M.J. Scott's Blog, page 14

Monday music fix: Music to dance to

This song may have been the start of some mayhem at the award dinner after party at the RWA conference on Saturday night. But what happens on the dance floor, stays on the dance floor. But who can resist a song that includes the line “make a dragon want to retire, man”? Not many romance writers apparently! Get your Uptown Funk on…

 

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Sunday snippet

This week a snippet from Iron Kin, book 3 of the Half-Light City series.

 

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Getting back into a show

Sometimes you just fall out of love with a TV show. Sometimes maybe enough time passes that you decide perhaps to give it another go. Sometimes the guys are just too pretty not to give it a second chance. Being that I am pretty much a urban fantasy fan, it’s not that surprising that when Supernatural first graced our screens, I was a fan. Two very easy on the eyes guys and their various sidekicks killing monsters and sarcastically kicking butt is kind of my ballpark, even though sometimes things get a little too horror for my taste and I have to watch through my fingers.

Supernatural, for those who don’t know, is about Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who were raised as ‘hunters’ aka the traveling more blokey version of slayers (they kill all the monsters) by a Dad who was also a hunter and therefore not the best dad. These guys.

See, pretty. Sam is the guy with the longer hair (the younger, brainier, not so sure he wants to be a hunter brother and Dean is the short haired one with the gorgeous green eyes (older, kind of raised Sam to a degree, determined to carry on the family biz). The guy in the coat is Castiel. He’s an angel. (More on that later).

The show started off fairly ‘kill the monster’ of the week but gradually got more into the arcs which largely centred around the battle between heaven and hell (the show has demons and angels amongst the other creatures) and the role the Winchesters have to play. Good fun stuff. A bit of an unfortunate tendency for killing off any regular female characters way too quickly but otherwise okay. I watched for five seasons but season five was kind of grim, grim, grim and then season 6 started off grim and I’m sure Australian TV did their usual weird programming trick and I wandered off. Every so often I ummed and aaahed about buying the dvds to catch up but wasn’t sure I wanted to shell out the cash if I wasn’t going to like it. So when the first nine season popped up on Netflix a while back, I was pretty happy and decided to catch up, starting from the end of Season 5 again. I haven’t yet made it through Season 9 but I have regained the Supernatural groove. I like the show best when it balances dark or scary with some of it’s lighter episodes and threads. Like the fact that the Winchesters discover a ‘prophet’ has been writing their story and there’s a whole series of books about them. Or when Dean gets hit with a fear spell. Or they get sent to an alternate universe where they are the actors playing Sam and Dean on TV. Light and shade to balance the death and mayhem and apocalypses. Still a bit too much killing of the gals (I’m kind of scared to find out what happens to Charlie…no spoilers) but more back to the show I first liked. So yay, back in the groove. Though now I’m going to have to buy Season 10 as not sure I’ll be able to wait for it to turn up on Netflix.

So, ever wandered away from a show only to rediscover it? Are you Team Dean or Team Sam? (Me, I lean toward Team Dean though heck, either of them would do.)

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Winter baking

Still cold here in Melbourne and I’m still head down editing Playing Hard. Winter makes me want to bake (well, any time of year makes me want to bake but yummy spicy warm things in winter are extra good). Here’s a couple of things I’ve made lately.

Apple tea cake (jetlag makes me crave apple tea cake, who knew?).

Recipe here…I think all I added was a sprinkle of brown sugar on top to make it a bit crunchy. Yum. Oh, and I got lazy and lined the tin with baking paper without getting all fancy and cutting it out to fit properly, hence the freeform edges. Lazy but decorative, I call that a win!

Recipe here…I used sultanas and dried apricots instead of raisins and mixed peel because that’s what I had in the cupboard and I don’t particularly like mixed peel. Oh and half cinnamon and half mixed spice because I love cinnamon. It was tasty. And toasted well.

Anyone got a fave winter bake?

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A quick one

Trying to get back to my regular blogging schedule but the last few weeks have been full of jetlag recovery, catching up at the day job and trying to write a book and edit another one. This week there’s all that plus getting ready for the Romance Writers of Australia conference this weekend, so not much exciting to report.

It’s been freezing in Melbourne but there are a few signs of spring approaching. Like these appearing in the flower shops.

All I can say is I hope it gets here fast!

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Sunday snippet

Today’s snippet is a taste of Alex Winters, the hero from The Devil in Denim (aka Book 1 of the New York Saints series).

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Music fix – Shut Up and Dance With Me

This song makes me smile. Maybe because it kind of sounds like 80’s pop. Or maybe it’s just catchy (sorry if it earworms you like it does me ).

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Sunday snippet

This week a snippet from Blood Kin, book 2 of the Half-Light City series.

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State of the Mel #6

Every so often I do one of these posts, mostly for new followers at various places to catch folks up on who I am, what I do and an update for everyone on what I’m working on. So …

Who am I?

I’m Melanie Scott (most commonly answering to Mel). I write books. Specifically I write fantasy (dark and urban) as M.J. Scott and contemporary romance as Melanie Scott.

Selfies are good. Have a selfie. Me all prettified and on my way to the RITA/Golden Heart Awards at the Romance Writers of America conference in New York last month. You don’t want the current jetlagged me selfie. Jetlag sucks and the population of Australia would appreciate it if someone would just invent teleports already.

M.J writes dark fantasy (the Half-Light City series which is now finished and The Four Arts series which began with THE SHATTERED COURT in April) and urban fantasy (The Wild Side series). Currently sorting out the schedule for the next few M.J. books so hopefully news on that soon.

Melanie writes the New York Saints series. Book 1 in that series THE DEVIL IN DENIM came out in August 2014. Publisher’s Weekly picked it as one of their Top 10 Fall 2014 romances, so that was pretty cool. Book 2 ANGEL IN ARMANI came out December 2014. Book 3, LAWLESS IN LEATHER came out in May. Book 4, PLAYING HARD is out 2 Feb 2016 and then Book 5, PLAYING FAST, sometime later in 2016. Read more here.

My agent is Miriam Kriss at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. She’s the gal to speak to if you have queries about rights to any of my stuff.

More specifically I’m of the female persuasion, I have a day job that I don’t tend to talk about much online and so far have survived four decades living in Australia home of many things that the rest of the world things will cause instant death (to be fair, some of them do but they don’t tend to hang around cities) and a lot of very changeable weather. It is now winter here. Not Team Winter. Though I almost melted during two weeks of New York High Summer so not really Team Summer either. Team Moderate Climate.  If I’m ever really rich, maybe I’ll just follow Spring around the world. I drink Coke Zero. Coffee makes me sick (sadface) and tea just doesn’t caffeine me well enough. Besides writing, I like geeky things, movies, TV, ballet, knitting, food, photography, watercolours, stationery, music, baking, project life, naps, travel and books. I also have my girly moments (nails/make up/perfume/sparkly things/bags/shoes). I like to talk about all these things here on my blog.

I am an experienced cat butler. My two current feline employers are the Torti (a relatively sane for a calico/tortoiseshell girl who like rattly mice and glaring out windows at birds and other cats who have the temerity to wander into her line of vision) and the Fuzzy Girl (a slightly less sane, built like Garfield, tad un-coordinated, very chatty fluffy grey and white girl). The previous employers (if you go delving into the archives) were the Orange Cat (a very sweet but neurotic red burmese boy) and the Grey Cat (possibly the most sane of my cats, a fluffy smoke tabby moggy girl). I hang out with friends of the writer and non writer variety and I am slightly prone to klutziness. Like break-ankle-getting-up-from-couch klutziness. Maybe this is why I knew the Fuzzy Girl was meant to be a me cat. My teeny tiny garden is often neglected even though I like growing things.  I am team Iron Man, team Buffy, team Thor, team Ollicity, team Baymax, team genre, team animation, team Outlander, team Austen, team Minions, team fantasy, team happy endings are the best, team chocolate (preferably dark), team margarita, team ginger beer, team science, team musical, team music in general, team my heart belongs to Number 10, team reading is sexy, team thinking, team virgo, team colour and pictures make me happy, team baking, team movement is good even when you don’t want to, team glow, team don’t be a douche and team life is better with folks who make you laugh.

More about the books, please?

The Half-Light City series is an alt-world dark fantasy quadrology. It has fae and vampires and werewolves and magic and follows a bunch of characters through a particularly troublesome time in the Half-Light City which houses many races and many problems. All four books SHADOW KIN, BLOOD KIN, IRON KIN and FIRE KIN are available at all the usual places.

The Four Arts series is also an alt-world dark fantasy series. It has witches and demons and religious differences and a heroine trying not to get her life ruined by all of the above. It began with THE SHATTERED COURT in April.

The Wild Side series is an urban fantasy trilogy which follows the adventures of Ashley Keenan who is trying very hard to be a normal boring human accountant but all the pesky werewolves and vampires in her world make that difficult. The first two books THE WOLF WITHIN and THE DARK SIDE are available at all good ebook retailers. Likewise, THE DAY YOU WENT AWAY is a free short story prequel that you can find at all the usual ebook sellers plus on Wattpad.  I am hoping to write BRING ON THE NIGHT this year in between my contracted books.

The New York Saints series is a contemporary romance series about three guys who buy the New York Saints (the worst team in MLB) and the women who complicate the process. As mentioned above, THE DEVIL IN DENIM and ANGEL IN ARMANI, and LAWLESS IN LEATHER, are all out and I’m currently writing PLAYING FAST (which is the fifth book after PLAYING HARD which will be out February next year). The Devil in Denim, Angel in Armani and Lawless in Leather are also available in audiobook at Audible for US folks. The first three books will also be coming out in Germany but I don’t have dates for those yet (I think some time in 2016 but don’t quote me on that.)

What are you working on?

The last two year’s writing schedules were  a bit nutty. Which meant, naturally, that life decided to sideswipe me with other stuff.  Including a four month or so bout of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo which was very unpleasant. But I caught up eventually and continue to WRITE ALL THE THINGS and DO ALL THE OTHER STUFF I LIKE.

I’m currently writing PLAYING FAST. Everything else under consideration currently falls under the heading of sekrit squirrel business which can’t be discussed publicly. But I still haven’t received either my clone army or my allocation of minions so while there are plenty of books in the pipeline, the order of said books will depend on time and brain space. If you want to be updated about things as they happen, sign up for my newsletters. M.J here and Melanie here.

Tell me more…

Places I hang out include here on the blog (but hey, you knew that already). I love me some twitter and @melscott will find me there. I tend to be most active on twitter but you know, internet procrastination for the win, so I hang out elsewhere.

M.J’s facebook page is www.facebook.com/AuthorMJScott and Melanie’s is www.facebook.com/WriterMelanieScott. If you’re into Google+ I’m here. I get my fix of pretty things, recipes, geekiness and ideas for stuff on Pinterest where I’m mel_writes. If you want to keep up with the blog you can subscribe in a blog reader with the RSS feed via the button on the top of the page (or directly in Bloglovin if you’re a Bloglovin user using the button in the sidebar).

I like to take pictures, so if you like looking at pictures, my Instagram handle is melwrites. I also post various pics on Facebook and Twitter. I take most of my pictures with an iPhone 6 (previously a 5) and also break out my Canon DSLR. I also dabble a bit with art and pictures of what I’m dabbling with get posted in the same places.

And that about wraps it up for me. Until next time…if you have any questions, find me at one of the places above or drop me an email via either of my websites.

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Sunday snippet

Today’s snippet is from The Shattered Court. Book 1 in the Four Arts series.

PS Good grief, it’s August. How?

 

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