C.M. Simpson's Blog, page 226

Blogs that made me stop – 24-25 September 2012

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and I’m always behind in my reading, but I try. These are the blogs that made me stop this week:
C. Hope Clarke on writer expectations and making a living from independent publishing: http://hopeclark.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/i-have-to-make-money-from-my-book-he.htmlCharles Stross suggests a writing activity for honing craft and finding ideas: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/08/on-the-impossibility-of-fictio.htmlThe Alliance of Independent Authors on getting reviews honestly: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/get-your-self-published-book-reviewed/;on how to self-publish on a budget: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/self-publish-an-ebook-on-a-budget/; on questions to ask agents by Orna Ross: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/questions-indie-authors-ask-literary-agents/; and on self-publishing in Australia by Steven Lewis: http://selfpublishingadvice.org/blog/self-publishing-in-australia/J.A. Marlow on creating a new pen name for an already-published work:
I was going to keep reading blogs and adding them over the next three days, but that would have made this past far too long, so I’m scheduling it for Friday, while I write the next one. I hope you all found something that piqued your interest.

The Simpson Anthologies available in Amazon Print

The first four Simpson Anthologies are now available in print via Amazon.

An Anthology of Dragons                                                               An Anthology of Battle



















An Anthology of Those Who Walk Among Us                              An Anthology of Worlds

Blogs that made me stop – 24 September 2012:

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and that means I don’t get through them every day (or even every week). When I do get time to read them, I tend to skim unless there’s an entry that pulls me in. Since last time, those blog entries are linked below: 
ThePassive Voice: because he always does, more than once.Terribleminds: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/... I love this.Terribleminds: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/... Yes, I got suckered again... and then backed out.Terribleminds: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/... an interesting interview with Matt Ruff.DeanWesley Smith: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=7891: This one on pricing.Zombiebible: Stan Litore on Why Amazon: http://zombiebible.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/why-amazon-publishing.htmlWriters in the Storm: Laura Drake on reviving the dustbunny book at http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/dust-bunny-books-should-you-revive-them-or-let-them-die/Amarinda Jones: on the whole rose petal thing. This lady’s posts usually brighten my day. http://amarindajones.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/romantic-seriously.htmlAmarinda Jones: and this one on taking care in formatting; http://amarindajones.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/not-that-hard.htmlAmarinda Jones: on Jane Austen and her books at Noble: http://amarindajones.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/jane-austenand-things-less-noble.html Amarinda Jones: on strippers, hairdressers and cats: http://amarindajones.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/strippers.htmlLet’s Get Digital: David Gaughran talking about things he learned at Britain’s Festival of Writing; http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/conference-thoughts-treating-backlist-like-frontlist/David Farland’s Daily Kick in the Pants: On why writers are responsible for their own success or failure; http://www.davidfarland.net/writing_tips/?a=131. Also, be sure to check out his other posts on grammar J.Digital Orc: on a really fast robot: http://digitalorc.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/this-robot-will-chase-you-down.html;GalleyCat: ToysRUs to release a tablet for kids: http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/toysrus-launches-tablet-with-istorybooks_b57291Grasping for the Wind: Ellen Datlow on science fiction: http://www.graspingforthewind.com/2012/09/16/ellen-datlow-on-science-fiction/

Screams for the Dying and An Anthology of Worlds available on Kindle and Smashwords

Screams for the Dying has been released on Amazon and Smashwords. Screams for the Dying is a short science fiction story that blends myth, fantasy and science fiction. In the time in which this short story is set, banshees and star ships are real, and so are a lot of other things. It is approximately 2,500 words long and is the fifth and final story in the fourth Simpson Anthology - An Anthology of Worlds - which released mid-September 2012. An Anthology of Worlds has also been released on Amazon and Smashwords. An Anthology of Worlds is just under 20,000 words long and contains 5 short stories and 2 poems to playing with the idea of exploring different worlds, each of which is available individually. Some of these worlds are parallel to our own and others are literally on other planets, but all deal with a reality that's not the same as we know it now.  

Chuck Wendig's terribleminds Blog Flash Fiction Challenge: A Novice Revenges the Rhythm

First the Theory behind the Tale:Welcome to my third week of taking up Chuck Wendig's terribleminds blog Flash Fiction Challenges. This week's challenge was to incorporate the randomly generated sentence "A novice revenges the rhythm" into a piece of writing less than 1,000-words long. Here is this week's process. Okay, so when I started this, I was very aware I was working in a limited time frame. For a start, I only had time to really look at it today, after finishing my novel. So, at first I was going to write a thousand-word story, exactly 1,000 words like last time, and that reminded me of the hundred-word challenges I'd participated in before. I was also going to use the mandatory line "A novice revenges the rhythm" somewhere in the middle of the story, but when I started writing, it wanted to be first on the page... and that's when the whole project changed.
It stopped being a hundred-word prose piece. You might have noticed that the mandatory line has a certain rhythm of its own, and this influenced the whole way my mind saw what was going down on the page. Instead of plain prose, it became a standard poem written in rhyme, or close to it.
And it stopped being a hundred words. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get the wordage to come down and still allow the story to play out in rhyme. And, yes, the change of tense was deliberate but the story frame that resulted was not. So, without further ado, here's my bit of bloggery and word murder:
The Novice and the Damned
A novice revenges the rhythm and we all sit here stunned. On stage the feature band lies bleeding, but the novice did not run. Brought in to open the concert, soothe the fans and set the stage, the novice played a killer riff while on the drums whole wars were waged. The sax did not stand idle, the base-man channeled doom. The feature band, though in demand, could not drown their echoes from the room.
The feature band took to the boards and played their hearts out to the stands. The novice made the audience and listened to the damned. When the gunfire came, and gouts of flame shot from the speakers on the stage, the novice took the gunner down and tried the band to save. When all was done and the cops had come, the novice wept alone, surrounded by the empty chairs for those nearest her had gone. We all sit in silence as the ambos do their work. Her grief tears at our hearts and minds as we in shadows lurk. 

Progress Report Week 4 September 2012

Four-day work week as I took Monday off. This means I got a lot of writing done. Lots of formatting for upload took time during the week, but at least it was done.Current ProjectsThis week I made the following progress on my current projects:·         DarkFantasyNovel1A: revised and added 11,000 words to the rewrite (so far I’ve added 7,500 new words to this project in spite of cutting out a lot of other words);·         DarkFantasyNovel1B: nil, waiting on DarkFantasyNovel1A;·         DarkFantasyNovel1C: nil, waiting on DarkFantasyNovel1A;·         SciFanNovel1A: nil, waiting on DarkFantasyNovel1A;·         Anthology5: nil, waiting on ShortStories36-37, 39-40.Publishing and other Non-Writing TasksThe following tasks were completed this week:·         Uploaded ShortStory19—Screams for the Dying to Kindle and Smashwords;·         Uploaded Anthology4—An Anthology of Worlds to Kindle, Smashwords, CreateSpace and DriveThruFiction;·         Repriced all previous work on Kindle and Smashwords to new pricing scheme;·         Uploaded An Anthology of Worlds, An Anthology of Those who Walk Among Us , and Anthology of Battle to Create Space and DriveThruFiction;·         Updated blog 2 times;·         Formatted and uploaded a large-print version of An Anthology of Dragons to CreateSpace;·         Finalised the artwork for RomanceNovel1A by PenName2.

Bowing out of the latest TerribleMinds Flash Fiction Challenge – A Second Game of Aspects

Okay, so in last week's challenge we had to choose three random genre aspects and blend them. That was such a blast that I thought I’d give this week’s a whirl. Uh oh.The topics were as follows:1.      Splatterpunk: I have no idea what this is, but it’s probably graphic. Uh, this could be difficult.2.      A Space Station: Can do.3.      A Funeral: hmmm, now why do I think this project just went terribly south?So, task one. Let’s go find out what splatterpunk is. Google is your friend… no, really :-). References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatterpunk;http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=splatterpunk http://www.tabula-rasa.info/Horror/Splatterpunk.html http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/splatterpunk http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/splatterpunks-extreme-horror-edited-by.htmlhttp://monsterlibrarian.com/Splatterpunk101.htm
Okay, now, the truth is I have discovered I can write this stuff, and I have works in progress with strong elements of it, but I’m not comfortable with it, and I’m definitely not ready to publicly own it. It also doesn’t yet have a place on this blog because if I write it, I’ll be writing it under a pen name which may have a page here, or a blog of its own; I’m still deciding. Sooo, with a mild feeling of self-disappointment, I’m shying away and chickening out of this week's challenge.I *did* re-roll the first element to see if I could still participate, but the story was already there. Funeral, space station and splatter. It’s not going away, so I am bowing out and waiting for next week’s challenge… while noting down the bones so I can work on it at my leisure. I’m just not ready to share.Go check out terribleminds for links to the latest crop of challenge stories. They're due in by the 21st. While you're there, go check out the rest of Chuck Wendig's blog.

Progress Report Week 3 September 2012

Not a lot achieved this week – worked three 10-hour days, and dedicate one other for family time. Also, art work development is taking a bit of time.Current ProjectsMade the following progress on my current projects this week:
·         DarkFantasy1A: +2,000 words; and·         ShortStory41: 1,000 words total, titled Blood and Iron.
Publishing and other Non-WritingTasksThe following publishing tasks were completed this week:
Updated blog 4 times;Continued building art skills (very time-consuming, but worth it… and fun!)       o   Learnt how to create the ‘mist’ effect in Gimp;
       o   Learnt how to cut an image out so that it has no background to obscure previous layers   
                     in Gimp;
       o   Learnt how to import an image as a layer to an existing image;
       o   Learnt how to add colour to an image layer background so it blends with the existing 
                     background; could not work out how to create the ‘mist’ effect as part of an image layer
                     background without placing the mist effect layer over the image as well… suspect it
                     may not be possible.
Purchased first stock images for covers.Started black-line drawings for ChapBook10A.Took out membership in a convention.Booked a day of workshops to improve writing craft.Bought resource books.
Backburner ProjectsThe following projects have received a little love this week:
Novella3A: +1,000 words for PenName1;
New ArrivalsThe following ideas arrived this week:
RPGSupplement1A-D arrived this week: Variations on halflings, including one I promised to develop a long time ago. This will be a backburner project.RPGSupplement2A-D also reminded me it existed: The theme on this one is shapeshifters.RPGSupplement3A-D about insects, bugs and possibly arachnids;RPGSupplement4A-D about dinosaurs, just ‘cos.RPGSetting6 is a bit steampunky.ShortStory41 based on terribleminds flash fiction challenge due 14 September 2012. Completed and uploaded 13 September 2012.

TerribleMinds Flash Fiction Challenge for 14 September – A Game of Aspects: Blood and Iron

Here is my entry for this week's Flash Fiction Challenge from the terribleminds blog. Barring the title, it is exactly 1,000 words long.
Blood and Iron“Every woman he touches. The only thing they have in common is you.”Haft knew Stan would tell him they had to leave and Haft had his eye on the prettiest wench yet. Stan did not know about her; Haft liked it that way. He glared at Stanislau.Stanislau was a tall man, dark-haired and bronze-eyed, handsome and smart enough to turn his hand to anything, but not smart enough to back down.“You know I’m right, Haft,” he said.Haft curled his lip in a snarl. He knew no such thing. They had left the last city because of the killings, and Haft now had a price on his head.“Haft will be blamed,” he said. “Like before.”The words rang like a truth, and the bar stilled.Stanislau looked surprised, and Haft suspected the sneak had known, but chosen not to share. He reached for the wine bottle, contemplating whether or not to drink or tighten his grip so that the clay shattered. In the end he drank.“Be gone, wizard,” he said, looking past Stan’s shoulder.“Our problems are aligned.” The wizard stalked up to the table and reached it as Haft swigged a mouthful from the bottle. Quick as light, he reached across took the bottle and tossed back a mouthful just as big.“There,” he said, handing the bottle back. “We have drunk together. Now we will speak.”Haft had grasped the bottle instinctively. Part of his head wanted his sword, and part of his head reminded him the wizard was right.“So, speak,” he said, his face like thunder.“You’ve been seeing my daughter,” the wizard replied. “I do not want the Garitzik to kill her.”“Garitzik?” Stanislau asked.“You speak Westlander,” Haft said to the wizard.To Stanislau, he answered, “The people of stone and shadow.”He lifted the two, heavy-bladed, short-axes from the table. When he called their names in battle his voice sounded like thunder and rockfalls. Their names translated to ‘Blood’ and ‘Iron’ but they meant much more. The great sword he carried over his back was called ‘Justice’, but Haft had never told Stan that. The sneak might ask him to use it more often.The Garitzik were angry with him, but they would not stoop to killing the women he made pleasure with, and they did not despoil their kills the way these dead had been despoiled. There was one, however, who dwelt among the shadow people. Haft had known he would be trouble. Haft just had not thought he would be Haft’s trouble.“Where are you going?” Stanislau asked.“To make peace,” Haft said.Stanislau followed.“Aren’t you going to ask a price?” he asked.Haft didn’t answer; he just kept walking. Out of the tavern and into the street. Truth, he had been thinking of a price. The wizard would pay richly for the life of his daughter. He had thought to ask for the girl, even though Stan would demand his share. He had thought to ask for gold. He had tried to ignore the small voice which said it was his fault, and he should fix it just because it was so. This made Stan’s question hard to answer. So Haft did not answer it.“Do you know where you’re going?” Stanislau had followed him, lengthening his stride to match.Haft grunted in assent. When Stan opened his mouth again, the Westlander spoke.“Fight beside me or go drink with the wizard,” he said.They had reached the fountain where Haft’s dark-haired prize had promised to meet him. She was staring into the pool, clothed in robes of silver and gray. She turned and smiled as Haft and Stanislau entered the square.“You came!” Her gaze caught his companion and her smile broadened. “And you brought a friend.”Haft registered her robes, the newly engraved tattoos on her cheeks and wrists, and felt shock jar through him. He was too late to save her from the Garitzik; she had made her pact.“She’s not your usual type,” Stanislau said, as the air above the water opened.Haft pretended not to see, but closed the space to the fountain before the first Garitzik appeared. Swift as light, he drew Blood and swung it down, cleaving through the girl’s shoulder and chest with a roar, as he pulled Iron from its hanger. Blood and Iron met through the sorceress’s rib cage and Haft used his booted foot on her torso to pull them free.The shadow gate snapped shut, but not before three of the gargoyle-like Garitzik had dropped through it, vengeance in their eyes. Haft took two, angry because his blades would chip against their stony hides, furious the sorceress had tried to make them her sacrifice for power. Stone flew as Blood and Iron struck home, hewing the creatures to pieces. When he was done, he rescued Stanislau, who had been skewered through the shoulder by a tail and was holding the gargoyle’s teeth from his throat by placing both hands on its neck. Haft used Justice to take its head off.Stanislau was struggling out from under its body when applause sounded from behind them and another man stepped out from between two buildings at the square’s edge. He kept clapping as he crossed to the sorceress’s body. Stooping, he reached into her chest and pulled out her ruined heart.“What a waste!” he said.“You!” Haft roared and hefted Justice, but the man held up a hand and the sword rebounded from solid air.“You despoil them; I purify them,” he said. “The impure should be punished.”“There are others,” Haft said. “Why only mine?”“I don’t have time for them all. Yours are easy to find; I only have to follow you.”“But I am blamed.”The man shrugged.“That is only justice after all.” He examined the heart in his palm, and raised it to his lips.Haft and Stanislau struck together, but their blades found only mist and shadow.

The Process behind writing to the latest TerribleMinds Flash Fiction Challenge – A Game of Aspects

So, I’ve decided I might just have to make the time to play with the flash fiction challenges Chuck Wendig posts on his terribleminds blog. They just look like too much fun to ignore any longer. This week we had to pick one word from three lists. I used a d10 for mine.From Column 1, I ended up with: Sword and Sorcery(so far, so good; it could have been ‘erotica’ or ‘body horror’ and then where would I have been?);From Column 2, I ended up with: Serial killer (not too bad, but I was secretly hoping for ‘dinosaurs’ or ‘insects’);From Column 3, I ended up with: Man Versus Himself(YIKES!!!)So, I rolled these at around 09:50 AEST on the 9 September 2012, and then I let it stew while I worked on a couple of other projects (I know I should ‘finish my shit’; I’m doing that, but I can’t do it by writing one thing at a time – sorry, it’s just not how I roll).Anyway, I wanted to make sure I avoided the clichés, the biggest one of these being the serial killer ending up, surprise-surprise, being the guy hunting the serial killer – this is akin to the worn-out trope of the arsonist being the fire investigator chasing the arsonist. I also wanted to avoid the serial killer being a species of legendary creature that tends to kill to protect its lair or for food, or just because it’s made that way, a medusa, for instance. I discovered I had a dilemma when I found out that sorcerers in sword and sorcery are usually the villain, because I truly didn’t want to follow the old ‘mad wizard’ cliché, either.After that, I decided I needed to make sure I actually understood what I was writing about, so I did a little research.I was way off base with my initial understanding of sword and sorcery. Here’s the simplified definition I came up with after doing a bit of reading:Sword and sorcery is a fast-paced adventure in a fantasy environment with protagonists who rely usually on their wits and their strength to succeed. These characters are usually outsiders to the culture and usually adventure for personal, self-satisfying reasons, such as wenching, wealth, or revenge and not because it’s the right thing to do or because they’re unintentional heroes. Robert E. Howard is considered one of the earliest writers in the sword and sorcery sub-genre. Main characters featured in sword and sorcery seem to be barbarians, or the thief-quick swordsman such as the Grey Mouser. Magic-users tend to be villains or, at the very least, untrustworthy companions with unfathomable agendas of their own. The gods tend not to play a big role in sword and sorcery.Web Resources for the definition of Sword and Sorcery are as follows:·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_sorcery·         http://writinghood.com/literature/sword-and-sorcery-a-fantasy-subgenre/·         http://www.blackgate.com/the-demarcation-of-sword-and-sorcery/·         http://www.swordandsorcery.org/defining-sword-and-sorcery.asp·         http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/07/mind_meld_what_sword_and_sorcery_means_to_me/I did a quick sketch of the definition of a serial killer, based on a bucket-load of background reading I’ve done for other stuff. It’s important to note that these (usually) guys are not cookie cutter stereotypes either. I decided I’d work with the following:Serial killers are, according to the science, broken. They kill because it satisfies a need or deficiency within themselves. As a serial killer progresses, time between kills often grows shorter. Serial killers can evolve in their modus operandi and some set the scene of their kills. Staging can be a way of bragging, drawing police or community attention, or a means of justifying the murders being committed.And finally, I took a look at the Man Versus Himselftheme. So, I guessed this could be an internal conflict but I want to avoid the cliché of the guy doing the hunting being the guy doing the killing. Still, I had to recognize that internal conflicts come in all shapes and sizes. I also wanted to avoid the ‘surprise’ cliché of the killer being a woman. I know female serial killers exist, but they’re rare. The problem I then had was that guy serial killers are the norm so I decided to go with whatever gender suited the story best. Man Versus Himself could also mean mankind versus himself, I guess, but I have a feeling that this definition is more along the lines of one man’s battle with himself for whatever reason. Common internal battles include, crossing moral lines, fighting with addictions, or yielding to temptation. I guess one of those should work just fine.
Now all I have to do is work the outline, fit the ideas into 1,000 words and post it here, with the link at terribleminds.