C.M. Simpson's Blog, page 120

Writing Life: Shifting the Goal Posts

As I said yesterday, I’m changing things around to allow myself to work in blocks, and to release collections, earlier. These are the changes, with one caveat: I have applied to full-time work, an these goals will have to change if I am successful, and decide to accept the position. For now, everything remains in play.
Original Goals
Publish Fortnightly: This goal is remaining, although you will notice that releases could occur at shorter intervals as I get my writing and publishing routine up to speed.Short Story/Month Goal: This goal remains the same. There will only be one short story individually published each month. There may, however, be more than one short story published in a month, depending on what short story collections are released, as a number of those will contain content exclusive to that collection, and the short works collection published for that year.Chapter Book/Month Goal: This goal remains the same, with the exception that I am currently planning on releasing more than one chapter book a month until the chapter-book collection challenge is nearing completion at the end of 2020.Novel/Quarter Goal: This remains the minimum, however, I am going to attempt to write a novel each month, starting with Mack ‘n’ Me: Origins in April.Publishing 12-Months Ahead Goal: I’m changing this goal to Publishing 3-Months Ahead, even though I hope to be writing and preparing releases further ahead. It depends on whether or not I decide to release more than one title a week.Finishing-Series-I-Have-Started Goal: This goal remains, with a deadline of December 2020. It includes the chapter book series in the challenge, and the known titles planned for the following novel series: Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey (4 titles); Tales of the Five Kingdoms (5 titles); Aggie & Tams (4 titles); The Seasons Quartet (4 titles), and Freeman(6 titles).Finishing-Novels-Started-2017 Goal: Since this is part of the goal above, I’ll be removing it.
Anthology ChallengeThe Anthology Challenge was originally to release one collection of short work each month in 2019. When I began this challenge, I had completed the content for four collections, but had to compile, cover, edit and upload any of them. I have decided I would rather have these completed collections released sooner, rather than later.
The original collections and their release schedules for 2019 were as follows: January— Short Work for 2017, Volume 1 ; February—Short Work for 2017, Volume 2; March— Tales from Odyssey ; April— An Anthology of Bloodlines ; May— Pixie-Dust Dreaming ; June— The Story-Match Challenge 2015 ; July— The Story-A-Week Catch-Up Challenge 2016 ; August— Another Anthology of Dragons ; September— T ales from When the Trolls Came ; October— Stories from the Lizardine ; November— Tales from Tallameera ; and December— Another 366 Days of Poetry . I also had an extension option for this challenge: Another 366 Days of Flash Fiction .
I would rather see these collections released when their content is finalised than waiting… and I’m sure there are some readers who would prefer that option, too. As with the chapter-book collection challenge below, this offers readers a much cheaper option of buying short stories than purchasing them singly, with the cost for a 80,000-word short story collection being around the cost of two, complete short stories.Chapter-Book-Collection Challenge
The Chapter-Book-Collection Challenge was originally to release one collection of chapter books each month in 2020. That goal is now to complete and release twelve collections by the end of 2020, by first releasing six individual titles, and then one collection of those titles.
Why? Because I write a lot of these, and reader feedback indicates that some would prefer a cheaper option of collecting them, so, now readers can have the choice of buying them as they come out, one at a time, or in a single four-to-six-book block that costs the same as buying one-and-a third single titles… or thereabouts.
The first series to be released this way will be The Tiger Letters , which is a compilation of all the titles appearing in the Letters Across Space/The Tiger Letters series. The fourth title of this series has just been put up on pre-order, and I am hoping to release the sixth title by the end of April. This means the collection should be out late May.







































The second series will be The Rocky Collection , about a month after the sixth title has been released. This series already stands at five titles.


























After that, I’m still deciding. The original series and release schedule for 2020 were as follows:January— Wings ; February— Rocky ; March— Wheelchair Adventures ; April— Granny Finds Adventures ; May— Tag Man One ; June— Long Hair Collected ; July— Ribbondrake Riders ; August— On Patrol Collection ; September— Running with the Pack ; October— Traveller’s Tales ; November— Marcus Drain’s Collected Adventures ; and December— The Dear Tiger Letters .
As you can see, that order has changed.

PokemonGo In-the-Scanner: News Alerts

I’m thinking most of you will have already worked this out, but I’ll note it here, anyway.

Occasionally, you’ll get a news window pop up when you open PoGo. Sometimes this is annoying, but you can just swipe it away and not look.  And, sometimes, you’ll see that the pokeball symbol at the bottom of the screen has a red dot on it. See?


Well, if you tap on the symbol, you get to go to the screen where you can choose to go to the shop, or check on your pokemon, or check out your pokedex, or just see how many items you have. There are a couple of other options in that screen, now, too. They are located in the upper right-hand corner.

You’re probably already aware of the ‘settings’ button, and the ‘tips’ button. They’ve been there a long time. I’m not sure when the ‘news’ button arrived – probably last year, but I didn’t notice. Anyway, when you have the red dot on the pokeball symbol, you will notice that the ‘news’ option has red lettering, to let you know that there is a notification you haven’t read.


Once you’ve tapped on ‘news’, the red lettering on the ‘news’ tab, and the red dot on the pokeball symbol on the front page goes away.

Cool, right?

Oh – and the March Community Day Event is on the 25th, with bulbasaur – and, if you check out the PokemonGo Live Events page, you’ll find the EVENT LINKand discover  it’s occurring between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm EDT in Australia.

Plus you’ll get to see a whole bunch of cool pictures from February’s Community Day, and discover that Team Valour caught the most pokemon per player in Australia, during February. Team Mystic dominated the rest of the world, and my team, Team Instinct, came a lowly third.

That's okay; there are more months of play ahead.

Just Released: Memory's Vampire

My short story, Memory’s Vampire , released today.


Not all vampires feed on blood. The ones we hunt take your memories before they take your life—and now they are hunting back. We’ve been compromised, and I don’t know who to trust. That comes later. Right now, I just want to make it back to my body alive.

Writing Life: Changing Things Around

This last week, I have been publishing—ALL this last week—which drives me absolutely crazy, because I’d rather be writing… Plus it gives my mind far too much time to think about things. This week, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t getting enough done, that there were things I could do better, and my non-writing chore list has grown.

I started this year with some goals. They’re going to get done, but they’re going to look a bit different. Firstly, I don’t like having perfectly good anthologies and collections lying around doing nothing, so to speak. They need to be out in the wild where my readers can decide if they’d rather buy short work singly, or in a single collection. I’ll do a more in-depth post on the changes I’m making there, but you’ll start seeing a format change in progress reports from here on out.
Secondly, I discovered I work better in blocks, and, while that’s frustrating because it means there will be blocks of time when I’m not writing, it will also make tasking easier. I’ll be blocking in the last week of every month for administrative and publishing tasks, so I don’t fall behind.
Thirdly, the blogs, I have four. They will form part of my administrative tasks, but they also need to be updated more frequently. I’ll be blocking out a day each week to update them. For things like the art blog, that will mean you’re seeing progress a week after it happened instead of real time, but at least you will be seeing some action there. Ditto for the Indonesian blog, which has been sadly neglected this past week. The publishing blog can be updated ahead of time, so that will happen a lot more frequently.
Finally, this blog. For this blog, it will mean that I can prepare the things I want as regular features ahead of time. This includes finishing the Babes of London adventure series, making pokemon updates once a week – no more daily hatchling or whatever, and putting down thoughts on writing, when I think of them, but adding them to the schedule, rather than straight away. The In-the-Scanner reports will have to go up when they’re noticed, but that’s a lot less often than it was… for now, at least.

Progress Report: February 18-24, 2018

Last week, it took me a little bit to recalibrate my routine to put the exercise back into it. I did a couple of long days, but the rest varied from 5-8 hours at the desk. Some would still argue that that’s too long. I’m starting out, all over again; the hours will be a bit long while I get my feet under me. Anyhow, this report is late, because I focused on publishing this week just gone, and completely neglected the blog. Tomorrow, you will see the progress report for February, and Monday, you’ll have the progress report for this week. What can I say, but change is… interesting.
 
Progress: February 18-24, 2018New words produced: 14,934Outlines and Notes: 4,848Words compiled: 28,157 ( The Tiger Letters Omnibus, The Wings Omnibus )Works completed: 18 (1 short story, 1 chapter book, 8 poems, 8 flash fiction)Works edited: 0Covers created: 1 ( C.M. Simpson: Short Work from 2017, Vol. 1 )Works published: 0Works released: 1 ( Dear Tiger: I Don’t Think I’m Human Anymore )Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 0Bloggery: 3,782Hours at Desk—February 18-24: 51hours 3 minutesHours at Desk—February 11-17: 35 hours 55 minuteSHours at Desk—February 4-10: 48 hours 21 minutesHours at Desk—January 28-February 3: 27 hours 39 minutesJanuary Hours at Desk: 180 hours 3 minute

Goal Progress
Publish Fortnightly: Weekly pre-releases have already been uploaded to the beginning of March, 2018. Stories have been written to cover the release schedule to the first week of March 2018, and the second release for that month is in the process of being written. This goal is currently on track.
Short Story/Month Goal: So far, the short story, Dreams of the Serpent , has been uploaded for March 2018, and  stories have been written, but not yet published, for May and June, 2018:  Destiny’s Queen, and Harper’s Choice . The seventh short story River’s Edge is still in progress. This goal is currently on track.
June 2018:                                                    May 2018:                                           April 2018: 

March 2018:                                              February 2018:                                 January 2018:


Chapter Book/Month Goal: So far, chapter books have been released through to the end of March, and the chapter books for April are being written. This goal is currently on track.
March 2018:                                              February 2018:                                 January 2018:

Novel/Quarter Goal: So far, I have released 1 young-adult novel for Quarter 1, A Planet’s Ransom , and finished Mack 'n' Me: Origins for the second quarter, although I will be releasing it early. This goal is currently on track.

April 2018:                                                                                        January 2018:














 






Publishing 12-Months Ahead Goal: I am altering this goal to writing 12-months ahead and publishing 1-month ahead. The writing schedule is in place, but I have yet to catch up with the publishing goal.
Finishing-Series-I-Have-Started Goal: At the start of the year, I named several series that I wanted to advance. For C.M. Simpson, these were the: Freeman, The Priestess, the Prince & Dragon, Aggie & Tams series; and for Carlie Simonsen they were the: Wings and Tag Man One series. So far, I have released In Full Flight , for the Wings series, and am in the process of writing the fifth book for the Dear Tiger series. This goal is on track.





Finishing-Novels-Started-2017 Goal: At the start of the year I said I wanted to finish some novels started last year.

On January 9, 2018, I returned to the novel I had tentatively titled Mack ‘n’ Me , and had to retitle the work I'd done on it to Blaedergil's Host . It turns out that the novel I started is an entirely new story, and the first in the series, predating the flash fiction already set in the universe. It has been completed, and re-titled: Mack 'n' Me: Origins . The third novel is still titled Arach. I forgot about the second book in the Aggie & Tams series, and the second book in The Priestess, Prince & the Dragon series. I am currently 50,000 words in to writing Mack ‘n’ Me , which is now slated for release in the second quarter.


  Anthology Challenge ProgressThe Anthology Challenge is to release one collection of short work each month in 2019. When I began this challenge, I had completed four collections, but had to compile, cover, edit and upload any. The current status for each collection is as follows: 

January—Short Work for 2017, Volume 1: Completed, covered, and collated at 98,000 words, requires formatting and publication;

February—Short Work for 2017, Volume 2: Completed, requires collation editing, and publication;March—Tales from Odyssey: 79,824/90,000 words;

April—An Anthology of Bloodlines: 46,510/90,000 words;May—Pixie-Dust Dreaming: 53,020/90,000 words;

June—The Story-Match Challenge 2015:Completed at 102,655 words, requires collation, editing, and publication;

July—The Story-A-Week Catch-Up Collection:Completed and compiled at 96,700 words, this still requires a permanent cover, formatting, editing and publication;

August—Another Anthology of Dragons: 43,311/90,000 words;

September—Tales from When the Trolls Came: 21,815/90,000 words;

October—Stories from the Lizardine: 31,493/90,000 words;

November—Tales from Tallameera: 19,902/90,000 words; and

December—Another 366 Days of Poetry: 0/90,000 words.

Extension—Another 366 Days of Flash Fiction: 0/90,000 words.

Chapter-Book-Collection Challenge ProgressThe Chapter-Book-Collection Challenge is to release one collection of chapter books each month in 2020. When I began this challenge, I had not completed any of the proposed collections. The current status for each collection is as follows: January—Wings: 3 of 4 proposed volumes completed; existing stories compiled with updated front and back matter;


February—Rocky: previously known as the Otherworld series; 5 of 6 proposed volumes completed;



March—Wheelchair Romance: currently included in the Wheelchair Adventures series; 3 of 4 proposed of volumes completed;


April—Granny Finds Adventures: 1 of 6 proposed volumes completed, but overviews are completed for the first three, and writing has commenced on the second volume.




















May—Tag Man One: 1 of 4 proposed volumes completed;

June—Long Hair Collected: 1 of 6 proposed volumes completed;

July—Ribbondrake Riders: 1 of 4 proposed volumes completed;

August—On Patrol Collection: 1 of 4 proposed volumes completed;

September—Running with the Pack: 1 of 4 proposed volumes completed;

October—Traveller’s Tales: 1 of 4 proposed volumes completed;

November—Marcus Drain’s Collected Adventures; 0 of 6 proposed volumes completed;
December—The Dear Tiger Letters: 4 of 6 (was 5) proposed volumes completed. The fifth volume of the series is currently being written.


















































Goal Results for February 18-24, 2018These are the results for this week's goals: Dear Tiger: Don' t Look Back Dear Tiger: I Like Your Lab Granny Finds a Gatling Gun 8/14 x flash fiction8/14 x poemsGoals for February 25-28 to March 3, 2018This week's goals are as follows:Create cover for Dear Tiger: Don't Look Back ,Create cover for Dear Tiger: I Like Your Lab ,Create cover for Dreams of the Serpent ,Create cover for Mack 'n' Me: Origins , Publish Dear Tiger: Don' t Look Back ,Publish Dear Tiger: I Like Your Lab ,Publish Dreams of the Serpent ,Edit Mack 'n' Me ,
Update titles at the Australian National Library,Release CS PoD versions.

Ingress: Tactics—A Question of Keys

Linking and fielding are two of the best ways to gain experience points, or AP, in Ingress, and you can be quite creative and make shapes built of interconnected triangles, or just see how big a blob of triangles you can make. If you’re ambitious, you can see if you build a patchwork of your team’s colour over an entire suburb, or city… just don’t expect to do it, without some serious opposition.
But what does this have to do with keys?Well, last year, while attempting to build Blobby (an imaginary creature made up of a network of interlinked fields), I discovered the value of the opposite team leaving keys on the ground after they’d smashed a portal. I didn’t have to hack for them; I could just pick them up and rework the links. It made building my blob of blue triangles so much quicker and faster, that I was grateful.However, many months after my attempt to build Blobby, I’ve noticed that the opposition in my area seem to do this a lot: they’ll smash up a network of linked portals, and they’ll leave the portal keys that result, lying where they fall. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I pick up a lot of keys. It’s incidental-linking Heaven!It’s just that I can’t help but wonder why.Pros for Leaving Keys
You don’ t have to spend time picking them up;They don’t take up space in your inventory;Another, more local, team member can come along later and pick them up and use them;
Cons for Leaving Keys
You can’t later recycle keys you have picked up and don’t need, if you run short of energy;You can’t take advantage of keys randomly picked up to create incidental links earning more points for your team in a cycle;You can’t take advantage of random keys to advance your Connector badge;You can’t take advantage of random keys to gain incidental AP from links you could not have otherwise made;An agent from the opposing team can pick up the keys and re-link the portals without having to take the time to hack for more keys, reducing the time available to prevent them from adding to their team’s score;
A Brief AnalysisI’m sure I’ve missed things out, like incidental fielding and Mind Controller advancement, but, even from what I have managed to list, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t take that extra couple of seconds to collect a key, even if it is to recycle it and use it for energy, or recharging another portal, or whatever.A Note on Keys:For those puzzled by what a ‘key’ is, in Ingress there are activities you can do involving the portals, most of which require you to be standing in the real-world location where the portal is located. Keys allow you to link one portal to another. Basically, you cannot create a link from the portal you are standing at, to a portal you can’t see, if you don’t have the key for the portal you can’t see. Each link to a portal, requires a key for that portal. Likewise, you can only recharge a portal if you are standing within 40 feet of it, OR if you have the key. If you have a portal’s key, you can recharge the portal no matter where you are. This is kinda useful, if it is attacked by an enemy agent, and you just can’t go to where the portal is, in order to recharge it. Having keys to portals is useful.

Just Released—Dear Tiger: I Don’t Think I’m Human Anymore

Just a quick note to let you all know that Dear Tiger: I Don’t Think I’m Human Anymore released today, and is now available from Smashwords, DriveThruFiction and Amazon, as well as via Draft2Digital and Smashwords distribution.



Trapped in a room, and unable to hug her family, Simone knows she is changing. She just doesn’t know what she’s changing into, or how long it will take. The company doctors won’t tell her, and Tiger seems so far away. But at least he writes back, and he’s trying to help. Maybe, together, they can find a way out.

PokemonGo: Today’s Hatchlings & a New Pokemon

I didn’t want to go for a walk, today, but that’s nothing new. I have to walk, or I lose writing time to my back doing unexpected and painful things. It would be easier to take a pill, and a lot more time efficient—but it would be nowhere near as good for clearing my head, and revitalising my creativity. Not to mention fun.


Today’s hatchlings included a carvanha from a 5km egg, and a trapinch from a 10km egg, both collected from pokestops in the local area.




















And today’s new pokemon was a cute little vibrava courtesy of the trapinch hatching, although, if I’d realised there was a third evolution, I might not have powered it up before evolving it.   


















Of course, bring team Instinct, these hatchlings were more than worth keeping.

Second Completion this Week

So far, it's been a busy week for writing, and I've managed to complete two projects. Today, I hope to make it three. If I do, I'll drop a completion picture on the blog. In the meantime, I've finished a short story for the Mack 'n' Me Anthology , and the third chapter book in the Dear Tiger series by Carlie Simonsen.

The Depredides Dance



Dear Tiger: Don't Look Back

Indonesian: Practicing

Just a quick shout out to let you know that I have an Indonesian blog. It's to help me practice my Indonesian, because I simply don't want to lose what little ability I have in the language.

Each blog is divided into two sections: the section where I write in Indonesian... and the section where I put down the English translation of what I think I've written in Indonesian. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about, but I'm looking at translating parts of my stories, and maybe talk about writing in general... or anything else that grabs me as interesting. It's all practice, right?

Anyway, you're welcome to drop by and check it out, just don't expect it to be perfect, because I'm still very much learning - and feel free to let me know how I can do better. But nicely, okay, because doing this is scary enough.

Oh... and a link, so here's the link to my Indonesian blog, in case your curious, or interested.