M.J. Scott's Blog, page 13

Sunday snippet

Snippet time. One from The Shattered Court (Book 1 in the Four Arts series).

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Sunday snippet

Snippet time. A glimpse of Fire Kin…Book 4 of the Half-Light City series.

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Writing writing

Still writing the book that will not die aka Playing Fast. But I think I’ve cracked the sucker now and am determined to have typed THE END by the next one of the updates. In the meantime it’s sore hands, sore brain, not that much time to write long blog posts, not enough naps, too much caffeine and too many quick meals.

Looking forward to diving into this once I have some time back on my hands. Lots of yummy sounding things inside.

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Books I’m looking forward to – Spring 2016 edition

Having bawled my way through The Shepherd’s Crown, once again, a quick waltz through books I am waiting impatiently for…

A Curious Beginning – Deanna Raybourn (hopefully arriving soon)

A Red Rose Chain – Seanan Mcguire (I believe winging its way to me as I type, so yay)

The Legend of Lyon Redmond – Julie Anne Long

Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert

My American Duchess – Eloisa James

King’s Rising – C.S. Pacat (If I could time travel to get this book, I would….)

Sorcerer To The Crown –  Zen Cho  (Out already but waiting for the Aussie kindle version but Regency. Magic. Regency. Magic. Say no more.)

Dark Wild Night – Christina Lauren

Gentleman Jole and The Red Queen – Lois McMaster Bujold (New Vorkosigan book. New Vorkosigan book focused on Cordelia. All the woot. But out the same day as King’s Rising…I’m hoping they both don’t actually arrive the same day or I may die of excess caffeine consumption as I try to read them both in one day)

Dirty – Kylie Scott (new series, can’t wait)

And a few of the books I’ve read and enjoyed recently…. Ready Player One (Ernest Cline), The Royal We (Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan), Magic Shifts (Ilona Andrews), Him (Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy), Updraft (Fran Wilde), Taking The Heat (Victoria Dahl).

 

 

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Sunday snippet

Another Sunday (anyone else wondering where the weeks are going?). This time from Angel in Armani. Book 2 in The New York Saints series.

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Story fix: Nashville

So I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures because if you like something then go for it but if I did believe in them then the show I’d currently classify as my guilty pleasure watch would be Nashville.

Otherwise referred to between my friends and I as “the crack show”. Nashville is pretty much soap opera with singing. In this case country music rather than pop (Glee, sadly now finished) or Broadway (Smash, sadly finished too soon). So if country isn’t your thing then this may not be your crack. It is apparently a rule of Mel that if there are some romances to root for and people open their mouths and belt out a good tune every so often, then much crazy will be sat through. Nashville has some great story lines and great actors (Connie Britton = goddess, also I envy her ability to rock a bronzey black smokey eye without becoming a runny eyed mess and her mane of immaculate strawberry blonde hair) but the characters do tend toward the soap opera school of “I vow to change and do better” one second and then turning around and making the same damn mistake the next. It starts with a fairly simple established diva versus up and comer rivalry with a bit of complicated relationship backstory for both and then just takes off into awesome bonkers from there. But they somehow manage to keep you wanting more. Part “I must know what happens next”, part “I want to hear the next song”, part URST (and RST that morphs back into URST) and part “is X going to continue to be a tool/trainwreck/idiot”. Not sure how you’d make that work in a book but it makes for some entertaining TV.

So, got a fave crack TV show (I have many. This is just currently the crackiest. To the point where I may be re-watching s1 and 2 while aussie TV drip feeds s3 too slowly). Name your poison so we can all share the fun!

Oh, and here’s a Nashville song. Just to give you an earworm.

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A fitting end

My copy of The Shepherd’s Crown arrived in the mail today.

The last Discworld book by Terry Pratchett. It came out last week and I will confess to not waiting for the hard copy version and also buying and reading the ebook on release day so I could read it before I heard any spoilers. I will also confess to crying quite a bit reading it and it takes a lot for a book to make me cry. I liked it a lot. Raising Steam felt to me like he was saying goodbye to Ankh Morpork and the city based characters whereas The Shepherd’s Crown is a farewell to Tiffany and the Chalk and Lancre and the Feegles and the witches, who have always been my favourites (as much as I adore Sam Vimes, the witches are my main gals). As goodbyes are, it was bittersweet.

I don’t want to believe there are no more first reads of a Pratchett book but it’s true. Which sucks a mighty suck (Crivens, it sucks!). But I’ll sit down and read the hard copy soon. More slowly this time. No doubt I’ll read it many times over the years and probably listen to it too, like I’ve read and listened to all the other Discworld books over the years. So thank you, Terry for those happy hours past and to come. Gone too soon but not forgotten.

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Sunday snippet

Sunday again. So it’s snippet time. Back to The Wolf Within, Book 1 of the Wild Side trilogy.

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Writing on water

Between travelling and getting over jetlag and conferences and revisions and trying to finish a book, there hasn’t been much arty stuff happening round here lately. Starting a new watercolour course next week which should rectify that but here’s a video of someone else (Leigh Reyes who is a fountain pen/calligraphy blogger) doing cool stuff with paper, ink and water. I think that’s a folded nib pen she’s using. Another toy to put on the ‘must try one day’ list

 

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Fave things: Eyeshadow the easy way

Time for a girly post! For many years, I almost exclusively wore MAC eyeshadows. They last forever, they have great colours and I didn’t really need to go looking elsewhere. I have a pretty good collection of colours, though I’ve culled it down considerably from it’s hey day. Most of them are powders but I had one cream one (Shell?) which was a good easy base colour but I preferred the powders. For ages, not many other companies seemed to be doing cream eyeshadows so I never really used them.

But then a couple of years ago, Clinique brought out their chubby sticks for eyes and seeing as I liked their lip ones and I’d seen a couple of YouTubers use them, I thought I’d try them. Reader, I liked them. The brilliant thing about cream eyeshadows (at least in their new improved formulas) is that they’re VERY easy to apply (swipe across lid, blend out with brush or finger then repeat if you want to build colour) but somehow (probably because most of them have a hint of sheen or shimmer to them that catches the light differently on different parts of your eyes) they look like you’ve done a lot more work and are wearing more colours than you are. Plus great for travelling because, unlike powders, they don’t break (well, I guess the pot could smash if you dropped it on something hard enough but far less fragile than powder eyeshadows). Sold. I still use powder eyeshadows for a full look or a very light eye/lots of lashes if I’m doing a full on red lip or something but I’d say about 80% of the time I use one of my cream eyeshadows. I’ve tried quite a few brands now. And here are some of my faves.

Clockwise from the top:

Charlotte Tilbury Eyes to Mesmerize in Veruschka (a bronzey green/khaki)

Urban Decay Primer Potion (Not an eyeshadow but eyeprimer is the key to having these stay in place if you have oily skin like me. This is my fave. Works with powder too).

Clarins Ombre Matte Sparkle Grey (These are cream to powder and matte in finish though this one has some shimmer)

Clinique Chubby Stick Lavish Lilac which is a nice grey purple (my other fave colour in these is Full’o’Fudge which is a taupe)

Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze (Bronze…though leaning toward taupe more than coppery bronze). These are the cheapest of the ones I’ve tried and are just as good though most of the colours aren’t my thing.

I also like the Chanel Illusion D’ombre ones which tend to be sheerer but very pretty. And I have a Bobbi Brown in basic pale ivory/taupey shade as a base that lasts really well too. So if you like eyeshadow but like me can’t be bothered spending heaps on time on a full on eye in the morning, try one of these!

 

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