M.J. Scott's Blog, page 2
December 31, 2017
A year in books #12
Most of us were fairly glad to see the back of 2016. Apparently 2017 took that as some sort of challenge to continue to give us all a hard time. It is not going down as my fave year in history. I had injuries and my darling dad passed away and other life shizz went on for me and for people I love. But there was good among the bad (new kitten, I released four books, I managed to get a bit fitter and do some fun things) and, as usual, books were one of the ways I got through it all (blogging was not as there would have been a lot of cranky whining, I think but maybe 2018 will be a more blog friendly year). Goodreads informs me I read or re-read 146 books this year, so that’s about the same as last year. Possibly a few more as I may have forgotten to enter some (and don’t always put in the non fiction I read). I had good intentions of reading a lot of the unread books sitting on my kindle and while I definitely made a bit of a dent in that list, the siren song of new books by fave authors remained impossible to resist. There are worse addictions :D.
I can’t quite believe this is the twelfth year I’ve done this list but my blog insists it is! So, for the twelfth time, here are some of my favourite books this year.
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean. I blogged about this one. Old book but new to me and I think I need to re-read it soon.
Unf*ck Your Habitat by Rachel Hoffman. I like her blog and her book is good no nonsense sweary advice on getting your shizz together.
The three additions to the Penric novellas by Lois McMaster Bujold. (I think there were three new ones this year). One of my fave writers and this series is great.
Deep Work by Cal Newport. Like most people I was feeling very frazzled this year. I did a digital detox in April. I will be doing more.
The Dry by Jane Harper (and Force of Nature, her second book was just as good).
Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner. A new book from MWT after many years. There was confetti and balloons and excitement.
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley. A lovely Aussie YA about love and loss and books. Need to read more of her books.
No Limits by Ellie Marney. Another great Aussie YA romance…though this one is more a thriller. Aussie YA authors are kicking butt.
Down Among The Sticks And Bones by Seanan McGuire. The second book in her Wayward Children series. Her October Daye series continues to be a fave UF series too.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Gotta love a Murderbot. Looking forward to further adventures thereof.
Trust by Kylie Scott. Another great book from Kylie with a step into YA (told ya, Aussie YA kicks butt).
Spectred Isle by K.J. Charles. I liked every book I read of hers this year but this was my fave.
A Closed And Common Orbit by Becky Chambers. Her second book and different to, but just as good as, A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet (which I re-read this year).
Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor. Really, the whole series which I glommed after seeing it recc’d on one of the This Is A Good Book Thursday posts on Jenny Crusie’s blog (which I highly recommend if you want a nice community of folks talking about books that make them happy even if it will likely cost you money…pretty sure I discovered Murderbot there too). This series is about sarcastic time travelling historians and I hoovered it up.
Pretty Face – Lucy Parker. A great romance with a heroine trying to overcome people’s preconceptions of her.
Bountiful – Sarina Bowen. Another great author and this was my fave of her books this year.
Wilde in Love – Eloisa James. One of my go-to historical authors for fun, sexy, witty, romance.
A Duke In Shining Armor – Loretta Chase. The other of my go-to historical authors for fun, sexy, witty, romance.
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch. I read Rivers of London ages ago but then spotted the rest of the series on my Mum’s bookshelves and promptly stole them and glommed them (well, all but the last one as I am saving it).
Resurrection Bay by Emma Viskic – Another great Aussie crime series. And Fire Came Down was great too.
Wildfire by Ilona Andrews. I like everything she writes but this series went in some unexpected (and good) directions.
So there you have it. There were plenty of other great books I read this year but I try to keep this list to twenty-ish. You can find me on Goodreads if you want to see everything I read. Looking at my audiobook list, I think I mostly listened to books I’ve read before (which is my thing with audiobooks…I get too impatient with new-to-me audiobooks and often end up buying the e-book to read and then finish listening). My most listened to audiobooks this year, given I was in comfort listening mode were The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (my love for this book apparently cannot be killed by multiple multiple listenings), Gentleman Jole and The Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold, The Martian by Andy Weir and Guards Guards and Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. This year I think I probably upped my podcast listening time so that’s probably taken over some of the audiobook time. My two favorite podcasts continue to be Chat 10 Looks 3 and No Such Thing As A Fish. Honorable mentions to The Pen Addict (yes, I am a stationery geek), Ramblings, The West Wing Weekly, Conversations with Richard Fidler (whose book, Saga Land, written with Kari Gislason almost made the list), Elise Gets Crafty and Writing Excuses.
If you’d like to check out what books I picked as faves in previous years, here’s the lists:
2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.
Hopefully you can find a new fave in there. And if you want to tell me one of your faves this year, that would be great too. Because too many books is never enough!
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December 5, 2017
No Place Like You is out today!
It’s release day for No Place Like You, the third Cloud Bay book. Hope you enjoy Zach and Leah’s story! If you like reunion romances, rockstars or doughnuts, this one’s for you 
November 6, 2017
Release day for The Forbidden Heir!
Yippee! The Forbidden Heir is out today! I hope you all enjoy this next instalment of Sophie and Cameron’s adventures.
Grab a copy at:
The paperback is also available at Amazon and I’ll post again they start appearing elsewhere. If you’re a blogger who is interested in reviewing, drop me a line via my website (and you can also sign up to my blogger list here to find out about new releases and ARCs in the future).
Happy reading!
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October 3, 2017
A Season Of You is out!
It’s release day for A Season Of You, Book 2 in my Cloud Bay series. It features cute dogs, art, whiskey and a lovely hero.
Grab a copy at
Books A Million
If you haven’t tried the Cloud Bay series yet, you might want to grab a copy of Need You Now (Book 1). The third book, No Place Like You is out December 5 and is available for pre-order. You can also check out my playlist for A Season Of You on Spotify.
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September 13, 2017
The Forbidden Heir is up for pre-order
Yay! The Forbidden Heir will be released on November 7 and is the e-book is up for pre-order (paperbacks to follow).
You can pre-order at:
I’ll post again when the paperbacks are available to order. If you’re a blogger who is interested in reviewing, you can sign up for my blogger list here and I’ll be in touch soon about ARCs.
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August 29, 2017
Need You Now is out today!
Need You Now, the first of my Cloud Bay series, writing as Emma Douglas is out today! Go forth and purchase (links below the pic). And you might like to check out the playlist I used writing the book on Spotify.
And with not long until A Season of You and No Place Like You (out October 3 and December 3, you might like to pre-order those too
August 20, 2017
Famous last words
Well, on my last post I said I was going to try to blog more. And then I promptly got sick with a horrible chest infection. I was coughing so hard they thought I had whooping cough (I didn’t). The cough went away but apparently I coughed hard enough to annoy my back quite a bit with ended up with me being on restricted sitting time (aka writing time) and then just as that was recovering nicely, two weeks ago I fell over in the wet and ended up with my right arm in a sling due to a hairline fracture. I am officially the Queen of the Klutzes. Boo! So, yes, blogging still is yet to recommence a regular schedule. But we’re ten days out from the release of Need You Now, the first of my Cloud Bay series, writing as Emma Douglas. So time for a couple of snippets (I shared the first one earlier this week but realised I forget to post it here, so two for the price of one today!).
To get your hands on a copy – pre-order links are here. Along with all the links for A Season Of You and No Place Like You which are out October 3 and December 5. All three are also coming out in audiobook but I don’t have links for those yet, so will keep you posted.
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May 24, 2017
A cover of much prettiness
Hi all, popping in to share the gorgeous cover for No Place Like You, Book 3 in my Cloud Bay series written as Emma Douglas.
I’m officially in love with this cover and have been having a ball writing Leah and Zach’s book. Can’t wait for you all to be able to read it. There’s been a lot of writing and lots of deadlines for the first five months of this year but hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in some more blogging after June. But otherwise, come play with me on Facebook or get some glimpses of what else I’m up to on my Instagram! And if you want to see some of the images inspiring these books, check out my Cloud Bay Pinterest board.
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April 9, 2017
The digital detox…sounds scary but I’m doing it anyway
Why do such a thing, you may ask?
One, because I’m on deadline. Two, because I’ve been inspired by the lovely Scarlett Cole and Robin Covington who did a digital detox last month. Scarlett’s blog about her experience is an interesting read. When she first mentioned she was going offline for a week on FB, my immediate reaction was “no way” followed by feeling a bit ill at the thought. Which was then followed by “well, if that’s my reaction, I should think about doing it myself”. Then I read Deep Work and thought it made a lot of sense. I have a lot of deadlines and writing to do this year. Writing takes focus. Extended periods of focus. And I need to feed the well in healthier ways than mindless scrolling. More doing/enjoying the kinds of activities in the pics. Less watching cat videos and getting annoyed by things that are wrong on the internet :D.
Why do I need a digital detox?
Like a lot of people, I’m online a lot. Too much, really. I cut down a bit on social media earlier in the year but can feel my online time creeping back up now. There are parts of the internet I love and parts that definitely feed my creativity (hello, instagram and online art/craft classes).So it’s not all bad but it’s definitely not all good. And being entirely offline isn’t an option given both my jobs.
The internet has become a habit for most of us. One we hardly notice we’re indulging in. I know for me, it’s a major source of procrastination fodder. Procrastinating the old fashioned way via reading and craft and baking and housecleaning is, if not productive writing wise, at least productive in other ways. Also there’s increasing mountains of evidence that too much time online, coupled with the frequent reward hit that social media gives your brain does bad things to your focus and attention span. So it’s time for some time off to re-evaluate how I’m using it and what I really miss about it when I can’t use it.
What does a digital detox involve?
Optimally complete disengagement from digital devices and the interwebs. But as I said, I can’t totally turn off the internet and my device because of jobs and family. So, for the purposes of the next week, my digital detox consists of cutting down to what I’ve outlined below.
No social media, internet use only for day job stuff (luckily there are only 2 day job days to deal with thanks to Good Friday). I’ll try to resist the e-reader. I’m limiting my email checking (aiming for twice a day and only responding to stuff that actually needs responding too).
Ditto no phone games (I only play Words with Friends and do Sudoku) but out they go. I’m undecided if I’ll let myself do 1 Duolingo lesson a day. I actually think educational access is a good use of the internet. But it might be too easy to trip from that to other sources of phone based temptation. I can’t turn my phone off completely but am going to turn data off and stick to ye olde phone calls and texts. I’ll be turning all phone notifications off (not that I have many on anyway because they annoy me) and logging out of all my social media.
I am allowed to listen to music and podcasts and audiobooks on the phone because I do that in that background of other things. I’m going to read paper books and watch DVDs rather than streaming. Hopefully I’ll mostly be busy writing but also finding a bit of time for stuff I enjoy. I have prescheduled some posts on my FB pages but won’t be answering comments for a week.
So, see you in seven days! When hopefully I’ll be able to report back that I’ve finished my book, that I’ve spent some time doing some fun things, and on how I found the digital detox process….I’m not expecting it to be easy for the first few days and I’m expecting to be a little horrified about how often I reach for my phone to entertain myself then realise I can’t go online, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
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March 3, 2017
A new cover!
The Forbidden Heir has a cover! A gorgeous cover designed by the very talented Katie Anderson.
I’m still writing the book but it’s progressing well now, so the current plan is for it to be released mid-year. If you want to know exactly when then perhaps sign up to my M.J newsletter (you also get a fun freebie) or keep your eye on the blog.
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