M.J. Scott's Blog, page 37

What’s in a name?

Lots of cool names in the giveaway post and Alison asked how I come up with my character names. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about before but, for me, characters arrive in various states of named-ness…some stride onto the page with a first and last name firmly attached, some have only first names and lead me a merry chase while I work out the rest of it and some are nameless.

In the Half-Light series, I only knew Lily’s nickname almost up until the point where she told Simon her name. I had to hunt for her first name and I knew I wanted a flower name (as that’s traditional for my Fae) and a flower that was both beautiful and sometimes deadly. So I read up on flowers and the language of flowers as well. Simon on the other hand, was always Simon and the DuCaine part came out of nowhere. Likewise Guy showed up as Guy from the get go.

For the characters who are less forthcoming, I fall back on good old baby name books and the internet (there are many many name lists from every country and time period and special interest you could want on the internet). Sometimes I want a particular sound or feel and sometimes I look at the meanings of the name as well. When I find the right name, something just clicks in my head. I know some writers who have renamed characters when they’re not working out but I’ve rarely had to resort to that (though I will confess to sometimes having to mentally re-cast my ‘stand-in’ for what they look like) The Half-Light series uses some Victorian names as well as French and other european names for the Beast Kind. It’s been lots of fun to hunt down those. The only problem with a series with lots of characters is making sure you don’t end up with too many characters whose first names sound the same or start with the same letters. I keep lists of names in my world bible, so I can keep them all straight!

Galley winner

And the winner of the Blood Kin signed galley is Courtney Ake. Congrats to Courtney!

Courtney, email me using my contact form with your snail mail and how you’d like it signed and I’ll get it in the mail to you.

For those who didn’t win…there’s still hope!

My crit buddy Keri Arthur is also giving away a galley over on her blog

There is also a few days left to enter the Goodreads giveaway for US folks

And Ace and Roc are giving away a Half-Light City started pack of both books on their facebook page. That one may be US only…I haven’t tried entering to find out!

And if none of those pan out, never fear there will be some more Blood Kin related contest goodness here on the blog in the next few weeks.

Pic of, um, last week

Last weekend I ran away with the writing gals to the gorgeous Mornington Peninsula (think beaches, wineries, spas).  But mostly we holed up in our favourite weekend rental and chatted and laughed and wrote a bit and drank champagne and ate bad things. Lovely.

And at the end of the weekend, there was this:

As Nathan Fillion would say “Double rainbow!” The main part was a full arch too. Not sure I’ve ever seen a rainbow over the water quite like it against the stormy light (I am developing a thing for photos of stormy light). And given the amount of stuff that seems to be going on around the world and in life generally at the moment, I am declaring it to be a good omen, pointing the way to the good times ahead (to misquote Jenny Crusie).

I’m actually running away again this weekend, off to see my folks and eat Mum’s roast (yum!) and get some words piling up on Sekrit project #1. So stare at the rainbow, contemplate the good things and, hey, if you want, don’t forget there’s a Blood Kin galley giveaway still running on the previous post.

Blood Kin galley giveaway

Book three in the Half-Light series officially has a title…Iron Kin. So to celebrate the newly named and the coming-real-soon-now release of Blood Kin, I’m giving away a Blood Kin galley (galleys are bound, uncorrected proofs of the book).

Just comment here to win…bonus points if you tell me a cool name…person, pet, book, whatever!

Chapter One

The full first chapter of Blood Kin is now up over on my site.

It has been busy the last few weeks with day job stuff and starting to organise some landscaping for my backyard (yay). My backyard is only little but it’s kind of awkward…it has a slope in some parts and terrible horrible grass that eats lawnmowers and exhibits an alarming tendency to turn into a weed ridden jungle at the drop of a hat. So after trying different things, I’ve finally given in to the fact that it needs some landscaping. Which will hopefully result in a lovely useable space rather than a chore. Down with grass, I say! Well, in a teeny yard anyway.

I have been taking photos, but mainly of yarny things.  But here’s a sunset I snapped the other day in my car. Yay for phone cameras!

Blood Kin excerpt

Well, sorry for the radio silence but I have been busy with new cats, car shopping, day job busyness, knitting, some writing and a horrible cold.  But I'm back now and the pic of the week shall resume (seriously, the last few weeks it would have been all the new cat, all the time which might get boring : ) ).

Anyway, I've just posted the first Blood Kin excerpt over on my site…so if you want a taste of Guy's book, head on over there.

Balance

Next month it will be a year since my dear old orange boy left us and now that my ankle is in the mostly better category, I decided the time had come to restore the feline balance of the household and add a number two cat. I debated a kitten but small kittens are work, so decided I'd got with another young cat, as long as he/she was younger than the torti. I had my eye on a wee tuxedo man but when I enquired his foster parents decided they couldn't part with him (so yay for that, happy kitty ending).  So yesterday I went to the shelter to meet some of the other cats.  They had mostly girls (I think girls get dumped more because they get pregnant…slitty eyes at not desexed pets), and eventually this teeny girl and I came to a mutual agreement that she should come live with me.

We are still considering names as her shelter name was not an option. I think I have almost settled on something but she can be the fuzzy girl on the internet.  Like the torti, she was pregnant when she came to the shelter and has probably been a stray for a lot of her life (she's about 18 months old). Apparently she was quite fierce when she first came in but now she's gentle. Still a little wary of humans, she likes being cuddled when I do pick her up and will smooch my legs but skirts around me a lot of the time.  But she just needs a little TLC.  She didn't have as long in the shelter as the torti did as she lost her kittens plus she's a bit older, so she is still learning about nice hoomans. So far, I think I'm deemed acceptable. Though apparently I make stuff make odd noises (washing machines, fans, electric toothbrushes, showers) which earns me quizzical looks from big green eyes.

The torti is coping fairly well. There is a bit of hissing and paw waving but nothing serious. The rest of the time there is staring contests and mutual ignoring. Sleeping separately and the fuzzy girl gets time outs in the bathroom so the torti can relax. Her quirk so far is that instead of choosing either the comfy cat bed or the nice hideaway box with towel to sleep in in the bathroom, so far every time I go in she is up sitting on my big metal beauty case on the benchtop. So there's a towel up there too now.  Maybe she wants a makeover…though she's so pretty, she doesn't need one.

They have a mutual love of toys, especially the feather wand, so we're doing quality feather wand playing together time and I think the play thing will win the torti over. The fuzzy girl was pretty similar to the torti in the shelter playing wise, vs some of the other girls who were very very timid (torti pouncing on the head might have been too much for them).  And the torti kind of wants to like her. And the fuzzy girl wants to be friends and is doing the good young cat back off thing. She's smaller than the torti (two teeny cats) and not sure she'll get bigger, given her age, but hopefully she'll gain a little bit of weight. So onwards to kitty harmony. She's sitting on the couch today instead of under it, so that's a good sign. Monday, I'll re-open the cat palace door so she can investigate that as well.

Quick pic

Just back from lovely weekend away with some of my best buddies from high school.  More detailed pics and blog later but for now….my fave shot…one of those fortuitous clicks. Not perfectly focused but still not too shabby : )

Pretty

Today is a lovely, lovely summer's day in Melbourne. Not too hot, sunny, with a bit of a breeze. My mum has been down so that we could go visit my aunt and cousin and said cousin's too cute little boy, all of whom live interstate. I didn't grab my big camera as I left and, naturally, that meant we ended up taking a (slow and hobbly) walk along South Bank. So I defaulted back to the iPhone (yay for camera phones…the iPhone really does take some nice pics). I posted a bunch of them over on the Facebook page but here's my fave:

Melbourne, which is a very pretty city and I've always loved this view up the river towards the CBD.

In other news, Blood Kin page proofs are done and so is my last chance to fiddle with the story. Hopefully I'll have some ARCs to giveaway soon. I'm futzing around with a couple of other ideas which shall remain nameless for now and doing some planning but mostly I'm trying to get through the post book phase where a writer's brain goes all fuzzy and all sorts of weirdness (like forgetting one's purse, dropping things, turning up early or late for appointments etc) occurs. So lazy summer days are good therapy for that!

TV adventures

And lo, I have finished the Blood Kin page proof read through. Now I just need to type up the changes and send them back. Which is really when my part of the Blood Kin process is finally done (other than spreading the word). Another book off into the world to do what it will do. (Blatant obligatory promo…out June 5!) After I send the proofs off, it's on to Sekrit writing project numbers 1 and 2.

The ankle healing continues slowly so there has still been much watching of TV and DVDs. There has been the Downton Christmas special (heaven), in fact there's been a complete Downton rewatch (likewise heaven. I have much love for Matthew and Lady Mary and Lady Mary's perfect perfect eyebrows), there's been Sons of Anarchy (an example of good writing to get you so invested in what are some fairly nasty people). There is, as of the last few weeks, new Glee and Big Bang and (finally, finally, finally) new Grey's Anatomy. I've started watching Primeval (good but I already want the evil vanishing wife to be eaten by a T-Rex), I've started my favourite gloriously trashy show aka Gossip Girl S4 and I have S3 of Fringe to watch.

New show wise, I have seen a whole 1 ep of Revenge and so far am prepared to watch more. Ditto Alcatraz. The other new show I've been watching is Homeland. Which is very intriguing (and I love me some Damien Lewis even if he is being potentially evil). Though I do have one quibble with the storyline, which is this.

SERIOUSLY THE DUDE WAS TORTURED AND A POW FOR EIGHT FRAKKING YEARS AND APART FROM ONE MENTION OF A "PSYCH EVAL" IN GERMANY THE ARMY APPEARS TO THINK HE NEEDS NOTHING IN THE WAY OF TRAUMA COUNSELLING OR THERAPY? NOTHING??? OR ONGOING MEDICAL TREATMENT FROM WHAT I CAN TELL. JUST GO BACK TO WORK, WE ARE SURE YOU ARE FINE AND DANDY AND HEY SO IS YOUR FAMILY, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG, LET US SING OH WHAT A WONDERFUL MORNING? Leave it up to the wife to finally crack and guilt him into going to a support group?

Really? Truly? I know governments all around the globe generally have a pretty crap record when it comes to taking care of veterans but NOTHING AT ALL? Jeez. If that's an accurate portrayal of what would happen then it's pretty appalling. Or beyond appalling, really. Besides which, as a writer, wouldn't the CIA etc want him to be in therapy? Surely a therapist would help spot cracks in his armor/lies/etc? It's been bugging me a little, as you may be able to tell. At least have them make him go to counselling and have him lie or refuse or whatever… But that aside, it's very twisty and turny and I like the fact that Carrie is a different type of female character so I will continue to watch (and mutter at the writers in my head). At least on Castle they made Beckett go to therapy and requalify with her gun. And she only had three months off from being shot. Not eight years!?!

Along with the watching of moving pictures, there is starting to be the making of stuff with sticks and string again. More on that soon over on the crafty blog.

So what about everyone else? Who's got a new fave show (or a mini rant lol)? What else should I be putting on the watch list?