M.J. Scott's Blog, page 20

April writing update

Could be summed up as hooray, I reached

on PLAYING HARD and it is officially submitted to my editor but there are more things afoot. I’ve officially started PLAYING FAST which I want to have a draft of before I jet off to the US in July. So far it is fun. But I probably say that at the start of every book. But of more immediate interest is the fact that there are now less than two actual weeks until THE SHATTERED COURT hits the shelves on April 28. Find out more and find all the links to the lovely places that will let you pre-order on MJ’s website over here. Let’s have another quick look at the beeyootiful cover to tempt you further…

Even better, seven short days after The Shattered Court hits the shelves, LAWLESS IN LEATHER (which is Mal’s book for those who have been playing along with the New York Saints series) will join it. Linky goodness etc over here on Melanie’s site. And here’s a dose of Mal abs. You know you want ‘em

So that’s all the news that’s fit to blog. There will be some more tidbits about The Shattered Court and Lawless in Leather popping up here over the next few weeks. Possibly some giveaway too so, keep checking back. There will be other giveaways exclusive to newsletter subscribers so don’t forget to sign up for my newsletters on MJ’s or Melanie’s sites.

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Music fix: Songs for a bad boy

So I’m putting together a sound track for Playing Fast, the fifth New York Saints book. The hero has a bit of a journey to go on and I’d say this sums up my heroine’s view of him at the start of the book. This is going to be fun….

 

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Sunday Snippet – Lawless in Leather #6

More info and pre-order links here.

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Getting my yarn on (the knitting kind)

I am a knitter. I am bad crocheter. I am a very out of practice spinner. I love yarn (it’s that colour thing again with bonus pettable texture thing thrown in). I embrace my inner nana. I even have a neglected knitting/craft blog which I really should move over here. However, my inner nana has been neglected lately. In August 2013 I got a bout of vertigo that lasted quite a while and vertigo and knitting do not get along. And then last year was the year of many books out and the year of writing all the things and though I actually wound some wool for a project and knit a few rows on a pair of socks, I did not actually knit a whole thing. Sad knitter face.

In the meantime I have been watching Outlander (have you been watching Outlander are you team Hot Scot aka this guy:

I am definitely team Jamie Fraser and have been since the books first came out way back when. And I think the TV show is doing a bang up job of bringing the books to life. Including draping Claire in some gorgeous bits of handknitting that are suited to the 1743 setting. Such as:

and

I have partcularly lusted after that cowl in the second image. Though not in brown. Most browns and I do not mix. But the other day I was rewatching and saw it again and thought “self, that is very chunky and therefore would not take long to knit and what’s more surely some enterprising Ravelry peeps have put out Outlander patterns by now so it will be easy” and shortly thereafter I found a pattern on Ravelry and had:

and after an hour’s knitting last night I have

 

Which is about half of it. I am thinking that the yarn is not quite heavy enough but I like it anyway and I like cowls so I’ll finish and then decide if I want an even heavier one. Not quite as chilly as the Scottish Highlands in 1743 here in Melbourne so maybe not. Even if I do it will be even quicker to knit.

So yay for quick knitting projects. Now if only I could find the yarn I put together last year for the scarf I want to make…..

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Movies I’m looking forward to

Almost emerged from the writing cave…just doing the final polish of Playing Hard before it goes off to my editor. One thing I’ll definitely be doing once I’m out of the deadline zone is checking out some movies.

Here’s a few I’m looking forward to

Because, Marvel! (Also Chris Hemworth and Robert Downey Jr)

Because Minions make me laugh.

Because Music geek (even though I wasn’t sold on the romance in PP1, I’m looking forward to this.

I also need to see The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which I haven’t yet managed to see (Because Judi Dench rocks as do most of the other actors in that movie and the first one was great).

What’s on your must watch list?

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Books I’m looking forward to – Autumn 2015

A random selection from my TBR pile and books that will be added to the TBR pile once they are out:

Captive Prince and Prince’s Gambit by C.S. Pacat. Yes, I’ve already read the e-versions but the Australian print versions have pretty, pretty covers, so I’m buying them. And re-reading them. And hanging out for book three.

Four Nights With The Duke by Eloisa James. Which is somewhere in the mail on its way to me as we speak. Yay.

An Apprentice to Elves by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette. I believe this is out in October. It’s been a long wait but yay.

The Legend of Lyon Redmond by Julie Anne Long. Lyon’s book. Finally. Pennyroyal Squee!

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn. New series by Deanna. Hurrah.

The Samaritan by Mason Cross. I read The Killing Season, Cross’ first book last year and really enjoyed. Good action thriller stuff in the vein of Lee Childs.

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett. Will be bittersweet. But I will read it. Vale Sir Terry.

Beautiful Secret by Christina Lauren. Have been enjoying this series a lot. Good steamy contemporary romance.

City of Light by Keri Arthur. Having read the start of this a while back (yay for critique partners of awesome) I am hanging of the full book.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen – Lois McMaster Bujold. New Vorkosigan book. What’s more new Cordelia book. Not until next year but can’t wait!

What’s on your bookworm satisfaction list currently?

 

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Sunday Snippet – The Shattered Court #5

More info and pre-order links here.

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It’s a mystery

Well, I was going to do one of my story addict type posts today but it has been a very busy March in Mel world and today I finally typed “THE END” on my draft of PLAYING HARD and therefore my brain is in no condition to think critically about much at all other than if there’s another hot cross bun in the house (sadly, no). I still have some polishing to do on the book and then I move straight onto writing PLAYING FAST but first, a day or two of relaxing and doing the Easter thing with the family. So I will leave you with Happy Easter if you are of the Easter celebrating persuasion and this clip from Shakespeare in Love which pretty much sums up how the process of writing a book feels to me.

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Fave things – beauty blogs

Beauty blogs. I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures, because whatever makes you happy is a good thing, so get on with your good self but this is definitely one of my “I need a bit of a break/to look at pretty things/to feed the makeup habit” pastimes. I don’t think of myself as a uber girly gal. I happily swan around in sweatpants with no makeup (though there’s almost always SPF of some form on my face if I’m going outside) or dash up to the shops that way. Equally I like going glam if I’m going out or whacking on a bit of mascara and a good bright lipstick if I want a pick me up. And I wear an easy sort of “I can do it all in 10 minutes or less” everyday face for day jobbing. But I’ve always liked makeup since I first did ballet class and got to wear a little bit for concerts and my mum always made us take good care of our skins, so I do like to experiment and try new things. I have pretty sensitive skin and fussy eyes so am careful with what I try skincare, foundation and mascara wise but will confess to be prone to the allure of a new lipstick, a new nail polish or a new eye shadow. And by watching and reading beauty blogs I get to hear about new things and learn how to use them. Bonus.

So here are my current top 5 Beauty blogs/youtube channels (all these gals have both but I’ll link to the blogs as they will have links to the youTube channels). They’re all English. I don’t know why. I do follow a few US and Aussies too but for some reason the English gals are my faves. Maybe cos they embrace pale skin more than the US gals and I relate to pale skin :D.

Lisa Eldridge: Lisa is an English makeup artist (who does Kate Winslet and Keira Knightley among others and now Creative Director at Lancome I believe. Great makeup tutorials for almost any scenario you can think of on her videos and lots of good stuff on the blog. My second fave in the actual makeup artist category would be Pixiwoo.

Vivianna Does Makeup: Anna is a beauty blogger and very down to earth and watchable. She doesn’t do uber glam looks, so very relatable for everyday makeup plus a good cross section of cheaper and more expensive products. She also does a bit of fitness/healthy lifestyle stuff on the blog. And the odd baking video (check out the lemon drizzle cake).

Essie Button: Another beauty blogger with a similar approach to Anna. Also a Canadian transplanted to London. With a cute greyhound.

Caroline Hirons: Caroline is a skincare guru. Full of sensible advice, keen on products that aren’t full of crap and tells it like it is. Following her advice generally keeps my skin happy.

A Model Recommends: Ruth is a model but also very down to earth, not into crazy diets or being super skinny or anything you might imagine a model is. She does some more glam stuff (hey, she’s a model) and basic things. Currently pregnant and hence extra entertaining.

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State of the Mel #4

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. (This is what happens when I’m on deadline, my brain suddenly demands bright pink lipstick to go with hoodie and sweatpants at 8pm at night).

 

M.J writes dark fantasy (the Half-Light City series which is now finished and The Four Arts series which begins with THE SHATTERED COURT on April 28 aka just over four weeks away now) 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 comes out May 5. Read more/pre-order etc 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 DEADLY THINGS (including far too many spiders). I live in Melbourne where there are few deadly critters (there are still spiders even if not deadly. Ugh. Not Team Spider. Team Come in my house and die if you have eight legs and are not an octopus) and a lot of very changeable weather. It is as I write this about 15 degrees (59 F for those who don’t do Celsius. Which is cold for autumn here). This time last week it was 31 degrees (around 88 degrees). 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, 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 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 begins 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 first two books THE DEVIL IN DENIM and ANGEL IN ARMANI are out, the third, LAWLESS IN LEATHER, comes out in May and I’m currently very nearly done writing PLAYING HARD (and then will be writing book five PLAYING FAST). 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 after its release. 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 HARD and then 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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