M.J. Scott's Blog, page 47

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 18

Day 18 – A song you wish you heard on the radio

This is one of my favourite songs ever from two women who really don't get airplay in Australia. Which is sad because they sing gorgeous songs.

Indigo Girls – Ghost

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 17

Day 17 – A song that you often hear on the radio

Again, quite a choice, but here's one I like from a chick who's a bit nuts but writes a good tune regardless.

Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 16

Day 16 – A song you used to love but now you hate

Can't think of any song I loved that I hate now but here's one I can't listen to because it reminds me of my grandparents and makes me all sad.

Robbie Williams – Nan's Song

Inspiration

Now that the Royal Wedding is over, I have to turn my attention back to my main obsession in life, writing. Shadow Kin's world is not quite ours but a close-ish relative. It's also a world with a victorian-ish era level of tech. It's not steampunk, for one thing, there's a distinct lack of gadgets, and for another it's not science fiction. Gaslight fantasy might be the closest term. I like to collage for my books and every so often go out looking for pics of settings or clothes or characters for inspiration.

Yesterday, I came across this pic on Tumblr….

Damn, there's not many men who can make plaid/tweed look that good. There isn't a character based on Hugh in the Half-Light books yet. Maybe there should be!

30 Day Song Challenge – Day 15

Day 15 – A song that describes you

Well, that could be any number of songs on any given day. So here's one for today. From a singer who kicks butt live or otherwise.

P!nk – I'm Not Dead

Another step

I handed my copy edits in today which means I'll only get to see Shadow Kin one more time before it's in print, when I do page proofs. At the page proof stage, you're only really meant to fix errors, not make any significant changes in the text, so this was really the last chance to tweak things. Luckily I didn't feel like I really needed to, apart from the odd sentence here and there. Phew.

Most of the changes made by the copyeditor were for US-AUS grammar/punctuation differences…I thought I'd done fairly well on this in the revisions and line edits but there were still a few things that tripped me up. Serial commas being one of them. We don't usually use them in Australia and they look really wrong to me but that's part of the joy of writing for a different country. Hopefully I can learn to put them in as I type (though then I'll get in trouble for using them in the day job!). It was interesting though to see that there were still a few missing/wrong word type errors despite the fact that I've read this manuscript umpteen times, it had been line edited by my editor and gone over for line edits again by me. This is part of what a publisher does for you, stops you looking like a dill because your eyes just can't see the errors any more.

So with Shadow Kin mostly done, now it's back to trying to crack on with the draft of book three…I'd really like to finish the dirty draft by the end of May which is doable if I crack the whip and utilise the wonders of Write or Die to do sprints and kick the word count along. Might be time to haul out the old metrics again, to keep me on the straight and narrow!

My website design is coming along too, so hopefully later next month, we'll have fab new digs around here! Now must go write so I can watch the royal wedding tonight with a clean conscience!

30 Day Song Challenge Day 14

Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love

I've never been a heavy rock type gal but will admit to a soft spot for the Cult's Sonic Temple album. And this is my fave song from it (couldn't find a good vid, sorry).

The Cult – Fire Woman

30 Day Song Challenge Day 13

Day 13 – A song that's a guilty pleasure

I kind of have an issue with the concept of books/movies/songs being guilty pleasures. If you like it, you like it and who cares what other people think? Nothing wrong with pop music, romance novels (or any genre fiction) or chick flicks/action movies/sports films, whatever floats your boat. There's a lot to be said for things that just make you happy.

So here's a song that is glorious stadium pomp eighties over the top pop which I will happily belt out when it pops up in my playlists or on the radio! (And because it seems the awesome YouTube Regency Men vid is no longer available with the Bonnie Tyler version of the song, you get the original video in blazing eighties music vid cheesy glory!).

Bonnie Tyler – Holding Out For A Hero

30 Day Song Challenge Day 12

Day 12 – A song from a band you hate

Hate is a strong word but here's a band whose music just never did it for me. Music, like writing, is all about connecting with the voice and the rhythm of a piece and all I can see is that this band doesn't play in my key.

30 Day Song Challenge Day 11

Day 11 – A song from your favourite band

Another one from my Irish boys…a live version because they do live so well (awww, baby Bono and Edge). The album version is also pretty damned good.

A song that suits my mood today.

U2 – Bad