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. It’s been a while because 2017 had the crazy writing schedule, a back injury, a broken arm and then my darling Dad passed away. Because of all of that 2018 has been weird and slow and strange and a bit of a roller coaster.
But today, the free read I started on Wattpad earlier this year is out in all it’s revised and edited glory. Wicked Games is the start of a new urban fantasy for me. It’s slightly futuristic, there’s magic, there’s hot computer geeks, there’s lots of good things. Grab a copy
And yes, I’m still working on The Unbound Queen. It’s been slow but it’s growing. But otherwise, for all about me, read on…
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 romance as Melanie Scott and Emma Douglas.
Selfies are good. Have a selfie. Yes, I’m wearing my hair wavy now. It’s taken me this long to work out how to do so (check out The Curly Girl method and the MAP method if you want to know more).
M.J writes dark fantasy (the Half-Light City series which is now finished and The Four Arts series which began with THE SHATTERED COURT) and urban fantasy (The Wild Side series and now the TechWitch 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 and then Book 5, PLAYING FAST, came out August 30. The first three books are out in Germany in late April/May. Read more here.
Emma writes the Cloud Bay series. Need You Now, A Season of You and No Place Like You came out in 2017.
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 Spring here which means we swing between cool and wet and the sort of pleasantly warm sunny day that is my fave weather. 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. My caffeine of choice was Coke Zero until Coke decided (stupidly) to discontinue it here and replace it with revolting Coke No Sugar. I’m back to Diet Coke. 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 and the other places I hang out.
I am an experienced cat butler. My current feline employers are the Elder 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 Diva Kitten (who is no longer a kitten but a huge two year old princess) who likes water, drooling on me during snuggles, annoying the Elder Torti and squeaking at birds and being slightly more temperamental than her fellow cat. The previous employers (if you go delving into the archives) were 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 liked naps, tummy rubs, telling everybody everything that has happened every second of the day and falling off the sofa in her sleep), the Orange Cat (a very sweet but neurotic red burmese boy who also liked telling you what was happening only at a far louder volume than the Fuzzy Girl) and the Grey Cat (possibly the most sane of my cats, a fluffy smoke tabby moggy girl who chirped rather than meowed but was otherwise a well behaved glamour puss). 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 my cat.
My teeny tiny garden is often neglected even though I like growing things. I am team Marvel but in particular team Captain America and team Thor (I also have a soft spot for Iron Man but he’s in the naughty corner for being on the wrong side of Civil War), team Buffy, team Good Place, 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 Fringe, 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 (planning for it to be a trilogy). 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 and the second book THE FORBIDDEN HEIR is also out.
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. 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.
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. All five books are available at all good bookstores. 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 are also available in German.
The Cloud Bay series is a contemporary romance series about the three children of a dead rock star set on an island off the coast of California. Music, love, sand, trouble…it’s all there. The books are NEED YOU NOW, A SEASON OF YOU and NO PLACE LIKE YOU.
What are you working on?
I am starting to catch up after the continuing nuttiness of life and continue to WRITE ALL THE THINGS and DO ALL THE OTHER STUFF I LIKE.
I’m currently writing THE UNBOUND QUEEN (book 3 of The Four Arts series) and noodling with a new fantasy idead but that and 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.
Tell me more…
Places I hang out include here on the blog (but hey, you knew that already). M.J’s facebook page is www.facebook.com/AuthorMJScott and Melanie’s is www.facebook.com/WriterMelanieScott. Funnily enough @melscott will find me on Twitter. 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 7Plus (previously a 6 or 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 on my art Instagram which is melscott_makes.
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 my website.