Sneak Peek 3: 365 Days of Flash Fiction

Science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, speculative fiction and a touch of horror, this collection plays with just about every genre it can lay its hands on. C.M. Simpson explores new worlds, new settings and lets loose some ideas that just needed to be gotten out of her head.

If short stories are your thing—and the shorter the better—you can find tiny tales from a wide variety of genres in 365 Days of Flash Fiction.

Some of them are tales of fantasy, not quite traditional, but not quite modern.

A Jendavik Homecoming

Started on March 18, 2014, for 365 Days of Flash Fiction, this piece was completed on March 23. It describes a homecoming that is a little more exciting than anyone would want it to be.

I was tired and the afternoon sun was setting. My hopes of reaching Jendavik before dusk were fading. Why Jendavik? Because it was home, and I had not been home in a very long time. And why before dusk? Because Jendavik stands in the midst of the troll lands. If I did not make the gates by dusk, there was a fair chance I might not see the dawn. I looked around. The pines rose, thick and dark. If I’d had a horse, I’d have spurred it into a canter. As it was, as jog was the best I could do. By the time my hand touched the iron binding the gates, I was sprinting, having discarded my pack, my sword and my jacket on the stony ground. The guards were just brave and good-hearted enough to hold the gates and let me in, leaving the troll-kin, howling and hungry, pounding at Jendavik’s doors.

365 Days of Flash Fiction is scheduled for release on October 4, 2014,  and pre-ordering should be available soon.

Sneak Peek 2: 365 Days of Flash Fiction

Science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, speculative fiction and a touch of horror, this collection plays with just about every genre it can lay its hands on. C.M. Simpson explores new worlds, new settings and lets loose some ideas that just needed to be gotten out of her head.

If short stories are your thing—and the shorter the better—you can find tiny tales from a wide variety of genres in 365 Days of Flash Fiction.

Science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, speculative fiction and a touch of horror, this collection plays with just about every genre it can lay its hands on. C.M. Simpson explores new worlds, new settings and lets loose some ideas that just needed to be gotten out of her head. 

 

If short stories are your thing—and the shorter the better—you can find tiny tales from a wide variety of genres in 365 Days of Flash Fiction.

Some of them are tales of urban fantasy, but not the romantic kind. Take this tale of pixies, for example:

The Pixies at Wickman’s Cave

Written on February 16, 2014, for the February 11 entry of 365 Days of Flash Fiction, this piece expands on the pixie dust world. Enjoy.

Pixies! Who needs ‘em?

I saw a half dozen headin’ into Wickman’s caves, but not under their own steam.

See? I like potholing. Caving deep, man.

I was off to Wickman’s for a bit of a delve, but what I saw stopped me cold. Pixies, man, bein’ carried in cages, janglin’ like fairy bells gone wrong as they were taken into the dark.

Blokes holdin’ the cages were bad ass, but even they were bein’ careful not to touch the sides. Pixies bite… and that’s not all. Usually, I steer clear of the little mothers, but there was something real wrong seein’ them caged like that. Figured they could do with some help.

Anyways, I saw what else was bein’ carried into that cave and I set my phone to 000, left a message and hid the damn thing under a bush so the police could track it to the cave, and then I set about findin’ another way in.

This wasn’t my first time to Wickman’s. I know the system pretty well. I knew a back way. Only one cavern I could think of would be big enough to hold that many cages and the industrial-sized microwave they just dragged in. I might not like pixies, but no way was I goin’ to let them do that to the little varmints.

I got into the rear of the cavern and watched them set up. Watched ‘em test the fryer on one of the pixies and figured it was one too many. There weren’t goin’ ta be no more… well, not if they all went home and left the work ‘til mornin’.

I watched ‘em string lights and then bring in more pixies, start stackin’ cages along the rear wall. Ducked my head until I was below light level. Waited some more.

No one leaves guards inside. I learned that from… well, never you mind. These guys weren’t no different. I watched ‘em leave, unstacked the first two cages and headed back up to the surface. Set ‘em up by the edge of the hole and headed back in. Came back with two more.

By then, the first two were mighty pissed. I got the gist and started openin’ doors. I had a piton and hammer in my gear. It made short work of the locks. Trouble is, it looks the same when you’re reachin’ for the door as it does if’n you jes’ closed it. The unicorn hit me hard from behind before the pixies could let it know I was helpin’. Good thing the damn mules can heal as well as hurt. I’da been a gonner otherwise.

So, the unicorns took out the guards at the front, and made sure no-one else came in unless they had cop ID. Who knew they were aware of what those looked like? But they did. It went faster after that, although I nearly got myself shot for monkeying around the cages when the special squad arrived.

The pixies flew between them and me until the squaddies didn’t seem inclined to ventilate me no more, and then I discovered I was some kind of hero. Only thing was, I had to postpone my Wickman climb a whole month while they cleaned the rest of the mess up.

Not cool, man. Not cool.

365 Days of Flash Fiction is scheduled for release on October 4, 2014,  and pre-ordering should be available soon.

Sneak Peek 1: 365 Days of Flash Fiction

Science fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy, speculative fiction and a touch of horror, this collection plays with just about every genre it can lay its hands on. C.M. Simpson explores new worlds, new settings and lets loose some ideas that just needed to be gotten out of her head.

 

If short stories are your thing—and the shorter the better—you can find tiny tales from a wide variety of genres in 365 Days of Flash Fiction.

Some of them are tales of fantasy mixed with science fiction and a touched by speculative, like this one:

Bellberries and Chime Beetles

I was thinking of my young adult science fiction novel, in which a little girl is the first to eat a very blue berry. It wasn’t complete at the time, and it’s set in a universe without this kind of dragon, but it built on the idea of a small, blue dragon very nicely. This piece was written on November 16, 2013 for the November 8 entry of 365 Days of Flash Fiction. It is exactly 210 words long.

The little dragon shimmered like sapphire, tucking its wings neatly against its sides and cocking its head as it approached the child seated on the grass. She was eating bellberries, shaking each one so that the seed rattled, and giggling at the different notes ringing from each. Her fingers were stained blue and rivulets of juice were painting azure streaks down her wrists, chin and neck. Her brown eyes widened as she noticed the creature before her. It made a trilling chirp, asking for what it needed. The little girl smiled and held out her half-eaten berry, but the dragon turned its face away. Hesitantly, it laid a claw on one of the seeds carefully arranged on the grass in front of her. Frowning, the girl picked it up and held it out. The dragon churred, carefully taking the hard-shelled seed from the child’s tiny hand—and then it bit down hard, causing the beetle within to jangle with fear. The little girl laughed, clapping her hands, as the dragon crunched the sweet-sounding delicacy between its teeth. It could see a long and happy friendship ahead, one remarkably free of hunger. Usually it had to wait until the chime beetles emerged. In sufficient amounts, bellberry flesh was poisonous to dragons.

365 Days of Flash Fiction is scheduled for release on October 4, 2014,  and pre-ordering should be available soon.