'fullish' idea of what is going to happen next, as well as a skeletal, dot-point run to the end of the novel. I published my next two releases, both short works and both with enough time to spare to go onto a pre-release schedule with Amazon and Smashwords, and I started the editing process on M2, which is a full 91k novel due out in a fortnight - what can I say? I hurt my back and fell behind. The long-term goal is to take some of that pressure off by working to being pre-released 3 months in advance, but sshhh, that's one of those behind-the-scenes things I work towards, even if it takes a long time to get there.
What did I learn? That outlines help - a lot! - with writing speed, but do not stay static or in the same shape you set them in, and this can be adjusted on the fly without necessarily losing the original plot skeleton. I have to do me more of these! Oh, and using a fill colour to mark the bits you've done, cutting and pasting sections you complete out of order, or don't complete at all, minimising the bits you don't use to 8 point font, noting sections you add in different coloured fonts, and prefixing the day's work with a date in bold, all help you track what you've done and where you're going... even if it's a pain in the ass. Finally, I learned that 4k on one project *might* be my limit for that project each day, as I need to let what I've written start to set.
Three weeks ago, I set myself the goal of writing 4k/day on one project and 1k/day on the next. This worked fine, until I had to prep a full-length novel for release in a fortnight. When the time-frame got down to one week with the novel not uploaded, I shuffled things around, splitting time between finishing the third novel in the series and publishing the second. This meant I left the chapter book I wanted to finish, until Friday – but with only 3,000 words left on the projected length, it shouldn’t have been a problem.
Results: So far, I’ve added 9,000 words. It wants to become a novel… and I’m going to let it, but I’m going to shuffle my schedule around, first. Firstly, because I’m really just starting out, I should have given myself more swing room. I’m going to drop back to a fortnightly release cycle to allow that. This will mean more time to do the work I need to do in order to publish more frequently in three or four months’ time. It also means a bit more time with my family, and time for exercise, both of which are important. Finally, it means more time to do some of the publishing tasks that need doing, and to deal with the unexpected, whether it’s an opportunity, or a chance to help out another writer, or a doctor’s appointment.
What did I learn? That schedules shift, and I need to be flexible enough to shift with them. There are days when I have to let an ideal go, in order to be practical and do what needs to be done within the timeframe it needs doing in. So, if 4k/day gets in the way of getting something released on time, then the release takes precedence, even though I’ll try to get some writing done each day. Also, what we think and what we actually can sometimes needs a little recalibration, especially when we’re starting out. Apparently we’re only human.

New Cover—Harper’s Choice

Just sliding by to show you the cover for my next release, Harper's Choice , an urban-fantasy science-fiction short story set in the Pixie Dust world.This story is the first to feature Harper and Remy, but I don't think it will be the last.


“The world turns differently for each of us, and we have no choice but to take its hand and dance the next set of steps.” (Argyllis, 2017)
Harper disagreed. Rescuing pixies from drug-runners, and working alongside unicorns and elves was part of her job. The world had turned, and she had chosen, but, when she is badly injured and taken into the elven realms, Harper finds she has a whole new set of steps to choose—and that time, indeed, moves differently in the Other World.

Progress Report—May 20-26, 2018

Last week, I ran across a couple of short-story submission opportunities - and I also had an omnibus to release. The initial time budget was a day for each short story, two days to finalise the release format, and three days to add words to the chapter book that decided to become a novel, and the next novel in the Mack 'n' Me 'n' Odyssey series. Well, that was a bust.

The first short story refused to cooperate. Point blank. Nuh uh. No way. No how. I wrestled 3,000 words into it, and then worked out I'd written the beginning wrong. That took three days. During that time, I took a lot of breaks so I could think out what to do next, and I made sure not to waste the time. I updated the titles missing from Kobo, reformatted a couple of Smashwords titles, and got my Pinterest boards up to date. I even went for walks, and did household tasks.

And NONE of it worked... until I worked out, and accepted, the story needed a total rewrite. After that, it was two days to completion, leaving me just one to complete the other short story. That one was a lot more cooperative, and let me get down the last 5,070 words in 6 hours and 23 minutes, spread over an afternoon and the next half day. That second short story taught me just how much fun it is to write in a universe you know, with characters with whom your familiar. I'll have to write in series more often.

Of course, this meant I got nothing done on the the fourth novel in the series, or the YA novel that grew out of a chapter book, but the stories were done, and given a full edit (several times during, and twice after, writing). This week coming? This week, I get to write!

So, progress. Last week's progress was as follows:


Progress: May 20-26, 2018New words produced: 20,217Outlines and Notes: 13Words compiled: 0Works completed: 0Works edited: 1 ( The Dear Tiger Omnibus )Covers created: 0Works formatted: 1 ( The Dear Tiger Omnibus – 6 formats for 6 platforms; Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host – CreateSpace large-print format)Works published: 1 ( The Dear Tiger Omnibus )Works released: 1 ( The Dear Tiger Omnibus )Works submitted: 2 ( TBA )Competitions Entered: 0Bloggery: 3,572Hours at Desk—May 20-26: 72 hours 18 minutesHours at Desk—May 13-19: 63 hours 39 minutesHours at Desk—May 6-12: 70 hours 50 minutesHours at Desk—May 1-5: 48 hours 26 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 minutes

Looking Back—Camp NaNoWriMo Process, April 2018

April started out fine… and then got downright busy. I cut back a lot of activity to focus on completing a few. Finishing the book I was working on fitted in just fine with Camp NaNoWriMo. This is the running record of how the novel progressed that month:
Writer’s Biography:
I live in Canberra, Australia's capital, where I am currently writing and publishing full-time. The main project is a 90k novel I need to finish around mid-April - and, yes, I've started it already, because the task for camp is to finish the last 54k... and to do that I need to get to 36k by the end of March. I'm also working other projects.
Blaedergil's Host is the second novel in the Mack 'n' Me 'n' Odyssey series. Book 1 will release during camp. Dear Tiger: Let's Go A-Hunting is a YA chapter book and the fifth in a six-story series, where each story, apart from the first, is 9-12k long. I'll also be writing Bk6 in this chapter book series, Bk6 in another series, and Bk2 in a third, during this process.
Work Log as follows:
18/03: Blaedergil's Host: Start date to continue and revise what was already written on . Added 3,898 new words. End total for the day:10,008; Dear Tiger: Let's Go A-Hunting: Start day at 0 words. End total, 3,682 words.
19/03: Dear Tiger: Let's Go A-Hunting: Revised/edited yesterday's words. Added around 300 words here. Went on to add another 3,580. After that I created a cover for, and added 3,046 words to Blaedergil’s Host and did a little social media,.
20/03: Today I created the cover for, and added 3,304 words to Dear Tiger: Let’s Go A-Hunting . After that, I spent a half hour on another project before adding another 3,041 words to Blaedergil’s Host .
21/03: Today, I got hurt my back and could not sit for extended periods of time. Of the 4 hours I managed, I spent too much time on social media, and only wrote 158 words on Blaedergil’s Host .
22/03: With the time lost yesterday, and with my back continuing to be painful, today, I had to prioritise my publishing goals. I dropped work on Blaedergil’s Host so that I could finish Dear Tiger: Let’s Go A-Hunting and, hopefully, start on Dear Tiger: Help Me Find My Sisters . I managed the 2, 031 words needed to complete Dear Tiger: Let’s Go A-Hunting , and wrote the outline and the first 407 on Dear Tiger: Help Me Find My Sisters . Both these chapter books are due for release in April.
23/03: Continued back pain made it difficult to write. I only added 1,093 words to Dear Tiger: Help Me Find My Sisters , and was not able to return to Blaedergil’s Host .
24/03: The back pain continued, but I was able to sit at the desk for longer periods of time. The pain was also less distracting, so I managed 3,965 words on Dear Tiger: Help Me Find My Sisters , but none on Blaedergil’s Host . If my back improves, I hope to get back to that next week.
Camp NaNoWriMo Starting Point:
At this point, I had hoped to be at 36,000 words in my novel, Blaedergil’s Host . That did not happen. My back happened, Easter happened, family happened, and the rest was scramble. Now, I have to try to catch up without killing myself, because this sucker will probably take a fortnight to edit properly and format, I’d like a week’s break between writing it and editing it (and ideally four), and I have one project to complete for publication the week before. I have work to do.
The current starting point for Blaedergil’s Host is 16,265 words.
Day 1 Progress: By the end of April 1, Australian EST, I had reached 16,383 words, which was pathetic, even if it was Easter Sunday. For April 2, I changed my approach. That day is not yet over, so I’ll report on it, tomorrow.
April 2: Blaedergil’s Host: added a total of 1,679 words, well short of the 3,000-word target minimum. The novel now stands at 18,062 words. Also on the upside, a very long walk has made my back feel a lot better.
April 3: Blaedergil’s Host: added a total of 5,062 words, a thousand over the 4,000-word daily target. (I decided I had ground to make up.) The novel now stands at 23, 124 words. I also managed two half-hour walks today, and my back is no longer causing me pain, even though it remains stiff.
April 4: Blaedergil's Host: added a total of 5,119 words to this project, today. I also wrote four pieces of flash and two poems for two other projects, and did a couple hours of writing admin, so a busy day, but I need to catch up.
April 5: Blaedergil's Host: added a total of 5169 words to this project, today. Now, it's time to do some publishing :-)
April 6: Blaedergil's Host: added 146 words - stuff happened.
April 7: Blaedergil's Host: added 5,086 words - a better day.
April 8: Blaedergil's Host: Added 5,073 words - and still got to spend time with the family :-)
April 9: back injury recurred, and I hit a slow bit on the novel, only managing 1,750 words.
April 10: Words were slightly better today, but the back injury persisted and I had to prioritise publishing the short chapter book due for release at the end of the week. I also had to stop at 2,294 words on Blaedergil's Host , when pain signalled the need for an early bed.
April 11: Today, my back still hurt, and typing time was limited by the short stints I could be at the computer. Regardless, I managed to finish 3,447 words on Blaedergil's Host , amidst pain-mandated naps and the usual household tasks.
April 12: Today was a better day. My back pain has eased to almost non-existent making the time taken away from the computer in the last few days was worth it. Rather than try to catch up the short fall in words in one marathon sitting, I am going to add 1,000 words to my daily goal of 5,000, and catch them up over a few days. Today I added 6,075 words to Blaedergil's Host , and am now off to address the publishing tasks I haven't completed in the last few days.
April 13: Completed the formats for a side project due for release on April 27th. Stayed up until midnight to scrape through and add 5,062 words on Blaedergil's Host .
April 14: Discovered why staying up until midnight is a bad idea. Got almost nothing writing or publishing wise done, today. I did manage the washing, and going for a walk, but I was pretty dead on my feet all day. Added 139 words to Blaedergil's Host .
April 15: After an early night, I prioritised my writing, today, and had added 6,315 words to Blaedergil's Host in 6 hours of writing. Now, it's off to edit Book 1 in this series, so I can release it at the end of the week (April 20th).
April 16: Nil words. Administrative tasks ate the day.
April 17: Added 6,745 words to Blaedergil's Host .
April 18: Added 8,027 words to Blaedergil's Host .
April 19-20: Nil words as publishing tasks took up the time.
April 21: Added 659 words to Blaedergil's Host . It was hard getting back into the novel after two days away. Also added 3,103 words to Rocky & the Raptors .
April 22: Added 2,830 words to Blaedergil's Host . Also added 3,111 words to Rocky & the Raptors .
April 23: Added 3,210 words to Blaedergil's Host . Also added 3,025 words to Rocky & the Raptors .
April 24: Added 6,575 words to Rocky & the Raptors , completing it. Currently working on Blaedergil's Host . Day's total for Blaedergil's Host is 497, but will grow.
April 25: This morning I added the last 4,625 words to Blaedergil’s Host , and completed the novel. *Very* happy! :-)


I stayed off Mack's radar for a good three months, or so I'd thought. Maybe he was just letting me run. He found me, kicked my backside and hauled me right back on board. He'd been doing that on and off for the past twelve months. Problem was, Odyssey was also on my tail, and, when this job was done, Mack was supposed to hand me back. Not gonna happen. And, now I was back to Square One: Kick free of Odyssey and kick free of Mack... just as soon as the mission was done, because how could I turn my back on *that*?
Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host is the second science-fiction novel set in the Odyssey universe. In it, Cutter is back in Mack’s company, and still trying to work out how to get away from him, his merry band of space-faring freelancers, and Odyssey.
NOTE: The main character swears like a sailor, and the support cast aren’t much better. If swears bother you, this this story may not be to your taste.