M.J. Scott's Blog, page 6
March 6, 2016
Sunday snippet
Have a little bit of Angel in Armani. Book 2 in The New York Saints series.
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March 3, 2016
The great lemon cake search
My folks have a lemon tree that produces never ending founts of lemons. Which is great. Lemons are good.
And one of my fave things to do with lemons is make lemon-y cake. Which means I’m always on the hunt for a great lemon cake. It’s harder than it sounds. I think I have the ideal lemon cake in my head but have never quite found it in person.
Sometime last year (I think) I saw someone mention Lemon Drizzle cake on YouTube. Cake. Sugar. Lemon-y drizzling goodness. Sounded like my thing. So I tried the classic Mary Berry recipe.
Verdict, good but not quite what I was looking for. The cake is very rich and a bit on the heavy side and I’ve played with the drizzle but never got it quite right (I wanted something a bit more syrupy, maybe? And smoother.)
This is the best lemon drizzle cake version I’ve found. Very yummy but still not the cake of my dreams.
I’ve wandered into the realms of gluten free cakes with Nigella’s Raspberry and Polenta cake with is delicious but the lemon cake of my dreams is more traditional cake-y.
I’ve tried lemon and coconut brownies which were very good but brownies aren’t cake.
My latest attempt was this citrus cake (I didn’t have oranges so did all lemon. And I didn’t faff with candying citrus on a trial run). The icing on this was good (I put lemon in it, I like lemon-y icing on lemon cake). I think I cooked the cake slightly too long, so need to try again but it was a good texture (finer crumbed than the drizzle cakes), so I might be onto something. I’ll have to make it again. Because there’s always more lemons 
Anyone got a favourite lemon cake recipe to share?
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March 1, 2016
Flower Power
Somewhere in the vague list in my head of “jobs I would like to do” has always been a spot labelled florist. Because flower shops smell good, they’re always cool and flowers are one of my fave things. Of course, in my head, being a florist doesn’t involve getting up at ridiculous times to go to flower markets, dealing with bridezillas or standing up for long hours every day. Dream-job floristry is more ‘make pretty things with flowers’ and they magically disappear to be replaced by money.
But I’ve always been interested in how building a bouquet might work but have never really had a chance to explore it. So when a class called “Structure Posies” popped up on Laneway Learning, I thought it would be fun to have a go. So tonight I toddled off to Impala and Peacock, which is a gorgeous tea shop in Brunswick (I want to go back and have time to try some teas and some more delicious cake because their pistachio and raspberry cupcake was awesome).
The class was taught by Emily of Miss Emily Floral Designs who was lovely and taught us all how to turn this
into this
It was fun and I learned that florists have very strong hands and possibly more fingers than the rest of us. Which will come in handy if I ever write a florist, I guess :D. I think being a florist is likely to remain a ‘nice in my head’ job for me but hopefully I can make my flowers at home a bit more pretty than previously. Which equals a couple of hours well spent in my book.
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February 28, 2016
Sunday snippet
For something different, how about a bit of my urban fantasy series, The Wild Side? This is from book 2, The Dark Side.
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February 25, 2016
Magpie brain
I have a theory that all writers have a certain degree of curiosity. What I call the magpie mind. After all, a story is usually sparked by some sort of ‘What if’ question and then chasing that thread down a deep rabbit hole before somehow managing to weave it into an answer. Curiosity is good. Being interested in lots of things is good. Learning is good. But sometimes magpie mind is not the most focused mind. Particularly when there is a lot of stuff to get done. And it’s been an odd week. Working different days at the day job. Sundry other irritations that have thrown off my rhythm.
Right now I want to paint and pull thread through fabric and look at pretty things and play with pens and inks and cook. Which is all very well for filling the well but right now I also need to write. So magpie mind needs to go away for a bit. I need some eagle focus. Or something (no idea why the bird metaphors today).
Not sure how I appease magpie mind into hibernation. Might be time to get back into the meditation practice. And line up a few shiny treats to give the magpie side something to look forward to.
After all magpies are easily distracted by new things. All this may be a very long winded way of saying I’m heading into the writing cave to follow a few of those story questions. Which is about as much as a writing update as I can give.
But hopefully I can still play a little. Because being a magpie is fun. So is painting one
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February 23, 2016
Music fix – Hosier
Here, have a song from one of the current wip’s soundtracks…Someone New by Hosier. Which is both a cool song and a cool video because it features Natalie Dormer being cool and gorgeous as always.
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February 21, 2016
Sunday snippet
This one’s from Blood Kin, Book 2 of the Half-Light City series.
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February 18, 2016
Story fix – The X-Files
Like many people, I may have squeed a little (a lot) when I found out last year that there was going to be a new series of the X-Files. Because I loved me some Mulder and Scully back in the day. True, the last couple of seasons got a bit odd but I still loved it. Aliens, kooky monsters, just enough creepy stuff and a slow burn romance (Chris Carter can say what he likes about Mulder and Scully but they love each other. So there.) Late last year I started rewatching in anticipation of the new series. I’ve only made it half-way through season four but that’s enough to remind me why I liked it so much. And remind me of some lessons of the X-files. Like:
70 GB was a LOT of data back then.
The costume department dressed Scully really badly for the first three series.
“No. I was just never sure your little feet would reach the pedals”. Snarky Mulder is best.
Always make sure your blind date isn’t some freaky slime emitting creature before going parking.
If your romanian mother recommends a ritual for your son whose twin died so he doesn’t become possessed, do it.
If you are a scientist in the rainforest and you come across a dead animal with weird pustules that are moving, do not lean over the carcass so the pustules can explode in your face (though really that one is just common sense lol).
Being Mulder’s secret source is a fatal occupation.
Don’t eat the chicken.
When Mulder says “It’ll be a nice trip to the woods”, don’t believe him.
And as for the new series, well, I’m enjoying that too. Though, like the Veronica Mars movie, it’s not the fact that the actors look older that is the slightly odd thing, it’s that they sound slightly different. Apparently I’m sensitive to voices. I thought the first two episodes, they were struggling to find the tone again (but I’ll have to rewatch and see what I think) but then episode three was hilarious (I always like it when they go a bit kooky) and this week’s episode was tugging on the heartstrings. I’m looking forward to the last two episodes (I think they did six?) and will keep the fingers crossed that it does well enough that we can get another short season or two in the future.
In the meantime, I still have five seasons of lessons to learn (or re-learn)
Anyone else been watching?
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February 16, 2016
Randomness
Some things I have stumbled over on the internet lately that are entertaining/interesting/cool or all three
Watercolour tattoos. I have a tattoo. One day I’ll get another. If so, I think I’d like done in this style. More examples here.
Awesome origami.
Serial Box. I find this idea intriguing. I need to pick a series and try it out!
I have been embroidering lately, so one of these could come in handy.
I’d play this.
Feeling some fountain pen lust over this pretty. (Also, need to win the lotto).
Edward Gorey. Mail artist.
Feeling some art supply lust over this. Luckily it was limited edition. What I need is a steampunk art supply case. That follows me around like The Luggage from the Discworld.
Awesome space travel posters from NASA.
Speaking of embroidery, I did a sampler (see below). It was fun. That one came with Rebecca Ringquist’s book. She also has other cool samplers. I’m going to do another one. She also has a class on CreativeBug which is handy.
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February 14, 2016
Sunday snippet
Time for a snippet from Shadow Kin (Book 1 in the Half-light City series). And, right now, Shadow Kin is still on sale in e-book in the US for just $1.99. Bargain!
Buy it here (US e-book links)
More links for everyone else here.
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