C.M. Simpson's Blog, page 217

First Chapters: Dear Tiger as Carlie Simonsen

Carlie Simonsen's Dear Tiger is a young adult science fiction story told in a series of letters written by Simone Michaels. Simone’s parents are exploring another planet and she’s stuck in boarding school when things go terribly wrong. “Dear Tiger, this has been the best day ever… but I lie.”

Simone Michaels is in trouble, but she doesn’t know how deep. Her letters to old friend, Tiger, reveal that her parents are missing, and that she is afraid she’ll go missing, too. When her parents’ employer takes her in, and takes care of her education and living arrangements, she is drawn more deeply into the mystery. Simone keeps her secrets as best she can, including the secret of the mysterious box her parents sent before they disappear, but she is just as afraid of opening it, as she is of the company discovering its existence. Does it contain the only clue to what really happened to her parents, or does it contain her doom?
Dear Tiger is the first book in the Letters Across Space series and is now available from Smashwords, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iTunes and DriveThruFiction.
First Chapter: Dear Tiger 

From:Simone Michaels, Alpha Centauri Home Room, Losandro’s Interstellar Academy, Mail Bag 4029, Galmon Mail Center, Emerald Moon, Tychon
Date:22 Landing 3049
Dear Tiger
Today was a great day, well, as good as any day gets when I’m stuck here on the moon, and mum and dad are away. I hope the expedition goes well for them, because, once the base camp is set up, I will be able to stay with them form the school break. They write to me often, and I am so looking forward to seeing them again.
Actually, I’m lying. It’s been a terrible day. Mum and dad haven’t written to me for almost three months. Even with the time lag in sending messages, that’s too long—and today, when I was in the middle of a practice test, out headmistress, Mrs Coleman, came to the door and spoke to my English teacher, Mr. Ross. I saw them look at me, and then old Rossy shook his head, and they looked at me again. It was freaky.
It wouldn’t have been so bad except that Rossy asked me to stay back after class.
He said I had to see Mrs. Coleman after lunch.
I’m so nervous, Tiges. I keep trying to think of something that I might have done to get into trouble, except that I know that it’s nothing I’ve done. You see, in the dorm we draw straws to see who has to go and spy on the mail room at recess, and today it was me, and today I saw a really big parcel come in.
I could have ignored it, except that it was put in my home room’s mail basket, and I knew I’d cop rays if I didn’t find out who it was addressed to. I waited until the sorters had gone. You know how they stop for a short break about ten minutes after we do. When they’d all left, I raced up to the basket and took a quick peek at the parcel.
I got all kinds of goosebumps when I saw it was addressed to me.
I don’t think it’s from mum and dad; the packaging is too official. It frightens me. You see, Tiges, it’s happened before. Kids receive official-looking packages, and then they disappear. Their stuff gets taken from the dorm, and they’re never heard from again. I don’t want that to happen to me.
I took the parcel, and I hid it in the bottom of my travel trunk, at the back of my locker. I figured if no one knew I’d received it, then no one would want to make me disappear. I really don’t want to disappear, Tiges.
I like it here. It’s been hard to be away from mum and dad for so long, but it’s been better than being dragged from one frontier world to another with only the computer for a teacher, and whatever whacky life-forms living on the planet for friends. It’s not as good as seeing new places all the time, but at least I’ve got real friends now, and in some ways that’s better.
I know you didn’t like it here, but that’s where we’re different. You like the whacky life-forms, and the computer teachers, and no one interrupting you. I like meeting people, and getting to know them a bit better, which is why I’m so scared of what that package might mean.
I don’t want to move again. I don’t want to leave all my friends behind.
I don’t want anything to have happened to my mum and dad.
And, Tiges, I’m afraid that something bad has happened to them. I’m afraid that this parcel carries some really bad news.
Oops, gotta go. There’s a prefect at the door.
I’ll write you again soon, Tiges.
Best
Simone.

END FIRST CHAPTER
If you would like to read more, Dear Tiger is now available from Smashwords, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iTunes and DriveThruFiction.  

New Release: Legacy of Dreams as Carlie Simonsen

Carlie Simonsen's Legacy of Dreams is a teen to young adult story about how Tanya learns to cope with losing her ability to walk, the withdrawal of her best friend, the disappearance of her boyfriend, and her ability to do the sport she loves. Faced with the chance of losing her beloved horse as well, Tanya has to come up with a plan that will somehow let her salvage something of the life she used to have, and the dreams she was making reality. Legacy of Dreams is a tale of learning to live again.
Tanya knows her parents have been tip-toeing around the problem of keeping a horse she can no longer ride, and whose very name makes her burst into tears. Tanya has only just discovered something that might help things, when she is faced with having to face losing her horse, Copper, altogether. The only question is, whether the family budget can stretch that far. Must she lose the only link left to the life she used to have?
This non-illustrated version of Legacy of Dreams can now be found at Smashwords, Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iTunes.

First Pages: A Window on Salukia

A Window on Salukia is the second short story to be found in An Anthology of Battle . It is also available as a stand-alone short story.

A Window on Salukia is A short story made up of a series of linked vignettes describing cyclic battles and aftermaths in fantasy, pseudo-contemporary, and science fiction settings.

A Window on Salukia is available in An Anthology of Battle , and as an individual title from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes and Nook.

First Page: A Window on Salukia  We have been watching for centuries, observing many worlds, many ages, many times. We have been watching, trying to learn and understand, trying to avoid the mistakes of other civilizations.
Our observations are directed by a force greater than ourselves, and it is this force that takes us through the window of our observatory to the windows and the skies of other places and their eras of trouble.It comes as a breeze and carries us away. The lesson of the moment concerns the hazards of war. Stand beside me. Watch. We will let the breeze carry us where it will.
*   *   *   The breeze becomes cold as if it has flowed across a polar ice cap. I feel shrouded by a fine veneer of frost, or as though I have been encrusted in tiny shards of glass. You look like a cake with too much icing.The window we are blown through has lost its shutters to a sudden burst of opening magic, forcing itself past the protective wards hanging over the palace.I do not know how we are sure we stand in a palace, but I am certain of it, and so, judging from your expression, are you. There are two armed and armored guards and an armorless man in a tunic and breeches in the room. There is also a woman and two children, a boy and a girl. The boy is the eldest, but not by more than two years.Another wave of hostile magic washes over us, and the wizard, for such is the armorless man, continues the murmuring chant shielding his Lady and her children from the enemy that hunts them.We sense the lower halls have already fallen, although there are some that still resist. The Lady must have her chance to escape, but her eyes glisten with tears at the lives lost on her behalf.She pushes the second of her children through the hole in the stonework, and whispers her last goodbyes. I see the wizard turn as she pulls the lever that slides the granite block over the opening. This was not part of the plan. She was not meant to stay.There is nothing he can do. The door is closed and already the hunters have found them. We can hear their foes trying to break down the door. The lady takes the wizard's hand for she has magic of her own. The soldiers prepare to defend their charges. I find our position beside the shutterless window suddenly too exposed.There is another surge in the magic attacking the palace, and an exultant roar from the army outside. We feel the tattered remains of the protective wards blasted to wind-tossed fragments as the last defenses fall.The wizard drops to his knees, only the hand of his Lady preventing him falling further. She draws him to his feet again and we sense the power she gives him. Now we become aware of the battle raging in the palace grounds. Now we feel the distance between this tower eyrie and the earth below. The palace, castle, is built into and from the natural face of the cliff, and this is its highest reach.
END EXTRACT  A Window on Salukia is available in An Anthology of Battle , and as an individual title from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes and Nook.

Recent Reading: The Genesis Plague by Michael Byrnes

In the The Genesis Plague author Michael Byrnes has written a fast-paced action adventure, reminiscent of Matthew Reilly in style. It also interweaves elements of occultic belief and a sense of mystique, while developing a complex plot linking events in the Middle East with ancient myth and international conspiracy and espionage.The main character is action-man Jason Yaeger, known as Google to his squad mates. Located in Afghanistan, Yaegar stumbles across a madman’s plot, and alerts his agency to the possibility of external actors. Through the remnants of an id card out of place in a war zone, Yaegar’s State-side colleague, Thomas Flaherty unravels much of the secret, while Yaegar tries to prevent the real effects of the plot in the Middle East.The pace does not slow throughout the entire bok, and the clever incorporation of elements of mystery, intrigue, action, and romance led to a very satisying read. I will be looking for more of Mr. Byrnes’ work, starting with TheSacred Bones and The Sacred Blood mentioned in the back of The Genesis Plague.

First Pages: A Vignette for Rashka

A Vignette for Rashkah is available as a stand-alone short story or as part of An Anthology of Battle .

Rashkah’s mother is mourning the death of Rashkah’s last surviving brother when the raiders attack their village. This short piece explores what happens immediately after.

A Vignette for Rashkah is available as a stand-alone short story or as part of An Anthology of Battle .

Rashkah’s mother is mourning the death of Rashkah’s last surviving brother when the raiders attack their village. This short piece explores what happens immediately after.

A Vignette for Rashkah can be found in An Anthology of Battle or as a stand-alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.

First Page: A Vignette for Rashkah  Rashkah shifted uncomfortably against the back wall of the hut, watching as her mother laid her head once more on her brother’s dead chest. Rashkah's mother's tears were quiet now, the only sign of her grief the occasional heave of her body as she sobbed without sound. Her fingers traced the badge on the corpse’s uniform, then the familiar lines of its face now frozen in the awful peace of death.
Rashkah rocked her head back against the bamboo, glancing up in time to see her mother bend across the body again. Rashkah rolled her eyes at the ceiling.Her brother was dead. The grieving had begun when his bullet-torn body had been found on the village trail a week ago. He was still dead, and the fighting continued. It was time to move on.Rashkah looked at his corpse and felt nothing. She hadn't known her brother well. He was rarely home and, when he was, he stayed mostly with the men, too old to have any time for a little girl.Her hand drooped across her knee. She waggled her fingers listlessly and rolled her eyes again. Surely her mother was finished by now. No one should grieve this much for the dead. It wasn't possible to be that sad when someone died. She wasn’t. Besides, there were more important things to worry about, like food and water, and preparing to move to somewhere safe.In the hills more gunfire sounded. The echoes of it bounced off the mountains and rolled down the foothills to where Rashkah sat. She wondered if it would cause another avalanche. Another shattering staccato reached her. It sounded closer this time. Interested, she turned her head towards it and listened. Outside, in the village, she could sense the tension rising. There was the sound of footsteps running, voices shouting, mothers screaming at children and babies crying.
END EXTRACT
A Vignette for Rashkah can be found in An Anthology of Battle or as a stand-alone title at Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes, and Nook.

Just Released: Dear Tiger as Carlie Simonsen

Dear Tiger is a young adult science fiction story told in a series of letters written by Simone Michaels. Simone’s parents are exploring another planet and she’s stuck in boarding school when things go terribly wrong. Dear Tiger is the first book in the Letters Across Space series.
“Dear Tiger, this has been the best day ever… but I lie.”
Simone Michaels is in trouble, but she doesn’t know how deep. Her letters to old friend, Tiger, reveal that her parents are missing, and that she is afraid she’ll go missing, too. When her parents’ employer takes her in, and takes care of her education and living arrangements, she is drawn more deeply into the mystery. Simone keeps her secrets as best she can, including the secret of the mysterious box her parents sent before they disappear, but she is just as afraid of opening it, as she is of the company discovering its existence. Does it contain the only clue to what really happened to her parents, or does it contain her doom?
Dear Tiger is available from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, DriveThruFiction and iTunes.

Just Released: All Alone as Carlie Simonsen

Written under my teen and tween fiction pen name, Carlie Simonsen, this short tale is about the trials of two children after their parents go missing while Christmas shopping in a shopping centre that suffers a bombing attack.

Jason must look after his little sister Emmie when they find themselves alone in a city, in another country, far from home. Did their parents survive the bomb blast, and can they find them, or will they be stuck growing up in the care of strangers and never see home again?

All Alone is the debut chapter book for tweens by Carlie Simonsen. It is currently available from Smashwords, and will shortly become available from Kobo, Kindle, and CreateSpace.

Progress Report: Week 3 February 2013

Another week, another bucketload of work complete .Tier One Goals
DarkFantasyNovel1B—Shadow Trap: written under C.M. Simpson. Removed prologue, added revised chapters 1-. This project is currently running 61 days ahead of schedule.RomanceNovel14A: written under Madeleine Torr. Added 6,910 words. This project is currently running 26 days behind schedule.
Tier Two Goals
Chapbook2—All Alone: written under Carlie Simonsen. Added the final two black-and-white line drawings, created the cover and did the final CreateSpace format. This project is currently running 5 days behind schedule.
Tier Three Goals
Annual1: written under C.M. Simpson. Added 1,000 words. This project will be rescheduled for an April 7 release, next year.Annual2: written under C.M. Simpson. Added 1,500 words. This project is on track for a February 14 release, next year.
Backburner Goals
Annual11: written under C.M. Simpson; compiled the short pieces for inclusion. Running to time for June 2013 release.Annual12: began construction in preparation for a June 2014 release.Chapbook16A: written under Carlie Simonsen; about trolls. Writing completed. Now awaiting formatting, and cover and internal black and white art.
Publishing Tasks
Completed two blog entries for this blog.Completed artwork for Carlie Simonsen’s All Alone on behalf of C.M. Simpson Publishing.Completed cover art for Carlie Simonsen’s All Alone on behalf of C.M. Simpson Publishing.Formatted All Alone for CreateSpace release.
New IdeasThis week I played with the idea of ‘writing in the moment’, suggested on one of the blogs I’ve read. They were right. Even if it takes you away from a scheduled task, writing on an idea while it’s ‘hot’ in your mind allows you to capture more of the essence that caught your imagination. This I recommend.
This week the following ideas arrived—out of the blue, in the shower, as I was going to sleep, as I was getting ready to write another story.
Chapbook16A: on trolls, to be written under Carlie SimonsenChapbook17A: two guys get married, to be written under Carlie SimonsenChapbook17B: an adoption, to be written under Carlie Simonsen.Annual11: all collected short work published in 2012; to be written under C.M. Simpson.Annual12: all collected short work created in 2013; to be written under C.M. Simpson.

First Pages: The Dragon in my Shadow

The Dragon in my Shadow is a stand-alone short story that can be found in An Anthology of Dragons.

The Dragon in my Shadow is a short tale of office politics and betrayal, which shows that some childhood things can mature into adulthood with us.

The Dragon in my Shadow is available as part of An Anthology of Dragons, and is also available from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes and Nook.


First Pages: The Dragon in my Shadow

All my life, I’ve been ordinary. I’ve done all the ‘right’ things, made all the ‘right’ moves and failed spectacularly to actually achieve anything more than mid-line success. All my life. Nothing has worked.I finally resigned myself to a life of obscurity and lack-luster non-achievement, and settled into a steady cycle of work, home, garden, television, sleep and back to work again. There was no romance in my life. I’d been stung once too often and sworn off it, at least for now. No, I was content to keep plugging away at doing my job well, and creating a paradise in my backyard that no one would ever see. Of course, I hadn’t included the dragon in my calculations.As a child I had encouraged myself with fantasies of having a dragon as a parent. I’d been adopted, I told myself, by kind human parents who’d taken me in after I’d been transformed into a human by an evil wizard. My dragon brother kept a watch on me. I could see him if I turned my head quickly enough. He watched me from the shadows, keeping  me safe from human predators, and encouraging me to succeed. But in spite of my best efforts to live up to that encouragement, I never had, and my dragon brother had faded like all the other dreams and fantasies in my life.I hadn’t known that a real dragon existed in my shadow. It was small enough to slip between the cracks of light, small enough to remain unnoticed. Cat-like in its size and cat-like in its silence, it had clung, quiescent, for as long as I had tried to excel, not at all fazed by the lack of results. The dragon had faith in me, even if I didn’t. My quiet acceptance of life as I found it pissed the dragon off immensely.
END EXTRACT
The Dragon in my Shadow is available as part of An Anthology of Dragons, and is also available from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes and Nook.

First Pages: The Duel

The Duel is the third short story found in An Anthology of Dragons , and is available as a stand-alone title.

A young lord is challenged to a duel while drinking at the local tavern. The consequences of losing are as dire as for any other duel.

The Duel is available in An Anthology of Dragons , and is also available as a stand-alone title from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes and Nook.

First Pages: The Duel

Ollie lifted a handful of foaming tankards as the inn door opened. His brown eyes picked out the expensive cut of the newcomer’s clothing as he raised the tankards in brief greeting, then set them on the bar.“Welcome, stranger,” he called, raising his voice above the friendly row that filled his tavern.He caught sight of a gloved hand raised in answering salute as the newcomer made his way to a vacant table along the wall. The tavern was busy tonight; two caravans, a squad of royal scouts and one of the baron’s patrols newly returned from their scouting, and that was before he counted the local farmers, back in from their fields.With a smile, Ollie swept the payment for the latest batch of tankards into his apron pocket, then bustled over to where the stranger was sitting. The door opened again as he reached the stranger’s table but this time, when he glanced towards it, Ollie frowned. The local baron’s youngest son was entering the inn. The newly arrived lordling was one of his least favorite customers. Ollie sighed.The stranger followed his gaze, blue eyes observing the newly arrived lordling from beneath a mat of yellow hair, and taking in the barkeep’s displeasure. Ollie wondered at the sudden spark of interest that crossed the man’s face.“Shut the door after you, Master Rockwell!” the innkeeper bellowed and watched to make sure the lord’s son obeyed.The door slammed shut with a bang of annoyance, and a nattily-dressed young man strode through the evening crowd to seat himself across from the stranger. Ollie opened his mouth to object to the impertinent lordling’s presumption but the young man was already in full flight. “You’re new around here?” he asked the stranger, though he knew full-well the answer.
EXTRACT END
The Duel is available in An Anthology of Dragons , and is also available as a stand-alone title from Smashwords, Kobo, Kindle, iTunes and Nook.