M.J. Scott's Blog, page 15
July 27, 2015
Heading home
Some time today I’m jumping back on a plane for the long trip back to Australia. So here’s a song from a movie that’s set in New York (and a good one, so check it out if you haven’t seen it).
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July 26, 2015
Sunday snippet
Second last day in New York. Le sad. But hey, let’s cheer ourselves up with a Sunday Snippet from The Devil in Denim (Book 1 of The New York Saints series).
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July 19, 2015
Friday and Saturday
A few more pics from New York. On Friday I walked along the High Line and found an art store 
(where I was very restrained) and on Saturday, Barbara and I had a lovely trip to Staten Island where we had a great time at Cassandra’s book club (hi everyone!) and then having a great tour around the island. I saw the baseball field which is in a slightly different place to where Deacon Field is in my books but it was still fun to see the real thing and drive around imagining my characters in various places. It continues to be very hot and humid (and even hotter today on Sunday so I’m having a bit of a relaxing day today, doing some writing and lounging around reading). Tomorrow I change hotels again and then Wednesday the conference craziness begins!
Anyway, some pics.
Empire State building from the Highline.
Highline flowers. The gardens have really gotten well established since I was here in 2011.
Sculpture
More Highline views
The Lady looking a bit gloomy in the stormy Saturday weather
Some of the lovely peaceful garden at the Tibetan Museum on Staten Island.
One of the ferries
There is a lighthouse on Staten Island that sits on a tiny bit of land between two houses….mysterious!
Misty New York seen from the lawn of Clear Comfort (the Alice Austen house)
New York in twilight on the ferry ride home.
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Sunday snippet
Hopefully when this posts, I’m in New York, yay! Both for being in New York and being organised enough to schedule some blog posts :D! Today’s Sunday Snippet is from Shadow Kin, Book 1 of The Half-Light City series.
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July 16, 2015
Hello from New York
I’m still a bit jetlagged but here are some pics from the first two days in New York! (From the Natural History Museum and the Met).
Striped sunrise over California
Tardigrade
Central Park
Gold
More when I’m a bit more coherent!
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July 13, 2015
Up up and away
I’m jumping on a plane very early in the morning and heading here:
Two weeks of research and (hopefully) art and seeing friends and the RWA conference. Fun! I will be blogging over the next two weeks but the schedule may be not my normal days, so just watch this space!
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July 12, 2015
Sunday snippet
So I’ve decided to do some Sunday snippets for the rest of the year and am going to just pick a bunch from both MJ and Melanie books. So it will be a surprise each week. But first up, one from The Wolf Within, Book 1 in my Wild Side UF trilogy.
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July 10, 2015
Story fix – Sense8
So the latest Netflix Original series is a very unique piece of quasi spec fic relationship drama called Sense8.
It’s made by the Wachowskis who made the Matrix (so if you’ve seen that movie/s you know they’re into some intriguing concepts in their SF). It’s the kind of series that wouldn’t get made on a traditional channel. It’s about 8 characters who start to share a mental/telepathic/empathic connection. They’re from different countries, different races, different sexualities and gender indentities and it’s the kind of slow build, interweaving, attention required story telling that isn’t really given much time. It’s difficult to explain what exactly it’s about other than relationships and love and identity and standing together because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts interspersed and finding your strength/courage/breaking free with a keep away from the bad guys who don’t like us plot thread but it’s fascinating and it sucked me in pretty quickly. I just hope they make more as I really want to see where it goes. It also has Naveen Andrews in a fairly major role (always a good thing).
It also has a very cool scene where all eight of them sort of connect all at once for the first time via a song. What’s Up, by Four Non Blondes which has always been a favourite. And yay, some lovely person has put it on youTube (the scene not the whole thing).
So if you’re interested, watch it on Netflix. You can probably get a month’s free trial which is more than long enough to watch this.
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July 8, 2015
What’s going on?
In the life of Mel, things remain much the same. I am working on Playing Fast. I am writing many lists in preparation for going to NY and RWA soon. I am watching too many episodes of the Great British Bake Off on youTube and subsequently wanting to BAKE ALL THE THINGS. Mmm pastry. Though the only thing I have baked lately has been some delicious Cheesy Mustard Bread.
The recipe for that beauty is over here on Cathryn Hein’s great Friday Feast blog. It’s very easy and relatively speedy and good with soup and winter type foods.
To distract myself from the lack of pastry, I am randomly painting icecream. Maybe this is because it will be hot enough in New York to want to eat icecream. Unlike Melbourne where winter continues not to be my favourite season.
Oh, and Playing Hard has a cover. Nice. What’s up with everyone else?
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July 6, 2015
Music fix: Damien Rice
A slightly older song but one that popped into my head today. I first stumbled across Damien Rice via the credits of Closer which use his song The Blower’s Daughter. Closer is a brilliant, dark, kind of depressing film (I remember sitting in the cinema and noticing just how quiet it was as everyone was kind of hypnotised by the story of four people screwing up their relationships pretty spectacularly and no one daring to look away) and I think Damien’s songs tend towards brilliant and sad or depressing too. Very Irish perhaps. I love his voice and the rawness of the songs. Anyway, this song, Delicate, one of my faves of his, one that’s maybe slightly happier and one that’s popped up on the odd book soundtrack. Enjoy! (then maybe go listen to something happier.)
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