New Release: Shadow's Fall by C.M. Simpson

The third book of the Shadow Trilogy has now been released.

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Shadow’s Fall is the third and final novel in the Shadow series trilogy. This tale contains strong elements of horror, following the path of a small group of heroes who must work together to prevent an ancient evil’s escape.

High Priest Urkhrist has settled to his task as the keeper of Beauwallin’s prison. With his long-time friend and companion, Vorgren, guarding his back, and the spymaster’s apprentice, Tara Bloodthorn, acting as his representative in the city of Thargood, he had thought the battle over, but something is wrong. Beauwallin stirs within his prison, and wizards, priests and sorcerers are being taken from Thargood’s streets. The pattern is similar to the one they saw when Beauwallin attempted to break free the last time. Gilzereet must find out if the Old One is trying to escape, again, and discover how he is garnering the power to do so—and then he must try to find a way to defeat him, to succeed, where a pantheon of gods has already failed.

Shadow’s Fall is available on Smashwords, Kindle, DriveThruFiction, Kobo, Smashwords, iTunes and Nook.

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First Page: Gulvane and the Dragon by C.M. Simpson

Gulvane and the Dragon is C.M. Simpson's newest work.

Preparing for a new era in his life, the wizard Gulvane walks the corridors of his mind, remembering the eras locked behind three doors. Forester, Fighter, Assassin. Behind each door lie the memories and skills of who and what he used to be, inaccessible, unless he chose to return to the professions he had left. Uncertain of where his life will lead him, or of what he will become, Gulvane wakes to find a dragon standing over his bed. Now, what would a creature such as that want with an elf like himself?

Gulvane and the Dragon is currently available as a stand-alone short story, but will eventually be incorporated in An Anthology of Mythical Creatures, and the collection, Short Stories and Poetry from 2013.

Gulvane and the Dragon is available from Smashwords, Amazon, Nook, iTunes, Kobo and CreateSpace.

First Page: Gulvane and the Dragon

Gulvane walked the corridors of his mind, going deep into himself to remember who he was, and explore who he might become. The years of an elf were long, many more times longer than the span of an average mortal, and Gulvane was reaching another century, his third as a wizard, his seventh as an elf. In that time, he’d lived a lifetime in each of four different occupations.

Walking down the timber-lined hallway, Gulvane traced a hand along the walls, stopping at each of the three doors that kept the memories and skills that had made up his past. The first door was an oaken gold and adorned by a simple spray of leaves and flowers. A small grey-furred creature peered out from beneath the blossoms, its vivid green eyes touched with blue and gold. Gulvane laid a finger on its forehead and let the bittersweet feeling it invoked touch him briefly. The second door was a glowing bronze, and adorned with a pair of crossed swords. The third door was the color of night, created from a single plank of ebon-wood. A crossbow adorned its center, painted in a shade barely lighter than the surface that bore it.

Forester, fighter… assassin. Was it any wonder he’d become a wizard?

He walked past the gleaming darkness of the third door and stared at the heavy columns slowly forming in the blank space of wall beyond. Soon. His heart was restless, and soon he would embark on another era of his life.

Gulvane sighed. He had enjoyed his time as a wizard. It had been peaceful compared to what he had been before. The trouble was that he had no idea what he wanted to become next… and he was getting old, his body standing towards the end of middle age. He stood contemplating the slowly growing pillars before retracing his steps, touching each door as he passed.

Assassin, fighter, forester, he could return to any one of them by opening the door and stepping into the mind of who he had been. His fingers lingered on the bright-eyed creature peering from the flowers, before Gulvane shook his head and walked on, focusing his thoughts outwards and slowly returning to consciousness.

He woke to find a dragon standing over his bed.

“You are most entertaining,” it said, “and I have always wanted an elf of my own.”

“You look like a man,” Gulvane replied, “yet I know you are dragon. How is it I know that?”

“You are wizard,” the dragon said, leaning forward, quick as lightning, and pinning Gulvane to the mattress by holding the blankets tight across his shoulders.

He bent in closer, until their foreheads almost touched, and then the dragon inhaled, moving his nose a hair’s breadth above Gulvane’s skin and taking in the elf’s scent. It was frighteningly intimate and predatory at the same time.

END FIRST PAGE

If you would like to read more, Gulvane and the Dragon is available from Smashwords, Amazon, Nook, iTunes, Kobo and CreateSpace.

First Chapters: Traveler by Carlie Simonsen

Traveler is a teen post-apocalyptic paranormal urban tale about a girl who survives a war and the loss of her family. When she ends up alone, she sets out to find the one family member whose fate she doesn’t know. On the way, she encounters cannibals and a mysterious boy. And from there, things get distinctly weird. Traveler is the first book in the Traveler’s Tales series.

Traveler knows she must cross the Rubble by dusk. At dusk, the cannibals come out, and they will want payment. She doesn’t count on the gang living on the other side of the Rubble to deny her passage until evening arrives. And she doesn’t count on being the prize in a turf war between the two groups. When a boy who seems to be made of mist helps her escape, she refuses to believe she is finally safe. The city is full of danger. Traveler knows she hasn’t found them all.

Traveler is about embarking on a journey, and overcoming anything that might stand in the way—even if that means having the courage to offer friendship, in times when it’s hard to trust. Or helping someone other than yourself.

Traveler is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.

First Chapter: Traveler

Traveler 

My name is Traveler. I am fifteen years old.

My mother said I was wild. My sister said I was weird. My father didn’t say anything. He was dead.

They’re all dead now. I could not save them. I was not there. If I had been there, when the bombs went off and the germs came, I would be dead as well.

I was away from the city in a place they called The Wilds. The Learning Centre called it Recreational Training, but we all knew it was a survival exercise.

They took us back to the city, once the fevers had died down, and told us what had happened. I cried when I heard. That first week was a week for tears.

We had to clear the city, block by block. I did not see my mother or my sister, until three weeks after my return. Their bodies had been wrapped in black plastic. By then, I knew better than to look inside, but I did, anyway. By then, there was nothing left to cry. I had run out of tears.

The next attack caught us in the open. We were burning the dead. They flew low over us acting like storm clouds, raining down bullets as we dived for cover.

After that first wave we were ready, springing for the shelters at the first sound of their engines. That saved us from the bullets, but did not stop the bombs, or the soft, grey mists that came after.

By the end of the fourth week, I knew I would survive. The constant danger had woken some, dormant sense within me and I was able to avoid the worst of the trouble.

Others were not so lucky. Either they had not developed the same sense I had, or they had never had it. One by one, their luck ran out, until I was left alone.

My name never used to be Traveler. It used to be Anne. The others that met me called me Traveler when they found out what I was looking for. They said I would be travelling for a long, long time.

My first step to becoming Traveler came on the day I started to escape the city.

 

END CHAPTER ONE

If you would like to read more, Traveler is available from Smashwords, Amazon-Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iTunes.