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Another year of not much blogging but I can’t break my tradition of doing a yearly book wrap-up. So, for the fifteenth year, here are some of my favourite books this year in no particular order:

A Deadly Education: Naomi Novik – I call this book Hogwarts meets the Hunger Games and it was fab!

A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking – T Kingfisher Great fantasy with an intrepid young heroine, angry sourdough and sentient cookies.

Network Effect: Martha Wells – The first full length novel in the continuing excellent Murderbot series. The paranoid charming android you didn’t know you needed. I’d say start with the novellas because they’re all damned good.

You Had Me At Hello: Mhairi Mcfarlane – A new author to me. British romances about heroines who are in a bit of a messy patch and find their way out. I glommed all her books this year.

Boyfriend Material: Alexis Hall Another new author, and a great funny m/m romance. Another British set book. I seem to have read quite a few Brit set romances this year. If you like Richard Curtis movies for the funny snarky friendship groups, you might like this.

Gideon The Ninth: Tamsyn Muir – I’m a bit late to the party with this book and it’s one that’s tricky to describe but if gothic sword fighting necromancers in space sounds good to you, check it out!

House of Earth and Blood: Sarah J Maas. A new series for Sarah with a very big and complicated world which I’m very interested in seeing where she takes things. This book is a long one but it sucked me in.

Sweet Ruin: Kresley Cole – Another series I glommed this year. Fated Mates is not my fave paranormal trope but Kresley is doing some great things in this world. Sweet Ruin was my fave. I picked this series up due to listening to the Fated Mates podcast with Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokof which is one I enjoy a lot.

The House in the Cerulean Sea & Brothersong: T.J. Klune Two very different books, the former being a lovely kind YA level fantasy and the latter the last in his funny/angsty/sexy/m/m werewolf series but I continue to adore T.J.’s books.

Headliners – Lucy Parker. Another fab romance from Lucy. I’m eagerly awaiting her new series in 2021.

One Kiss from the King of Rock: Ainslie Paton – A great rock star reunion romance. The whole series of these books is fun!

Mindtouch: MCA Hogarth – Gentle SF. Psychic space doctors plus kindness.

A Heart of Blood and Ashes: Mila Vane – A barbarian fantasy romance done very very well.

Naughty Brits: A fun and sexy contemporay novella anthology from a bunch of cool authors who generally write historicals.

The Nancys: RWR McDonald – a young girl who wants to be Nancy Drew and her gay uncle and his boyfriend in a NZ set murder mystery. This book was delightful. I read less mystery this year I think but this was a good one.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – VE Schwab. Another book that’s hard to describe. Memory and love and old gods and revenge. Beautiful and unique.

So there you have it. My fave reads of the year. I read lots and could include more but this is a blog post, not a novel. Mosey on over to Goodreads if you want to see everything I read/listened to. I also talked a little about my top 5 SFF and top 5 romances on IGTV. And of course, I talk about books I’m loving in my newsletter, which you can sign up for on my website. My fave comfort listen continues to be The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, a book I seem to never tire of. Some of my fave podcasts continue to be No Such Thing As A Fish and Chat 10 Looks 3. Some other faves this year: Fated Mates, Writing Excuses, David Tennant Does a Podcast With, Evil Genius, Home Cooking, Strong Songs, The Pen Addict, Shedunnit, The West Wing Weekly and You’re Dead to Me.

If you’d like to check out what books I picked as faves in previous years, here they are:

2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.

Maybe one of your future faves is in there. If you had a fave this year, let me know so I can check it out! May the new year be full of amazing books, less stress, more joy, an end to this damned pandemic and a new start to things.

The post A year in books – the 2020 edition appeared first on Crossed Wires.

The post Wicked Words will be out in January appeared first on Crossed Wires.

Buy links here. Also the excerpt! Paperbacks will be here soon!

Happy reading!

The post The Unbound Queen is out today! appeared first on Crossed Wires.

I’m very happy to announce that The Unbound Queen will be out April 28!! Throw all the confetti, bust out all the champagne!

For all the pre-order links and to read an excerpt, jump on over to my website.

The post The Unbound Queen is nearly here! appeared first on Crossed Wires.

Another year of not really blogging but I can’t give this post up. So, for the fourteenth year, here are some of my favourite books this year:

The Calculating Stars – Mary Robinette Kowal  Lady Astronauts during a space race driven by a more urgent reason than we actually had. Great series!

Clockwork Boys – T Kingfisher Another author discovery this year (she also writes as Ursula Vernon and writes kids and YA as well). Great fantasy heist book with a hint of horror. So far I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read of hers.

Me – Elton John I listened to the audiobook of this one, read by Elton and Taron Egerton who played him in the movie and it was highly entertaining.

A Madness of Sunshine – Nalini Singh Loved this first mystery by Nalini, set in NZ.

The Duke I Tempted – Scarlett Peckham A new author, great historicals. Looking forward to more

Back Story – David Mitchell. To be clear, I mean David Mitchell the British comedian/actor, not the Cloud Atlas author. Another audiobook listen. I like David’s cranky Brit humour and actually, the story of how he met and won his wife is pretty romantic.

Grave Importance – Vivian Shaw. The third book in this great UF series which I hope is continuing.

When We Believed In Mermaids – Barbara O’Neal. I love Barbara’s books and this is another great one.

Heartsong – T.J. Klune The third in a great werewolf series. I’ve actually read quite a few of TJ’s books this year, he was a new discovery late last year. M/M and some of them have a pretty graphic sense of humor but he writes great snarky found families.

The Austen Playbook – Lucy Parker. Another fab romance from Lucy.

Sapphire Flames and Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews. I confess I miss Kate but the Hidden Legacy and Innkeeper series are both pretty damn good too.

So there you have it. My fave reads of the year. I read lots and could include more but this is a blog post, not a novel. Mosey on over to Goodreads if you want to see everything I read/listened to. My fave comfort listen continues to be The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, a book I seem to never tire of. My two favorite podcasts continue to be Chat 10 Looks 3 and No Such Thing As A Fish. Honorable mentions to The Pen Addict, The West Wing Weekly, The Throne Rangers, Hashtag Authentic, Writing Excuses, Shedunnit, Pratchat, Fated Mates,  Nowhere Child and Australian True Crime.

If you’d like to check out what books I picked as faves in previous years, here they are:

2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.

Maybe one of your future faves is in there. If you had a fave this year, let me know so I can check it out! Happy 2020! May the new year be full of amazing books, amazing things and plenty of bookshelves to see out a new decade!

The post 2019 in books appeared first on Crossed Wires.

I’ve always loved to learn new things (writer magpie brain) and I have the kind of brain that is good at taking in lots of information and learning things and really enjoys the hit that comes from learning. And, really, the internet is a never ending source of new things to learn. Which is good but also bad when you have a brain like mine and you don’t manage it. And I need to finish The Unbound Queen and that needs focus and some time in my head with Sophie and Cameron to see them through this final part of their adventures. I’m not giving up social media forever though I expect I may change how I do some things when I come back, but I want some more headspace. When I did this in 2017, I definitely had more of that. I’ve recently read Cal Newport’s newest book Digital Minimalism and while I don’t agree with everything in there, I agree that we all probably need to challenge our over reliance on our devices and that taking a 30 day break is a good place to start.

This time I’m not doing a total digital detox like last time. I will check email a few times a day, I will use the internet for research and for taking a couple of classes I’m working my way through and I’m happy to watch streaming services and listen to music online as those for me aren’t the things I lose time to. But I will be signing out of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (the hardest one as I find Instagram relaxing) and Pinterest for a month. I’ve scheduled a few FB posts as I have a couple of commitments and I guess if something blows up that I have to deal with, I will but otherwise, nothing. I’ll be taking the apps off my phone and logging out on my laptop/desktop and taking the shortcuts off my dock to avoid temptation. I may blog once or twice during the month if there are exciting things to report.

Speaking of exciting things:

Firstly you can currently grab a copy of The Wolf Within for free as part of the Magic After Dark box set. This set will only be available for a limited time, so get your copy while you can.

Secondly I’m signing at the ARRA A Romantic Rendezvous in Melbourne on March 30th so come say hello!

Until then, happy reading!

The post Taking a break from social media for a month appeared first on Crossed Wires.

I might not have blogged a lot but I can’t break with tradition. So, for the thirteenth!!! time, here are some of my favourite books this year:

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street – Natasha Pulley. An historical with subtle fantasy and a subtle slow burn romance and some intriguing ideas.

Nevermoor – Jessica Townsend. If you’re a fan of English style children’s fantasy in the vein of Harry Potter and Diana Wynne Jones, give this one a go.

Strange Practice – Vivan Shaw. A doctor to the paranormal creatures of London. Another entry in the category of kind and hopeful fantasy a la The Goblin Emperor though this one is more urban fantasy.

Beneath the Sugar Sky – Seanan McGuire. Another great book from Seanan.

Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan. Romance, crazy rich people and family drama on the scale of Judith Krantz or Jackie Collins. Fun! The movie was pretty good too.

Artificial Condition – Martha Wells. The continuing adventures of Murderbot. Excellent stuff.

In the Market for Murder – T.E. Kinsey. The Lady Hardcastle series was a find this year. A widow and her lady’s maid who have an interesting past retire to the country and become embroiled in murders. If you like cozy mysteries, add this one to your list.

The Henchmen of Zenda – K.J. Charles. Every evil henchman deserves his day 😀

Maggie’s Run – Kelly Hunter. It’s a Kelly Hunter book. Go buy it.

The Art of Inheriting Secrets – Barbara O’Neal. I love Barbara’s books and her lastest has art and food and England and romance and I’ve already read it twice.

Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik. Another great fantasy from Naomi. I think Uprooted is still my fave of hers but this was also awesome.

Jane Doe – Victoria Helen Stone. An unapologetic psychopathic/sociopathic heroine who uses her powers to avenge a friend. Loved it.

Home to Turtle Bay – Marion Lennox. Marion writes lovely romances and this single title was just what the doctor ordered when I was recuperating from surgery.

Wolfsong – T.J. Klune A new to me werewolf series that I’m really enjoying. I hope there’s a third book soon.

Making Up – Lucy Parker. Another fab romance from Lucy.

Iron & Magic and Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews. I like everything she writes but these were a great opening to a new series and a great finish to one of my all time faves.

So there you have it. My fave reads of the year. I read lots of good books but try to keep this post a reasonable length. Mosey on over to Goodreads if you want to see everything I read. You can find my audiobooks on Goodreads too. My fave comfort listen continues to be The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, a book I seem to never tire of. This year I think I kept listening to podcasts. My two favorite podcasts continue to be Chat 10 Looks 3 and No Such Thing As A Fish. Honorable mentions to The Pen Addict (yes, I am a stationery geek), Ramblings, The West Wing Weekly, Conversations with Richard Fidler, Elise Gets Crafty, Writing Excuses, Buffering The Vampire Slayer, Pratchat, The Teacher’s Pet and Every Musical Ever.

If you’d like to check out what books I picked as faves in previous years, here’s the lists:

2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006.

Hopefully you can find a new fave in there. Let me know what some of yours were so I can add to the never-ending TBR list! Happy 2019! May the books you read bring you happiness and may your bookshelves be sturdy!

The post A Year in Books – Lucky 13 appeared first on Crossed Wires.

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.

The post State of the Mel #11 and a new book! appeared first on Crossed Wires.

I have a rough draft that I’m revising and editing as I go along and the plan is to publish a new chapter about every two weeks. Because it’s a work in progress, there may be rough spots etc. I hope you’ll check it out.

The post Want a free read? appeared first on Crossed Wires.