C.M. Simpson's Blog, page 211

First Chapters: Tag Man One

Tag Man One is the first chapter book in the Air Ace Adventures series. Set on an imaginary air base, it tells part of the story of two brothers, who share a love of flying and look out for each other.

When Jerry sees something flash on a hill overlooking the air base where his brother works, he thinks it might be a bottle reflecting the sun. His brother takes a different view, and reports it to base security. They have not had time to investigate before the base is attacked, and Jerry must do his best to get his brother out alive. 

Tag Man One is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle and CreateSpace and will be distributed from Nook, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and iTunes.

First Chapter: A Flash in the Hills Jerry wrapped his arms around his knees and looked into the sky. He was in the branches of a small tree on top of a hill. In the tree, Jerry could pretend he was a pilot like his brother, Andrew. He could pretend he was flying test planes just like Andrew did every day.There were eagles that flew near the top of the hill. Jerry liked to watch them. It was better than doing nothing, and he had nothing to do.His brother was flying in the simulator today. The new jet wasn’t ready to be tested in the sky.Jerry watched the eagles. He was hoping Andrew would be able to let him fly the simulator today. It was fun flying the simulator.Andrew would joke and say that Jerry would take his job away. Jerry would laugh. He knew he was good, but he didn’t think he was that good.Maybe Andrew would let him test fly the new jet in the simulator. Sometimes, Andrew’s boss said it was okay. Sometimes, Jerry found problems they hadn’t thought of.Jerry climbed down from the tree. He would go home and wait for Andrew. He could watch a video while he waited.There was no television out here. The hills got in the way of the television signals. Jerry didn’t miss television too much. He still had his computer and Andrew had given him some really cool games to play.Maybe he would play games on the computer instead of watching a video. He could pretend he was flying the simulator with some of the games.Jerry looked down on the base from his perch on the hill. He looked across at the hill on the other side of the base. He saw something flash in the sun.Jerry looked at the place the flash had come from. It did not come again. He tried to think what could have made that kind of flash. Maybe someone had dropped a bottle and that’s what he could see. He looked at the spot again, but the flash was gone. He moved his head, trying to find the right angle to catch the flash again. It didn’t come. It was as if the bottle had moved out of the sun.That was funny. Bottles didn’t move.Jerry decided he would have to tell Andrew when he got home. His brother would know what it was.
END FIRST CHAPTER   If you would like to read more, Tag Man One is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle and CreateSpace and will be distributed from Nook, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and iTunes.

Progress Report: Weeks 1-3 May 2013

Very poor showing these last three weeks. I’ve been sick and then played catch-ups on a number of things—work, sewing, gardening and study. Much was neglected, but I’m seeing my way clear of it now, so will get onto updating my blogs.OverviewNew words produced: 3,963Old words revised: Works completed: 0Works revised: 2Covers created: 0Works published: 0Works submitted: 0Competitions Entered: 0Tier 3 Tasks:ChapBook8—The Dog’s Way: Revised, edited, and formatted.Novella1A: Added 2,777 wordsExtrasShortStory35—Magick on the Forest’s Edge: Revised, edited, and formatted.Publishing TasksCreated preformatted back piece with Amazon links for C.M. Simpson;Created preformatted back piece with Smashwords links for C.M. Simpson;Created preformatted back piece with Amazon links for Carlie Simonsen;Created preformatted back piece with Smashwords links for Carlie Simonsen;Created preformatted back piece with Amazon links for Madeleine Torr;Created preformatted back piece with Smashwords links for Madeleine Torr.
Traditional Writer TasksNilNew Arrivals Nil

First Chapter: Spit as Carlie Simonsen

Spit is the first book in the On Patrol series by Carlie Simonsen.

Spit is following a group of Sneakers to see how they are getting into the Border Patrol supply depots, when he is captured—but not by Sneakers. Another group, one that has snake people and lizard centaurs working within its ranks has taken him captive. The question is: Are they friend or foe? Spit has no idea, but when they come across a base under attack from a large group of Sneakers, he has to find out.
Spit is the first book in the On Patrol series. Set in the near future, in a world on the edge of war, the series follows Spit and his people in their efforts to protect their homes and loved ones.
Spit is currently available on Smashwords, and will soon be available on Amazon Kindle, Create Space, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.
SpitFirst Chapter: Sneakers
Spit watched the Sneakers through the swaying leaves. They all wore black. They all walked without making a sound.
He watched as they walked closer to the chain-mesh fence, ducking nearer to the ground as their leader looked carefully around. Spit did not want to be caught by the Sneakers, so far from his base.The leader seemed to look too long at the trees where Spit was hiding. The leader wore a mask like a skull. It gleamed whitely in the half-dark of late afternoon.
Spit shivered. He wished he could stop looking at the Sneakers at the fence. He wished he could leave, but he knew he couldn’t. Spit had to find out how they were getting into the supply dump, and then he had to stop them.
The Sneakers’ leader turned back to the fence. Spit held his breath as the man took something shiny from his belt pouch. He squinted, trying to see what it was.
It was too dark and by the time Spit had lifted his binoculars to his eyes, the tool was back in the leader’s pouch. The binoculars still helped him see how the Sneakers rolled a portion of the fence back and clipped it they could pass through.
Once all the Sneakers were inside, the leader unclipped the fence and allowed it to drop back in place, then he led his team into the shadows between the sheds behind the fence. Spit watched as the fence sparked where the broken mesh touched.
Once, twice it sparked and then the sparking stopped.
Spit waited until the Sneakers had gone around one of the buildings behind the fence, before he slipped out of his hiding place. He had to follow to see what they did, and how they escaped.
When he reached the fence, he couldn’t see where the Sneakers had lifted the mesh. He ran his hands along the section of fence but could find no breaks.
That’s not possible, Spit thought, looking cautiously towards the sheds. When he saw no one there, he pulled a small torch out of his pocket. Maybe I’m not standing in the right place.
The torchlight seemed too bright in the dimness of the coming night. Spit looked towards the sheds once more. Still nothing moved. He turned his eyes to the ground.
The Sneakers’ tracks weren’t too hard to find. They stopped in front of the section of fence he had just looked at. Puzzled, Spit turned his torch to the fence itself.
After five minutes of looking at the mesh, he thought he could see where it had been cut but he couldn’t be sure. There were no breaks. The fence had mended itself!
Knowing, he couldn’t get in the same way as the Sneakers, Spit decided he’d just have to use the front gate. His identity card would get him past the guards there.
If there’s still a guard to get past, he thought. The Sneakers had killed the guards on all the other supply dumps they’d gotten into.
He broke into a run that took him along the fence line towards the front gate. If he was quick, he could warn the guards that the Sneakers were there. I hope I’m not too late.
Spit didn’t see the ghost-pale shadows that rose out of the bushes behind him. He didn’t hear their quiet footsteps as they followed him down the fence-line.
END FIRST CHAPTER
If you would like to read more, Spit is currently available on Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, Create Space, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.

Progress Report: Week 4, April 2013

This week I worked on balancing my work and life loads better. Here are the results, writing-wise, at least:OverviewNew words produced: 6,124Old words revised: 11,925Works completed: 1Works revised: 13Covers created: 2 (1-2 variations)Works published: 2 (2-3 release platforms)Works submitted: 12Competitions Entered: 1Tier 3
ChapBook7—Tag Man One: Revised, edited, formatted, assigned cover and released.
Extras
ShortStory25—Gods in the Lianreida: Revised 3,487 words, added 411 words, edited and formatted for release.ShortStory57: Wrote 5,051 words, revised, edited and submitted story to magazine for publication, and formatted for later independent publication
 Publishing Tasks
Created 1 blog entry for this blog;Created 1 blog entry for C.M. Simpson Publishing blog;Created covers for Tag Man One and Gods in the Lianreida ;Formatted Tag Man One for upload to Smashwords and Amazon-KindleFormatted Gods in the Lianreida for upload to Smashwords and Amazon-Kindle;Formatted Tag Man One for upload to CreateSpace PoD platform;Updated Linked-In with Tag Man One and Gods in the Lianreida ;Updated Pinterest with Tag Man One and Gods in the Lianreida ;Updated Shelfari with Tag Man One and Gods in the Lianreida ;Updated GoodReads with with Tag Man One and Gods in the Lianreida ;Updated FaceBook with with Tag Man One and Gods in the Lianreida ;
Traditional Writer Tasks
Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted ShortStory57 for publication, and to a contest;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem10—Manslaughterfor publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem11—Many Ways of Dying for publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem12—See it Happen for publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem26—Assassin in Motion for publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem27—Dagger Duel for publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem28—The Heirloom Blade for publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem29—Axe Blades at Destiny’s Crossroad for publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted Poem35—The Warrior Recalls for publication;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted ShortStory19—Screams for the Dying for reprint audio;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted ShortStory36—Dragon Coast for reprint audio;Revised, edited, formatted, and submitted ShortStory41—Blood and Iron for reprint audio;
New Arrivals
RPGSupplements3A-E: began developing product overview and outline; about gnomes.RPGSupplements4A-E: began developing product overview and outline; about elves. ShortStory57: about an elven wizard and a dragon. Completed, see above.Poem36: about a legendary warrior;

Older work re-discovered and assigned a tag:
Poem35—The Warrior Recalls

Two New Covers and Two New Releases: Carlie Simonsen and C.M. Simpson

Today was a little busy as I finalised the edits on two books, one as my alter ego, Carlie Simonsen, and one as me, C.M. Simpson. I also designed the covers and uploaded them to Smashwords,  AmazonKindle and CreateSpace, so they'll hit distribution soon.

Tag Man Oneas Carlie Simonsen:


When Jerry sees something flash on a hill overlooking the air base where his brother works, he thinks it might be a bottle reflecting the sun. His brother takes a different view, and reports it to base security. They have not had time to investigate before the base is attacked, and Jerry must do his best to get his brother out alive.
Tag Man One is the first chapter book in the Air Ace Adventures series. Set on an imaginary air base, it tells part of the story of two brothers, who share a love of flying and look out for each other.
Tag Man One is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle and CreateSpace and will be distributed from Nook, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and iTunes.
Gods in the Lianreidaas C.M. Simpson: 


When Larias, god of problem-solving and secrets, flies over the forbidden lands of the elves, he only hopes to discover what force is powerful enough to breach the elven magic protecting the forest. What he finds, instead, is a battle in which he is compelled to intervene, but, regardless of intent, when gods meddle in the realms of other gods, there is always a price to pay.
Gods in the Lianreida is a short story taken from Shadow’s Fall , the third novel in the Shadow series. It is currently available as a chapter in that novel or a stand-alone story, but will be eventually incorporated in An Anthology of Gods and Older Magic , and the collection, Short Stories and Poetry from 2013 .
Gods in the Lian reida is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle and CreateSpace and will be distributed from Nook, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and iTunes.

New Release: Spit as Carlie Simonsen

Spit is now live!
Spit is following a group of Sneakers to see how they are getting into the Border Patrol supply depots, when he is captured—but not by Sneakers. Another group, one that has snake people and lizard centaurs working within its ranks has taken him captive. The question is: Are they friend or foe? Spit has no idea, but when they come across a base under attack from a large group of Sneakers, he has to find out.
Spit is the first book in the On Patrol series. Set in the near future, in a world on the edge of war, the series follows Spit and his people in their efforts to protect their homes and loved ones.
Spit is currently available on Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, Create Space, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.

New Cover for Carlie Simonsen - Spit

E-book cover for Spit
Spit is following a group of Sneakers to see how they are getting into the Border Patrol supply depots, when he is captured—but not by Sneakers. Another group, one that has snake people and lizard centaurs working within its ranks has taken him captive. The question is: Are they friend or foe? Spit has no idea, but when they come across a base under attack from a large group of Sneakers, he has to find out.
Spit is the first book in the On Patrol series. Set in the near future, in a world on the edge of war, the series follows Spit and his people in their efforts to protect their homes and loved ones.
Spit is currently available on Smashwords, Amazon Kindle, Create Space, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.
The cover for the print-on-demand version is slightly different:

Print-on Demand Cover for Spit

Progress Report: Week 3 April 2013

Not as much completed this week as I would have liked, but understandably so, with sickness and a death in the family.Overview
New words produced: 1,868Old words revised: 5,735Works completed: 0Covers created: 1 (2 variations)Works published: 1 (3 release platforms)
Tier 3 Tasks
ChapBook6A—Spit:edited, formatted, created cover, and uploaded. This project was completed 56 days ahead of schedule
Publishing TasksThe following publishing tasks were completed this week:
Expanded the distribution on one CreateSpace title;Purchased photography and created the cover for Spit ;Formatted Spit for CreateSpace PoD, Amazon Kindle and Smashwords;Released Spit via the CreateSpace store, Amazon Kindle and Smashwords;Updated Facebook with life event for Spit ;Updated Pinterest with covers for Spit ;Added 4 blog entries to this blog;Added 3 blog entries to the C.M. Simpson Publishing blog;Updated the Carlie Simonsen page on this blog;Updated the Teen Fiction page on the C.M. Simpson Publishing blog;Updated my GoodReads bookshelf with Spit ;Updated my Shelfari bookshelf with Spit ;Updated G+ pages with Spit , Rocky to the Rescue , Long Hair , The Soul in the Sword and Pigs Might Fly entries.

New ArrivalsSurprisingly, this week had a few new arrivals:
ChapBook6B—Long Hair Parade: in which Michael learns that not everything in the movies is make believe.ChapBooks6C-E: Titles only.ChapBook5B—Rocky and the Great Teddy Bear Rescue: in which Rocky must rescue his sister’s teddy bear from an alien creature.ShortStory55: a short story of cybernetic vengeance.TeachersNotes: I am now beginning to draft a series of teachers’ notes for the chapter books.

First Chapters: Rocky to the Rescue as Carlie Simonsen

Here is the first chapter for Rocky to the Rescue .

When Rocky wakes up one morning, he discovers his house is deserted. With his mother, father and little sister nowhere to be found in-doors, he goes outside and discovers the animals are missing, too. When aliens arrive, Rocky realises that something has gone horribly wrong. Stowing away in the alien skimmer, Rocky sets out on his first and most important rescue mission, ever.

Carlie Simonsen’s Rocky to the Rescue is set on a station in the Australian outback, where help is often a long, long way away and the people must rely on themselves and each other. Twelve-year-old Rocky must either track down his family and take on alien invaders, or travel fifty miles to ask a neighbor for help. Well, what would any twelve-year-old do if they were in his shoes?

Rocky to the Rescue is available from Smashwords, and will soon be available from Amazon-Kindle, CreateSpace, Kobo, iTunes, and Nook.

Rocky to the RescueFirst Chapter: Rocky on his Own

Rocky woke to find the house empty.
There was no one walking in the hall or cooking breakfast in the kitchen. No noisy stockmen on motorbikes outside the window. No one whistling to the dogs.
He took two biscuits from the pantry and wondered where everyone was.
Maybe aliens had come in the night and taken everyone away. Maybe they hadn’t found him because he had been sleeping under his bed. He’d been pretending to be a famous explorer sleeping in a cave.Or maybe a bunyip had come and taken his baby sister and everyone had gone out looking for it so they could get her back. Anything could have happened. Rocky knew he would have to be careful.
He knew he had to find and rescue everyone who had disappeared. He sat in the pantry and thought.If he was going to find his mum and dad, he would need a few supplies. He packed some lunch and took two bottles of water.
It was summer and there wasn’t much water in the dams. There wasn’t any water in the river bed that ran past the house. Rocky made sure the two bottles were full. He thought about a third, but didn’t have anywhere to put it.
Next, he looked through the sheds and the school house and his teacher’s caravan. He still didn’t find anyone. He didn’t find any of the animals, either.
The dogs weren’t tied to their kennels. The horses weren’t in their yard, and he couldn’t see a single sheep anywhere. He couldn’t even find the cat.
“Something really strange is going on around here,” Rocky muttered to himself as he began walking back to the house.
He had just reached the back of the motorbike shed when he heard the sound of a car. He nearly ran out to see who it was, but then he remembered—something strange was going on. He slipped through his secret door at the back of the shed and hid behind his dad’s work bench.
The car came closer to the house. It was the strangest sounding car Rocky had ever heard. Sneaking to the front of the shed, he peered out.
It wasn’t a car. It was a skimmer. Rocky had read about them in books.
His mum and dad said the books weren’t true. They said no one had built spaceships except to go to the moon. They said no one landed on other planets. They said there was no such thing as a skimmer.
Rocky hadn’t believed them. They didn’t know everything. He wished they could see the skimmer. They would have had to believe him then.
The door to the skimmer opened, and Rocky wished he was still under his dad’s work bench. The people inside the skimmer weren’t people at all.


END FIRST CHAPTER  If you would like to read more, Rocky to the Rescue is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle, CreateSpace, Kobo, iTunes, and Nook.

Overdue Progress Report: Week 2 April 2013

Looks like I completely forgot to post this last week, so… before I post Week 3, which will go up tomorrow morning, I thought I’d better get this out.OverviewNew words produced: 7,066Works completed: 1Covers created: 4Works published: 4 Tier 1 TasksSciFanNovel1A—Freeman’s Choice. Chapters 7-10 revised. This project is currently 244 days ahead of schedule. DarkFantasyNovel1C—Shadow’s Fall: Still waiting on beta reader edits. This project is currently 90 days ahead of schedule.
Tier 2 TasksRomanceNovel14A—Taylor’s Story: Added 1,000 words. This project is currently 64 days behind scheduleTier 3 Tasks
Chapbook4—Long Hair: formatted, created cover and uploaded. This project was completed 14 days ahead of schedule.ChapBook5A—Rocky to the Rescue: Chapters 1-4 revised. This project was completed 32 days ahead of schedule
  Extras
ShortStory23—The Soul in the Sword: formatted and publishedShortStory30—Pigs Might Fly: formatted and published
   Publishing TasksThe following publishing tasks were completed last week:
Expanded the distribution on seven CreateSpace titles;Created the cover for Long Hair ;Formatted Long Hair for CreateSpace PoD, Amazon Kindle and Smashwords;Released Long Hair via the CreateSpace store, Amazon Kindle and Smashwords;Created the cover for The Soul in the Sword ;Formatted and released The Soul in the Sword via Amazon Kindle and Smashwords;Created the cover for Pigs Might Fly ;Formatted and released Pigs Might Fly via AmazonKindle and Smashwords;Created the cover for Rocky to the Rescue ;Formatted and released Rocky to the Rescue via Kindle, CreateSpace and Smashwords;Updated Linked-In with details for Long Hair , Rocky to the Rescue, The Soul in the Sword and Pigs Might Fly ;Updated Facebook with life events for Long Hair , Rocky to the Rescue, The Soul in the Sword and Pigs Might Fly ;Updated Pinterest with covers for Long Hair , Rocky to the Rescue, The Soul in the Sword and Pigs Might Fly ;Added 13 blog entries to this blog;Added 12 blog entries to the C.M. Simpson Publishing blog;Added 1 Magic Thursday blog entry to theDark Side DownUnder blog;Updated the Carlie Simonsen and SimpsonAnthology pages on this blog;Updated the Teen Fiction and Anthologypages on the C.M. Simpson Publishing blog;Updated my GoodReads bookshelf with all 20 C.M. Simpson Publishing releases from October 2012 to 13 April 2013, including the ones I only contributed the cover work for; Updated my Shelfari bookshelf with all 20 C.M. Simpson Publishing releases from October 2012 to 13 April 2013, including the ones I only contributed the cover work for