Melanie Scott biography options
Author bio used in Melanie Scott books
Melanie Scott would love to live in a world where professional napping was a thing. But until then, she thinks writing books is a pretty awesome alternative. When not writing about imaginary people, she can be found reading, doing something crafty, binge watching TV, playing her latest song crush on repeat, or otherwise avoiding housework. She lives in Melbourne, Australia in a tiny house stuffed full of books, too many craft supplies, and a varying number of feline overlords who take up more space than you would expect. She also writes romantic fantasy and urban fantasy as M.J. Scott.
Official bio – short
Melanie Scott grew up in a family of avid readers who fostered her love of words. A long time reader of romance and fantasy, it was inevitable that she ended up writing both genres. Her unpublished novels won a number of awards including the Romance Writers of Australia’s Emerald Award and Valerie Parv Award and the Romance Writers of New Zealand’s Clendon Award. The Devil in Denim, her debut contemporary romance was published by St. Martin’s Press in August 2014. Publisher’s Weekly called it “a strong debut….giving readers plenty to look forward to….” and named it as one of their Top 10 Fall 2014 romances. It was nominated in the Favourite Contemporary Romance category of the 2014 Australian Romance Readers Association Awards.
The second book in the New York Saints trilogy, Angel in Armani, which Publisher’s Weekly calls “a first-rate contemporary,” praising Melanie’s “gift for storytelling and knack for creating sympathetic characters”, was published in December 2014. Lawless in Leather “Publisher’s Weekly – Readers will root, root, root for their romance to succeed and will eagerly await the next title in this solid series” came out in May 2015. It has been nominated in the Favourite Contemporary Romance cateogry of the 2015 Australian Romance Readers Association Awards. The fourth book in the series, Playing Hard followed in February 2016 and the fifth book, Playing Fast, was released August 30 2016. She also writes small-town romance as Emma Douglas (www.emmadouglasbooks.com) and dark fantasy and urban fantasy as M.J. Scott and one of her books written under that name, The Shattered Court, has been nominated for Best Paranormal Romance in the Romance Writers of America’s 2016 RITA awards. She lives in Melbourne, Australia where she distracts herself with books, cats and paint when she’s not writing. Her website is www.mjscott.net.
Official bio – long
Melanie Scott was born in Melbourne, Australia but grew up in the green and rolling hills of South Gippsland, Victoria. Raised by two teachers, her love of reading was always encouraged and books willingly provided to feed her reading habit. She moved back to Melbourne to attend university, where she did an honours degree in a subject completely unrelated to writing fiction. She still works in that field and gets to write a lot of documents that do not involve romance.
Her two great fiction loves have always been romance and fantasy, having grown up reading Tolkien alongside L.M. Montgomery and Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones and David Eddings mixed with Heyer, Austen and all the romance books she could find. Therefore, it was somewhat inevitable that when she finally decided to start writing down the stories in her head, she wrote in both genres. She also small-town romance as Emma Douglas (www.emmadouglasbooks.com) and dark fantasy and urban fantasy as M.J. Scott and one of her books written under that name, The Shattered Court, has been nominated for Best Paranormal Romance in the Romance Writers of America’s 2016 RITA awards.
Her unpublished novels have won a number of awards including the Romance Writers of Australia’s Emerald Award and Valerie Parv Award and the Romance Writers of New Zealand’s Clendon Award. She was also a two time finalist in the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award.
The Devil in Denim, her debut contemporary romance was published by St. Martin’s Press in August 2014. Publisher’s Weekly called it “a strong debut….giving readers plenty to look forward to….” and named it as one of their Top 10 Fall 2014 romances. It has been nominated in the Favourite Contemporary Romance category of the 2014 Australian Romance Readers Association Awards. The second book in the New York Saints trilogy, Angel in Armani, which Publisher’s Weekly calls “a first-rate contemporary,” praising Melanie’s “gift for storytelling and knack for creating sympathetic characters”, was published in December 2014. Lawless in Leather “Publisher’s Weekly – Readers will root, root, root for their romance to succeed and will eagerly await the next title in this solid series” came out in May 2015. The fourth book in the series, Playing Hard followed in February 2016 and the fifth book, Playing Fast, was released on August 30 2016. The first three books in the series have been released in Germany, beginning with The Devil in Denim in April 2016.
Her life, apart from the day job, revolves around books, writing, the odd sewing, knitting, spinning or quilting or sketching/watercolour binge, resisting the lure of dark chocolate, and taking orders from her cats. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia. Her website is www.mjscott.net.