M.J. Scott's Blog, page 17

A chilly writing update

Winter has hit Melbourne with a solid thump. We’ve had some very cold days and nights. Though, I have to say, also some very pretty sunsets!

Winter is meant to be good for hunkering down inside and writing so hopefully that is true. I’m still working on Playing Fast…it’s one of those books that is coming in snippets and trickles and random pieces that I have to fit together. Hopefully soon the pieces will give me a large enough chunk to see the big picture and put it all together! Writing. Always mysterious.

Not much else to report. I have seen a first version of the cover for Playing Hard and it is awesome. Don’t know when I’ll be able to share, hopefully soon. Other than that, I’m looking forward to some time in the US next month. Though going from Aussie winter to the peak of US summer, especially in steamy New York is always a shock to the system. But a couple of weeks of sunshine and exploring New York and seeing my US friends will be lovely. Until then, it will be head down writing so I can enjoy my time away without having to knock out too many words in a jetlagged state.

Hope you’re all staying warm (or cool as appropriate) where you are!

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Music fix – Taylor Swift rocks again

A lot of people may have seen this one again but hey, it’s a great video, so I’m just leaving it here anyway.

 

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Retreating

Every other year or so my critique group goes away for a long weekend to do a writing retreat. We work on projects, brainstorm where required, eat yummy food, drink some bubbly and generally chill out. In the past we’ve headed down to the Mornington Peninsula but Keri, being intrepid, stumbled over a lovely place in Castlemaine (which is up near the old gold fields part of Victoria for non Aussies, about an hour north of Melbourne) so we decided to stay there this year.

We had a lovely time. We walked and wrote and poked around the stores, including a couple of lovely bookstores. I do love a good country town second hand bookstore. I even found a book by Susan Cooper (of The Dark is Rising fame) that I never knew existed, so am looking forward to reading that. My cranky knee was relatively happy with the walking, much silliness was had, the rain held off (mostly) until we left on Sunday and we even achieved words. So all in all, a good way to spend the weekend.

I didn’t take heaps of photos as, frankly, pictures of writers staring at lap tops aren’t that interesting, but here are a few random things that caught my eye when we were walking.

Old church (abandoned now)

Interesting garden ornaments

Pretty flowers (I think this is some sort of Hakea)

Spooky night shot when Keri and I went out walking Saturday night because I wanted to hit 10000 steps (in the end nearly did 13,000)

And then these intriguing things which we spotted in a garden on Friday. None of us knew what they were (other than cool looking).

It took the greater wisdom of the internets to tell us that this is a Medlar. Medlars are a old old fruit apparently. One that needs to be bletted before it’s eaten. So there, education as well as a mystery solved.

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Big heads of happiness (or my Pop Funko collection is growing)

I’ve never been a real collector of things (I don’t count books and DVDs and art supplies/yarn/fabric etc are consumables not collectibles). I’ve had the odd soft toy or little figurine of something I like but never really a big collection of anything but lately I seem to be acquiring Funko Pop Vinyl figures. I don’t like a lot of collectible figures as the faces of the ones that are meant to be realistic never quite look right. But the Pop’s have big cartoon heads and aren’t meant to look realistic so they just make me smile.

It started with Black Widow (because yay, they actually make a Black Widow one unlike certain other merchandise that likes to forget the ladies). Then she was lonely and I acquired a Groot. Then, that, of course, meant I needed a Baby Groot. Three wasn’t too bad. Three isn’t a collection. But then I saw Mal from Firefly and somehow bought him. And my sil spotted Thor at a market (he may be teeny but his hammer is still mighty). Then Mal was lonely so I ordered Zoe. So um, seven. Until a sale the other day which means I now have Buffy on her way along with Wash and Kaylee to complete my Firefly gang.

I think I may have a problem. But they’re cute, not a big splurge individually and they make me laugh, so I figure what the heck! Do the things that make you happy.

Here’s the collection so far:

The Marvel-ites (I fear this will expand)

And the beginnings of the Firefly crew (the other two are still on their way).

Some are bobble heads but the Firefly ones aren’t. Haven’t figured out the rationale for bobbling versus non bobbling. I will note that Zoe is the only one that doesn’t stand up on her own. Her figurine has really small feet compared to the others which I figure is the problem so am going have to jerry rig a stand (or figure out if I got a dud Zoe (how could they do a dud Zoe?).

Do you collect anything?

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State of the Mel #5

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 huddling in my Outlander cowl earlier in May when autumn decided to give up the ghost and turn into winter.

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) published by Roc and urban fantasy (The Wild Side series) published by moi.

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. 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. Team Moderate Climate. Day 1 of winter and I’m looking forward to the return of Spring. 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 (maybe that’s why the Fuzzy Girl appealed to me). Like break-ankle-getting-up-from-couch klutziness. 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 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 early next year). The Devil in Denim and Angel in Armani are also available in audiobook at Audible for US folks and Lawless in Leather will follow shortly. 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 yet so projects to be completed as time allows. 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 also melwrites. I also post various pics on FB and twitter. I take most of my pictures with an iPhone 6 (previously a 5) and also break out my Canon DSLR. I would like a micro 4/3 camera at some point but that is filed under the category of gadget lust that must wait for funds for now.

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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Playing with paper and ink

I make no bones about the fact that I’m a bit of a stationery addict. I like pretty notebooks, nice paper, patterned paper, ink, paint and colour in general. And my theory is you’re allowed to spend money on such things as long as you actually use them for what they were intended for. Don’t save the nice stuff for good or one day or best. Do the stuff you like and use the pretties now!

One of my friends is a card making guru and a Stampin’ Up demonstrator, so every so often we and two other friends have a girly afternoon of drinking bubbly and playing with paper and ink in various ways. Along with drinking bubbly and eating chocolate, of course. Craft and champagne mix well as long as you don’t have too much of the latter :D.

Anyway, I have recently acquired a Midori Traveler’s Notebook in a fit of stationery lust (and because they put out a limited edition blue one. It’s blue, therefore I must have it). The refills for Midori’s have plain kraft paper covers which is just a bit boring for me. So first cab off the rank was experimenting with some ways to decorate them.

And then I did some cards. Which I won’t show you as some people who may one day get one read this blog. But here are some bits and pieces reading to be turned into cards. And notebook decoration. And other things.

We had a lovely time and are going to try and do it more regularly. Because indulging your stationery addiction with friends you’ve had since you were twelve rocks

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Fave things – relaxation

Between writing all the books, cat butlering, day jobbing, splashing paint around and attempting not to be a complete introvert hermit, life gets hectic around here sometimes. And being a virgo, I can get very THINK ALL THE THINGS ABOUT ALL THE THINGS AND TRY AND SOLVE IT ALL NOW. Therefore I try to remember to do things to help the virgo brain turn off a bit and maintain a reasonably healthy (for a writer) level of sanity. Here are five of my fave things to help me relax so I am chilled out like the torti.

1. Headspace. This is great little meditation app.

2. My Yantra Mat. Looks torturous but is very relaxing. Also good for cranky backs.

3. Aromatherapy. I now have an ultrasonic diffuser thingy that means no candles (not so good with cats) and no worrying about boiling dry etc. Smells really do change your mood. I love peppermint, lavender and eucalyptus when I need to focus.

4. Art. Painting, drawing, colouring, whatever. For some reason it puts me in a very focused on just the moment state. Plus is fun.

5. Moving. This is the one I struggle most with doing. I don’t know why. Brains are dumb. But as soon as I do go for the walk or get on the exercise bike or swim or do some stretches, I feel better. Note to self, just do it. Or buy a dog.

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Movies I’m looking forward to

I haven’t been watching enough movies lately. Mainly because the cinema I usually go to is closed for renovation so going elsewhere takes more planning and time. Boo! I did manage to see Age of Ultron and the Second Best Exotic Marigold hotel (if you like that, you might like The Hundred Foot Journey which I saw on iTunes the other day and enjoyed). I need to see Pitch Perfect 2 before it vanishes from the cinemas. Otherwise, here’s what’s on the top of my get to the cinema to see list.

Which is apparently bonkers and awesome. So. Yay.

Because, minions.

Because dinosaurs (and Chris Pratt)

Because Cameron Crowe. Who even when the movies don’t quite work is one of my fave directors. And hmmm apparently “dude staring at something coming toward him” is the feature frame choice du jour. What are you looking forward to?

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Story Fix – The Lover’s Knot

I get sucked into book buying for a wide variety of reasons. But when I heard about a historical where the heroine is an ink maker, well, my inner stationery geek perked right up and I had to mosey over to Amazon and buy.

Look at that lovely cover! It was a very enjoyable read…featuring a heroine fallen on hard-ish times and a reunion romance (which I am always a sucker for) and I for one found all the things about her ink making and her business fascinating. Love a heroine with an interesting job. Thumbs up. I have the next book in the series on my kindle now and need to go back and read book one too.

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Winter warmers – Coq au vin

We are definitely starting to get the winter temperatures here in Melbourne. Definitely time to turn the cooking efforts to soups and casseroles and warming things. I use my slow cooker all year round but especially love it in winter. Someone posted a pic of Coq au vin on Facebook or Twitter the other day. Which is a dish I like and I haven’t had for years. So I turned to my trusty slow cooker cook books to see if there was a version that could be made the lazy way.  And score, there was!

(Not the easiest thing to photograph but it is very tasty :D)

Yum. This recipe is from The Complete Slow Cooker by Sally Wise. The original recipe uses 1.5kg (about 3lb) of chicken but I used 600g and threw in a chopped medium sized sweet potato as well.

(Serves 6-8) Recipe is for a 4.5 litre slow cooker. My version was probably more like 4 serves

1.5kg chicken drumsticks (I used thighs) skin removed

3 medium onions quartered (I used two)

180g lean bacon chopped

200g mushrooms sliced

1 cup red wine

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons chutney

2 teaspoons redcurrant or quince jelly or brown sugar

2 teaspoons sweet chili sauce (I was out and used 2 teaspoons of chili jam instead)

1 1/2 chicken stock powder

3 tspns corn flour mixed with 1 tbspn water to form a paste.

Put chicken, bacon, mushrooms (and sweet potato) in slow cooker. Mix all other ingredients except corn flour and water and pour over chicken and other ingredients. Cooke for 3-4 hours on high or 6-7 hours on low. Stir occasionally (Some people don’t recommend stirring slow cookers but mine is fairly warm so stirring doesn’t seem to affect the temperature and it makes sure everything gets well sloshed around in the cooking liquid/gravy). Remove lid and turn to high (if using Low). Stir in cornflour and water paste, cover again and then cook for about another 15 minutes until sauce thickens. Serve with chopped parsely if desired. Serve with some rice if desired but with the sweet potato, you don’t really need an extra carb.

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