Magic Below Paris Complete Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 8): Trading Into Shadow, Trading Into Darkness, Trading Close to Light, Trading By Firelight, Trading by Shroomlight, plus 3 more

by C. M. Simpson

  The End

  Also by C.M. Simpson

  Origins is the first book in C.M. Simpson’s Mack 'n' Me 'n' Odyssey series, and it’s available now at Amazon.

  I ran away from home to find a better life—not be forced into one.

  You can call me picky, but a girl likes to be asked if she wants to work for you, not coerced—and Odyssey should know better. Now, I have to find a way to kick free—of Odyssey, and my trainer, Mack—without getting myself killed.

  Surviving the mission is just the first step. Getting out from under, that’s gonna take some doing.

  Available now at Amazon.com

  Author Notes - CM Simpson

  April 10, 2020

  It’s always hard coming to the end of a book – and even harder, when a series says it’s done. Thank you, for making this journey with me, and sharing the adventures of Marsh, Roeglin and their friends as they travel the Deeps below Paris, and the Devastation the city has become. I have enjoyed exploring the Age of Magic with all of you.

  As I write this, the world outside is dealing with a pandemic that looks like it could last a few months longer, and I hope you are all okay. My family is scattered all over Australia, and I have friends all over the world, so I try to keep an eye on how things are for all of you. It’s been a difficult few months.

  I started the year grateful that the aircraft I took to return from Adelaide was able to land safely after a bird took out one of its engines on take-off, and happy to reach home only 12 hours later than planned.

  I was even more grateful that the fires surrounding Australia’s capital did not repeat the bushfire event of 2003, as well – and we are now breathing clean air, again.

  I wasn’t so grateful for the two weeks of flu we had in early January, though. We traveled to Adelaide as a family and all caught some dreaded lurgy while traveling, but it could have been worse. We’re all well, now.

  Today, as I write this, I’m looking out at grey skies and rain, with the occasional patch of blazing sunshine – and I couldn’t be happier! The cockatoos, lorikeets and king parrots come and visit when I remember to put out seed, and I’ve discovered that both magpies and currawongs love sunflower seeds. Who knew, right?

  It’s quite the parade out there some days, and sometimes means the words get done a little more slowly. There’s nothing like a screeching sulfur-crested cockatoo to pull you right out of a story!

  And, speaking of stories… I’m going to have go and work out which project to write next. There are a few peeking over the edge of my folders, and I just can’t decide…

  I’m going to miss the Devastation…and writing about Aisha and Tamlin’s antics, but there are so many more tales waiting to be written – and I hope to see you for some of them, which reminds me…I still have to ask Michael what he meant in his last set of notes.

  What does Paris and the Devastation have to do with the “@#@%! Kurtherian” he keeps talking about?

  And why do I get the feeling that there is mischief afoot…

  Michael-Anderle-type mischief…

  I’m also wondering how his menudo challenge is going…and that’s something else I forgot to ask.

  Hmmm… So, before I go do that, I just wanted to say ‘Thank you,’ again, for your company on this journey, and that I look forward to seeing you around as I embark on the next, and to let you know that you all make my world a better place to be.

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  April 29, 2020

  THANK YOU for reading our story!

  We have a few of these planned, but we don't know if we should continue writing and publishing without your input.

  Options include leaving a review, reaching out on Facebook to let us know, and smoke signals.

  Frankly, smoke signals might get misconstrued as low hanging clouds, so you might want to nix that idea…

  The End.

  We really appreciate you continuing to read our stories in the Kurtherian Gambit Universe and here, in Paris. While I live in the United States and my collaborator lives in Australia, it is interesting that the city that is the focal point is basically in the middle of us.

  A city where we already showed the Eiffel tower broken in two from a series started way back in 2016.

  It just goes to show that Paris might be a bit messed up in this post-apocalyptic future but not enough that it doesn't draw the imagination of authors along with it.

  Thankfully, we put the Menudo Challenge on hold.

  Colleen asked me about the menudo challenge in her author notes, and here is an update:

  It's on hold.

  You see, when Las Vegas shut down, and we had no idea how our company would do going forward, it was a bit unsettling. All sorts of questions move forward through one's brain, and I was getting stressed out.

  It wasn't just the questions about making sure our people were safe, or what could we do at a time like this, but larger questions I hadn't asked myself.

  Questions that included, what is my job during a pandemic? How do I help those that I can? What about the people here on the Las Vegas Strip, when the Strip is shutting down?

  Some of these questions we made it through by answering as best we could, other questions I had to sit and really understand or ask a few people their thoughts about the situation that we found ourselves in.

  So, coming back from a grocery run, I called my brother and asked him to put the challenge on hold.

  He wasn't too pleased.

  He called me back the next morning and explained his concerns. Darryl was (and I am both paraphrasing and it's been a couple of months) worried that we would take this opportunity to just skip off the diet, and our long term health would suffer. Having considered it further, he figured it would be ok, provided we both checked in our weight each week.

  Give us a way to encourage each other and have a sense of obligation to keep ourselves healthy. At least that way, we wouldn't gain weight and continue a bad downhill slide in health as we get older.

  I respected his justification, and while we don't have a menudo challenge anymore, I still plug my weight into an app one to three times a week.

  I am more aware of what I eat and how it affects my weight than before we started, and that is a good thing.

  Diary for April 26th- May 2, 2020

  So, it's about six weeks into the stay-home phase, and there are mentions that states are going to slowly open up. A few words (well, a bunch) are slung all across the internet with opinions going both one way or the other.

  Then I see a video about Anderson Cooper and the Las Vegas mayor. (Full disclosure, I live on the Strip and am not officially in the Las Vegas city limits but in Clark County. This is something I did not realize until this whole kerfuffle came about, and for some reason, I'm standing just a little bit straighter.)

  Now, whether you knew this or not, I think it is interesting to note that the present mayor of Las Vegas is Carolyn Goodman (in office 2012 to 2022 (likely term limit)), the wife of the previous mayor Oscar Goodman (in office 1999-2011 term-limited).

  Further, she has been very industrious in the Las Vegas area, working for multiple organizations and leadership roles with the tourism industry, child welfare, and education. So, regardless of the state of the discussion on opening Las Vegas back up and using the citizens in this area (me included) as a science experiment (I'm rather against this notion), I find myself shocked to find out she has a lot of qualifications.

  Amazing, I know.

  Everyone who knows me through these Author Notes realizes I am cynical when it comes to government. In fact, before I reviewed more about the present mayor, I figured there had to be some shenanigans going on for the mayorship to go from spouse to spouse.

  However, it seems I should have been paying more attention to the life of Mayor Goodman the First. He has a book (by him as author) published by Hachette titled Being Oscar: From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las Vegas.

  I happen to know that there is a
steakhouse he owns downtown at the top of the Plaza Hotel named… Guess? Guess?.... Oscar's!

  He is a brand now.

  I have to go.

  I might be cynical, but steak covers a lot of cynicism.

  I did a good thing…I think.

  So my best friend and fellow author Craig Martelle lives in Alaska…inside the North Pole designation, and it costs him an arm and a leg to get decent internet up there in the frozen north.

  I happened to ask him how come he loves it up there, and without a beat, he mentioned: "don't have to live near any politicians."

  That's hardcore.

  So, I received a marketing email from Skyroam about little internet pucks and sent the email to him. I have used Skyroam in the past for internet connectivity while traveling, so I knew how it worked. Apparently, it was working well enough to let him drop a line and save a few hundred bucks a month.

  Then, I started looking at shotgunning his internet connections. I'm going to call and see if I can get him on the phone…

  Hold on.

  …. TALKING ….

  I'm back. The short answer is no, it isn't working.

  The longer answer is Craig spent an hour and a half playing with his Windows laptop, his Skyroam, and a phone that needed iTunes(??) to make it work. It hasn't so far, and I'm kinda bummed.

  He was using some software (of which I can't remember the name), but I think there is just one major reason he is having this trouble.

  Windows…He is using Windows. (This is complete and utter @#%@@! As it probably has nothing to do with Windows… But, he's on a PC, I'm a Mac guy… We have to carry the ribbing farther, even if I have to do it locked up in my condo thousands of miles away from him. Since Editor Lynne will be checking these author notes, I would not be surprised if she mentions something in here (she's a Windows person as well.)

  (Editor's Note: I shall nobly restrain myself, MacMan)

  I did the Brownstone Fries…

  Short update to the Brownstone Fries idea with Jessie Rae's.

  So, I had to speak with Mike Ross (Jessie Rae's BBQ) to explain my Brownstone Fries effort to help support their effort to make free lunches for those in the medical field.

  Then, I left a message at their answering machine for call-in orders, but I was too late in the evening to get them to answer.

  Bummer.

  By the next morning, when I got a return call from Mike's mom, she already knew all about the Brownstone Fries, and it didn't confuse her at all.

  Damn.

  I was looking forward to explaining the "I need you to charge me for fries, but it's really a gift to help pay for people at the hospitals…" schtick I talked about in my last Author Notes.

  Oh well, the gift went through, regardless.

  Ad Aeternitatem,

  Michael Anderle

  Other Books from C.M. Simpson

  The Magic Beneath Paris (with Michael Anderle)

  #1 Trading into Shadow

  #2 Trading into Darkness

  #3 Trading to the Light

  #4 Trading By Firelight

  #5 Trading By Shroomlight

  #6 Trading into Daylight

  #7 Trading into Stormlight

  #8 Trading to the Deeps

  Mack ‘n’ Me ‘n’ Odyssey

  #1 Mack ‘n’ Me: Origins

  #1-1 The Depredides Dance (a stand-alone short story)

  #1-5 Rogue Retrieval (a stand-alone novella – coming soon)

  #2 Mack ‘n’ Me: Blaedergil’s Host

  #3 Mack ‘n’ Me: Arach

  #4 Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter’s Favour

  #4-3 What Happens on Axis 58… (a stand-alone short story)

  #4-6 Cloud Door (a stand-alone short story)

  I also write fantasy, urban fantasy and short stories across the genres, all of which can be found on my Amazon author page.

  Connect With The Authors

  Colleen Simpson Social

  Amazon author page:

  https://www.amazon.com/C.M.-Simpson/e/B0086QFGFO

  Blogspot:

  http://cmsimpson.blogspot.com.au/

  Facebook:

  https://www.facebook.com/CMSimpsonWriter/

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  https://www.pinterest.com.au/cmsimpsonauthor/

  Twitter:

  https://twitter.com/simpsoncolleen1

  Mailing List:

  https://mailchi.mp/718baa508302/cmsimpson_newsletter_signup

  Connect with Michael Anderle

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