M.J. Scott's Blog, page 7

How to actually do stuff with your photos

So the book is out! Yay! Let us talk of other things.

Because last month I was doing the January thing of pottering around making my calendar for the year (I make one from photos from the previous year), finishing up on my Project Life for 2015 (and starting to go back and doing some older years – I have done 2011 and 2012 now) and am doing a Lightroom photo organisation course, I have been pondering how my photos have changed over the years. I think I got my first digital camera in 2006 (at least that’s when the first digital pics are dated in my iPhoto or whatever it’s called these days).

Here is one of my very first digital pictures (starring the orange cat).

In 2007 I took about 300 photos. In July 2008, I got my first iPhone and that year I took about 800 photos (though to be fair that year I had two trips to Tassie for weddings and holidays plus a trip to Germany for work and went to RWA in San Francisco so that’s an outlier in terms of big travel for me and travel equals more photos).

2008 was probably the first year I realised I really enjoyed photography. In 2009 I only took about 400 (a more normal year travel wise). In 2011 I bought a DSLR. In 2011 I took about 2000 photos (also had two big trips). Once I got the DSLR I started baby steps about learning about taking better photos. Towards the end of 2012 the iPhone camera got good (my iPhone 5) and photo editing apps started to get good too.  In 2013 I joined Instagram. In 2014 my camera phone got better again with the 6 and in 2014/2015 I was definitely a more regular Instagram user and that meant I take photos most days. Last year I took nearly 3600 photos (well, that includes edited versions and originals). All in all I think there are nearly 14000 photos on my computer (hence the need for a better organisation system). And looking back, my photos are a lot better now and then (hopefully not just because of better equipment).

Anyway, this might be a very long winded way of saying practice makes you better at things but also it’s a waste to let all those photos sit on your computer and never enjoy them.

So here are five of my fave things for helping you enjoy your pics.

(1) Apple TV (slightly odd but I put my fave shots into the screen saver folder so when it’s on screensaver, I get to enjoy memories). Other streaming things probably let you do the same thing. (I have the older Apple TV version but if one of mine died I’d replace it in a heartbeat with the new one).

(2) Snapseed app. This is my fave app for quick editing of photos whether taken on the iPhone or on one of my other cameras. Lightroom has some editing functionality as well…need to learn how to use it.

(3) Instagram app. All the pretty pictures your heart could desire. (Note the link goes to the web version where you can view your pics and other peoples but to actually upload pics you need the app on your phone). I generally take pics with the iPhone’s inbuilt camera. Sometimes I use Camera+ or VSCO but I need to get more familiar with them so I tend to default to the inbuilt camera which is pretty darn good these days. Instagram makes basic editing with filters and editing dead easy so you can make your pics look even cooler and it’s easy to share from to your other social media (and there are a bajillion other apps you can use to filter or add text etc before you get to Instagram).Plus it makes me think about taking a picture most days and capturing ordinary moments as well as the fun stuff. I’m @melwrites on Instagram if you want to see my pics.

(4) Project Life app – I talked about Project Life last year and said I was thinking of doing a mix of physical and digital but I ended up using the app for all of last year and will be doing the same this year and have started going back and doing my digital pics for earlier years too (I’ll use up the physical stuff when I get around to organising pre-digital pics one day and in other crafty projects). For the record I still kind of do a mix of event type spreads and then some miscellaneous stuff each month rather than weekly spreads.

For me the app is easy, it’s right there all the time, you can buy the kits for way less than they cost in other formats (so I have all the pretty things to choose from) and it’s speedy. You can either get each page printed and put them in an album (the app has an in-app printing option but for Aussies I’d imagine it’s probably cheaper to just export the pages and get them printed here) or make a photo book out of them. I do the photo books because they’re easier to store. There are lots of places that do photobooks and most of them have sales regularly so you can get a nice book for a reasonable amount. If the Aussie dollar exchange rate improves, I’m going to try Artifact Uprising one day because their books look gooorrrrggggeeeeeeeous.

(5) Chatbooks app – a recent discovery. You hook your Instagram up to the app and it makes little photo books every time you have 60 pictures and sends them to you automatically (you get a notification three days before the new one is scheduled to print so you can go in and delete any pics or edit captions etc). I think each book works out to be about $10 US shipped which is affordable. If you have a backlog when you first join you can choose to get more books at a time for the first few months until you’re caught up and you can stop the subscription at any time. I just got my first batch and they’re very cute and a good way of remembered what was going on as they have the caption and the date of each pic (which helps with my Project Life). Given the number of pics I take in a year, there’s no way I’m putting them all in my Project Life album for the year, so this is another way to have a record of what’s going on. (The picture quality isn’t as high as a big photobook (and honestly printing instagram pics always seems to be a little bit of a crap shoot about what kind of graininess you might get) but as a fairly effortless and cute way to have a record of my daily snaps, I can live with that. They look like this.

Honourable mentions to:

(1) Flickr which is a great photo site which pretty much led the way in this online photo sharing thing. I just get slack about uploading stuff there (my Instagram feeds automatically there and I put other stuff up when I remember as it’s yet another way to back up photos. Back up, back up, back up).

(2) Printing (aka going old skool) in various ways. As I said earlier, I also make myself a calendar each year of 12 fave shots from the year before. And I have had pictures and canvases printed for that old skool thing of putting pictures up on display :D. There are too many photo printing sites to count and someone is always having a sale. I tend to use Momento for my calendars and Snapfish for other things (Snapfish have free (I think) pick up at K-Mart which is good as I have a K-Mart close by so can save on shipping) but I’ve had photos printed via Apple and other sites as well. My printer actually doesn’t do that great a job on printing photos so when it finally dies a printer that does print nice photos will be acquired.

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State of the Mel #9

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 here it is…

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.

New covers are also good. Check out the hawt cover for Playing Fast!

M.J writes dark fantasy (the Half-Light City series which is now finished (Shadow Kin, the first book is currently on sale for $1.99 in e-book in the US) and The Four Arts series which began with THE SHATTERED COURT in April) and urban fantasy (The Wild Side series). Currently sorting out the schedule for the next few M.J. books so hopefully news on that soon.

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 came out in May 2015. Book 4, PLAYING HARD came out 2 Feb 2016 (aka last week, here, buy links ;D) and then Book 5, PLAYING FAST, comes out August 30. The first three books are out in Germany in late April/May. Read more 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 things that the rest of the world believes will cause instant death (to be fair, some of them do but they don’t tend to hang around cities so I’m cool with them). I live in Melbourne which is down south where coffee is weirdly popular (I do not drink the stuff), so is Australian rules football (I do not really do football) and the weather is temperamental (we like four seasons in one day and always having to pack an umbrella). It is now Summer here. Unlike last summer, which was oddly cool, this summer has had some hot days (good for tomatoes, less good for this pale gal. I am Team Moderate Temperatures, so I like spring and autumn). Not Team Winter or Team Summer (too pale skinned to love sunbaking though I do love swimming and the ocean so Team Vampire Strength Sunscreen). If I’m ever really rich, maybe I’ll just follow Spring around the world. Luckily summer so far has mostly not had long stretches of hot days and nights which is about the only time I wish I lived somewhere else. My caffeine of choice is Coke Zero. Coffee makes me sick (hence I do not drink it) and tea just doesn’t caffeine me well enough. Besides writing, I like geeky things, movies, TV, ballet, knitting, embroidery, various other crafty things, food, photography, watercolours, stationery, 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 a teeny Garfield (low slung but not chubby), tad un-coordinated, very chatty fluffy grey and white girl) who likes naps, tummy rubs, telling everybody everything that has happened every second of the day and falling off the sofa in her sleep). 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. Like break-ankle-getting-up-from-couch klutziness. Maybe this is why I knew the Fuzzy Girl was meant to be a me cat.

My teeny tiny garden is often neglected even though I like growing things.  I have had a good crop of tomatoes this year (last year’s cool summer meant tomato plants died) some herbs, a few jalapenos and I have managed to keep  a new crop of various house plants of the ‘surely I can’t kill one of these variety’ alive for several months now. I am team Iron Man, team Buffy, team Thor, team Ollicity, team Baymax, team genre, team animation, team Outlander, team Winchester, team X-files, team BB-8, team Rey, team Jennifer Jones, team Austen, team Minions, 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 baking, 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 (at this stage I think it’s a trilogy but heck, I thought that about the Half-Light series initially). It has witches and demons and religious differences and a heroine trying not to get her life ruined by all of the above. It began with THE SHATTERED COURT in April (also available as an audiobook). I’m currently working on the second book which is tentatively titled THE FORBIDDEN HEIR.

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 the final book, 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 DEVIL IN DENIM and ANGEL IN ARMANI, and LAWLESS IN LEATHER, are all out and I have not long finished writing PLAYING FAST (which is the fifth book after PLAYING HARD which just came out last week).  Playing Fast will be out on August 30. The Devil in Denim, Angel in Armani and Lawless in Leather are also available in audiobook at Audible for US folks. The first three books will also be coming out in Germany starting sometime April 2016 as far as I know.

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 THE FORBIDDEN HEIR and have just finished writing 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 so while there are plenty of books in the pipeline, the order of said books will depend on time and brain space. 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 (on and off, as Google doesn’t make it easier to post there quickly). 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 melwrites. I also post various pics on Facebook and Twitter. I take most of my pictures with an iPhone 6 (previously a 5) and also break out my Canon DSLR. I also dabble a bit with art (mostly watercolour) and various crafts and pictures of what I’m dabbling with get posted in the same places.

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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Sunday snippet

Time for a snippet from Shadow Kin (Book 1 in the Half-light City series). And, right now, Shadow Kin is on sale in e-book in the US for just $1.99. Bargain!

 

Buy it here (US e-book links)

Kindle (US)

Nook

iBooks (US)

Google Play

Kobo

More links for everyone else here.

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Wanna check out the cover for Playing Fast?

Then head on over to Heroes and Heartbreakers to feast your eyes on the hawtness!

Playing Fast is Finn’s book and is out 30 August 2016.

If you don’t know who Finn is, then you need to grab a copy of Playing Hard which came out on Tuesday.

Here’s some links for Playing Hard.

If you haven’t started the New York Saints series, you can check out The Devil in Denim (book 1) instead.

The post Wanna check out the cover for Playing Fast? appeared first on Crossed Wires.

Wanna check out the cover for Playing Hard?

Then head on over to Heroes and Heartbreakers to feast your eyes on the hawtness!

Playing Fast is Finn’s book and is out 30 August 2016.

If you don’t know who Finn is, then you need to grab a copy of Playing Hard which came out on Tuesday.

Here’s some links for Playing Hard.

If you haven’t started the New York Saints series, you can check out The Devil in Denim (book 1) instead.

The post Wanna check out the cover for Playing Hard? appeared first on Crossed Wires.

So I sold a painting

Which is something I never ever even imagined would be something I’d say in my lifetime. So I’m quite excited. (Though, at this point, the plan is still to write and have art as generally a fun thing). But late last year, my gorgeous friend Anne Gracie said that she was having her website redesigned and would I paint a regency lady to be used in the design. Which was very flattering and a bit nervewracking to be honest. But we agreed that she was happy to have a rear view (because faces are really not my forte) and that she was free to say she didn’t like it and no harm, no foul.

I had a look around for images on Pinterest and Anne picked one she liked and, luckily, the very gracious Nicole of Diary of a Mantua Maker, whose photo it was, was happy for me to use it as a reference. And eventually I got up the nerve to sit down and do the painting (like most creative things, it becomes a little more daunting when you suddenly have the ‘someone is paying for this’ voice in your head). It was lots of fun and luckily Anne loved my first attempt (though I did a couple of alternates just in case) and that’s the image that’s on her site now.

Because the design only uses part of the image, I thought it would be fun to share the whole thing here, so here is my regency lady in all her scanned glory. Is it wrong to have frock envy from a painting?

 

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Release Day for Playing Hard!

Yay! Hope you enjoy Ollie and Amelia!

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Shadow Kin e-sale in the US!

Hey, lovely US people…Shadow Kin is on sale in e-book for a limited time!

So if you haven’t read the Half-Light City series, now’s your chance to grab the first book for a bargain.

 

Buy links:

Kindle (US)

Nook

iBooks (US)

Google Play

Kobo

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Sunday snippet

Just two more sleeps! Then Oliver Shields is all yours. So have another snippet from him. Still time to pre-order Playing Hard.

 

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Five more sleeps until Playing Hard!

Oliver Shields was a hard man to find a heroine for. He needed a gal who wasn’t easily charmed. Enter Amelia Graham. Who sorta looks like this.

And who has some very good reasons for not wanting to date a baseball player. Until she meets Oliver. And as for what happens next, well, you can pre-order Playing Hard here. If you’re a Pinterest type, you can check out my New York Saints inspiration board here.

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