M.J. Scott's Blog, page 45

New look

It's a whole new me (well, my site and blog)! I said it over on the site and I will say it again here. My web designer, Sharon, from Little Bytes Design deserves a big hand of applause and, quite frankly, a parade for designing me this gorgeous new look. Henceforth, let her be known as Sharon, Web Goddess.

I had ideas, based on what I did or didn't like about writer sites I'd seen and on what I've heard readers grumble about over the years, about what I wanted my site to be like and Sharon has delivered them all.  And made them pretty! I do not particularly have a design brain. I mean, I can put things together and work with colour when I knit and sew and decorate and I know how I want things tweaked once I see a concept but I don't have that artist eye that takes the raw elements and translates them into something entirely new and wonderful.  There have been many, many emails exchanges like:

Mel: "Oh, can we have ."

Sharon WG: "Tell me more about flying sparkly unicorns."

Mel: "Waves hands around (very useful, on email), sends links, gives possibly very vague comments."

Sharon WG: (nicely not pointing out the writer crazy, does brilliant web designer things) "Ta-da!"

Mel: "Yay! Now how about a slightly different shade of unicorn horn?"

Sharon WG: (patience of a saint) "Ta-da!"

Mel: "Applause! Now, what about winged monkeys?"

I cannot say enough good things about her, so if you're looking for web design or re-design, look in her direction.  She also does e-book conversion/cover work (check out the gorgeous things she's done for Barbara Samuel).

Now, I'm still settling in here and on the website, so new things will still be coming….like excerpts and more book related stuff over on the site, so I'll keep you posted as I add things. If you find a problem or an error, leave me a comment here or you can contact me. I'll be adding to the FAQs over on the site too, so if you have a burning question to ask about me or my books or writing (I reserve the right to decline to answer), ask away.

Sadly, no second announcement today….hopefully next week. Until then you can entertain yourselves poking around the new digs!

Almost there

Sorry for the blog silence but have been busy with last minute web design things this week.

Hopefully sometime tomorrow there'll be a whole new look here and over at my website.

So stayed tuned……(oh, and maybe one more little announcement (no, not a new book deal))

Cover flats!

Back in March, I got the cover for Shadow Kin. Earlier this week, I got a couple of cover flats from my editor. A cover flat is the actual cover printed on the stock it will be when it goes around the book, essentially the cover without the book. Publishers use them as sales tools and for promotion etc. One of the other things books have is cover quotes (the blurbs by other authors that go on the cover and inside the book).

After I got my cover flats this week, we got a final quote for Shadow Kin and Roc decided to tweak the cover again to add in my quotes. So here's both the final cover and I guess, the first mini 'reviews' of the book! (Now this is the printing layout pic, so you can still see faint lines etc around the various areas…those won't be on the final cover : ) ).

Publishers do cover quotes in different ways. Some select and pick the authors to target themselves and handle the whole business. Some work with the author and the author writes to people they would like to read the book. Luckily, Roc is one of the former. I didn't even know who they'd sent the book to and just got very nice surprises as quotes came in. This is easier on a poor debut writer than knowing people who you've read for years and admired are reading! your! book! and deciding whether or not to quote. Published authors are busy people and it's a very nice thing they do when they take time to read a new writer's book and help them out. So a big thank you to Patricia Briggs, Anne Bishop, Keri Arthur and Devon Monk to doing it for me!

A new obsession

I've been a fan of this guy:

Largely due to him being recalled to my attention by this movie (though I did like him before that):

Which I bought in a double set with 13 going on 30 (or whatever that Jennifer Garner film is where she is her 13 year old self in her 30 year old body) a few years ago. At the time, I'd never heard of Catch and Release and only watched it for something to do one night. Let me tell you, I have since watched that movie many, many times (and the other one maybe once more) because it is both good and Timothy O is quite…attention grabbing in it.

So when I heard of him being in a new series playing a Marshall my ears perked up. And then when a friend sent me a random pic of him saying "I've been watching Justified and where has this guy been", I had to cave and buy Justified (after laughing a lot). And it's official. The show is brilliant and my Timothy O obsession even more firmly cemented. My next book needs a hero and I have a feeling he might be the necessary inspiration. After all, what's not to inspire?

I'm generally a pretty character driven writer and this particular hero has been standing on a wall, looking down at burning city, muttering at me to hurry up and get to him for a while now. And now, I know what he looks like…and I'm looking forward to it even more. Though, sorry, angry wall guy, I'm still playing with those other two. Just a little while longer, I promise. And I'll keep watching your inspiration just so you don't feel neglected!

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 30 (aka the end)

Day 30 – Your favourite song this time last year

Last one! One month in music done. You know, it's hard to figure out what song was my fave this exact time last year but here's one I did love last year and listened to a lot writing Night Kin, which I was doing this time last year!

Pink – Glitter in the Air

You can either go here to watch her do this live at the Grammy's last year (and being completely AWESOME)

or here's a fan vid

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 29

Day 29 – A song from your childhood

My mum loved this album and I still love it too. Chris rocks : ) I love the storytelling in his songs.

Chris De Burgh – Don't Pay the Ferryman

Old friends

Am off for a girly weekend with some of my high school friends. Women I've known since I was 12 years old.

We've seen each other through puberty and boyfriends and exams and moving away from home. Through university and and breakups and weddings and jobs and travels and children. Through many, many things in the time that's passed since we met (which is more year's than I care to think about sometimes).

Some years we only manage to get together (all of us, that is) once. Others, like this one, a few more times. But it doesn't seem to matter how long it is in between, we always pick up where we left out and even though the five of us are older and wiser, at the core there are still those twelve year old girls, giggly and having a good time with the people we love.

And I think that's pretty cool.

So an extra song for today, one that's slightly corny but apt for my oldest friends!

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 28

Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty

Jeff Buckley – The Last Goodbye

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 27

Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play

Now this is a tricky one as I do adore music and there are many instruments I would love to be able to play well….but these days I think, if I had to pick, I'd pick either guitar or cello. So here's a couple of brilliant examples of each:

Zoe Keating – Tetrishead (Zoe rocks…she loops herself as she plays to create these amazing songs!)

Adam Hurst – Remaining

Chris Isaak – Wicked Game

Rodrigo y Gabriela – Diablo Rojo

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 26

Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument

Okay, so if I was honest and did this as songs I can currently play on an instrument then we would be down to Chopsticks, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and bits of Fur Elise. But once upon a time I did play in a concert band so here's a something that we used to play….

Superman Theme – John Williams