Welcome to the blog of Mary Brock Jones, SF author.

I also have a website, here


I write science fiction. Some dark, some not so dark. Some short, some longer, some very long. Some have a happy ending, others definitely not.

I also write NZ historical romance novels.They always end happily, even if the journey can get quite bumpy.

It's a nice mix.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Pre-New Year resolutions

This is the getting-ready-to-make-a-New-Year-Resolution post. See below for version 1 of this year's batch of promises I make to myself. Or in other words, how to spend time doing anything but editing my current WIP by philosophising over various matters.
    Anyway, current plan for next year is: Finish editing the Gorge Creek book (NZ historical romance). You have to do this Mary, damn it. Get it finished, get it sent off and enter into the RWNZ Clendon comp - then get on to the next project you really want to write.
     Currently this is a SF novel, with a broad climate change theme. There will probably be a romantic element, but it's not the main storyline. I've got a rough outline written - otherwise known as the cursed synopsis.  And both main characters, the general cultural background,  and the main conflict points  sketched out. Very prepared for me.  Usually I just write madly to find out who my characters are and what happens to them. But I need to do a lot of research on climate change and ecology to find out if my broad precept will work.
     OK so that's the writing schedule done. Now to just fit in real life (ie the paid work that feeds and clothes me, and the family that makes it all work) and a couple of uni papers. Yeah, chicken feed. Watch this space for versions x,y, z and so on to the nth degree.

Monday, December 5, 2011

My writing

Since this is a writing blog, it seems only reasonable to add some of my own writing. Poetry is something I rarely attempt - but this one appealed to me. My apologies for those out there who are so much more proficient at this most difficult of writing forms than I am.


Listen to a Waterfall 

I sit silently on the bank
                                    To watch the water fall.
A cascade plummeting down the cliff
                                    And careering into the rocks
Protruding from each pillared
                                    Side and playful ledge.

I watch the light twist and tumble
                                    In a misty turmoil of
Fractured rainbows caught in a
                                    Cloud of watery chaos.
Surging down then swirling
                                    Up as the still heart of the fall
Becomes the roar of the pool
At the base and echoes back to me
In a rage of racked and pummelled
                                    Carnage rich with reverberant life

That drowns the meaningless tears
                                    That drew me here.


Monday, November 28, 2011

Screen writing as help to fiction writing

I finally got my final grade and markers comments for the short script I wrote as the final assignment for the Massey screen writing course I did. I got a pretty good mark for it, but more importantly, the markers comments were a very useful critique, and of the best kind. They said what the marker liked about the script and areas where it could be improved. And given that the marker was  NZ playwrite and professional script writer Stuart Hoar, he does know what he's talking about. Better still, he didn't just say what could work better, but how it could be made to work better. The old bugbear - rack up the conflict.
     He also couldn't understand the function of a particular character. I'd put this person, the protagonist's love interest, into the script as a proxy for how she feels about the bulk of the other characters, but hadn't really  thought about him fully as a person. How he would react to what happens and what are his motivations. In other words, he was just a cipher to me, and that's what came across.  It's amazing what comes through in your writing. If you as writer don't care about a character or don't know why he's there, then why should the reader.
    This course also introduced me to the wealth of screen writing books out there. Screen writing is so commercially focussed, which makes it very self-critical. Your story has to work to make it into production. So books on screen writing have the most brilliant tips and hints for any style of story writing.
    Plus they tend to be written in very easy to read formats. Screen writers are adept at using a minimum of words to put their story across, and this translates into their books on screen writing book techniques.  I've just bought one called "Save the Cat" by Blake Snyder, recommended by Katrina Bliss ( one of NZ's best romance writers).

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Rugby over - now back to writing

We won - at least, the All Blacks did, after making an entire nation sit with their hearts in their mouths for rather too much of the final game. so now the Rugby World Cup (or RWC as our acronym mad newspapers keep shortening it to) is over, life can get back to normal.      That's the theory anyway, except that we have currently put the house on the market, so writing is having to take yet another back seat. Or is that just me procrastinating?
      What's happened recently? I finished the script for the screenwriting course I'm taking. A terrific exercise in terms of exploring story creation and how to cut stuff. I managed to get it down to exactly 35 pages - the maximum allowed, and had to concede that most cuts did improve it. But not all. It probably  needed to be about a 50 pg script - in other words, a 1 hr TV drama, rather than a half hour skit.
      It also got me looking at screenwriting books. And discover the terrific information in them. Most particularly, they include brilliant hints and tips to sharpen up the editing of any piece of writing. And writing a script forced me to more clearly visualise the scene I was writing, and to focus only on those details in a scene which work to move the story along.
     Now back to editing my 2nd NZ historical. Then I must get in to the new scifi novel I have preliminary notes for. I think that is going to be my forte - scifi with a romantic element.
      My scifi short stories are currently not getting much success - more rejections this month. Possibly because they are generally quite miserable and dark, emotionally. Maybe I need to vary the emotional tone of them - rescue my poor readers from the depths occasionally.
      But now back to 1862 Otago, New Zealand. And the music of Eric Church, my latest favourite discovery. A US country singer with decidedly un-PC lyrics. Such fun.  Of course, his CD's are not released here - typical. Thank the stars for the internet.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Bogged down and rugby

Not much writing happening lately. I'm bogged down in the short script I'm working on for the uni screenwriting paper I'm doing at present. Actually, I really like the story, and it's a fascinating process. But I'm in redraft territory at present - lots of rethinking, but now have to sit down and do the re-writing. It's based on a scifi short story I wrote some time back, but this has been a great chance to expand on it. Set on Titan, largest moon of Saturn, it involves the first colony set up there. Which creates lots of possibilities re how people can live and work in colonies as we expand into the solar system. Lots of ideas, but it's limited to a 30-35 pg script, so all background knowledge to what actually goes on paper. Very fascinating world building though.   
       And the rugby world cup is on. What about that opening ceremony! Just loved it. And I get weepy over the national anthems. Loved Ireland vs USA - very emotional. But hated Scotland vs Georgia. Scotland have one of the best national anthems going - "Flower of Scotland" and the choir and orchestra that have done an amazing job on all the other anthems just butchered this one. It dragged, there was not beat to it, and worst of all,  no passion or rising crescendo. How could they do that?
      Oh, and the rugby is great too.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

RWNZ conference 2011

Last weekend I attended this year's RWNZ conference - the best conference yet, but also the most fraught. Sadly, M&B writer Sandra Hyatt passed away suddenly over the weekend. I didn't know her personally but have met her and heard her speak at Auckland chapter meetings. A warm, friendly and very astute and helpful writer. My thoughts are with her family and her close friends in RWNZ. She will be sadly missed.
     Sandra was a good friend to most of the organisers of the conference, and despite it all and with the deepest of respect to their friend, they managed to ensure that the remainder of the conference ran smoothly and as successfully as the first two days.  Extraordinary people.
     The highlight of the conference for me was the workshop and talks from US thriller/SF writer, ex - green beret and writing tutor Bob Mayer. He put things in simple to understand terms and I learnt heaps. Tess Gerritsen was funny, very clever, and it's so hard to believe that such a nice lady writes truly scarifying thrillers. Haven't read any, but I'm certainly going to.
    I had two pitches  - with Kate Haworth of Penguin NZ and with Angela James of Carina Press, who had the bad luck to have caught a rotten cold. Both asked me to submit my manuscripts - so that's great.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Flitting

Flitting - that's the best way I can describe the state of my writing at the moment. I'm flitting between different projects - and getting nowhere fast with any of them.  Not a very productive work method.
      I'm about 80% done on the final assignment of my screenwriting paper - a SF short film script. A lot of fun, and it's making me look at story writing in a new way. But it's not due till the end of October, so think I should put it aside and get on with editing my historical romance, working title "Gorge Creek". Then there is always the two SF books in their early stages, which are actually where my real interests lie.
     I've done about 12,000 words of one, and am toying with whether to keep it as a longish short story/novella or turn it into a full book. And at Catherine Asaro's marvellous workshop before this year's con, I came away with the bare bones of another SF novel. This one really does have enough in it for a full novel, though will need a lot of research beforehand into such things as climate change, meteorology and general world building.
     One thing Ms Asaro's workshop did achieve for me was to help me realise what it is I want to write. Or rather what it is I enjoy writing the most. It's SF, with or without a romantic element. Though I may still write in other genre's. I'm in the middle of reading "Doc" by Mary Doria Russell of "The Sparrow" fame. Here is a writer who writes what she wants to write, rather than what the business expects her to write. She could have stayed as a successful author of a stream of literary SF novels. But "Doc" is historical, the story of Doc Holliday, and a great read.
      Or maybe all this flitting is just another name for procrastination. I am getting writing done, but it's bits here and there. Well past time to knuckle down and follow the maxims of Somerset Maugham. The only secret to writing is applying one's seat to one's chair and get on with it.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Projects

I had the contact course for my Massey screenwriting course a few weeks ago, and am now fully ensconced in writing the short script due for the last assignment. It's an interesting exercise, especially in minimising dialogue and concentrating on the visual details to be described. Gone is the luxury of delving into the narrative character's head to describe how they are feeling, as in prose. If you can't see it, you can't write it. So I have to really think about how to convey details visually.
I started the course after hearing Stephanie Laurens at the 2010 RWNZ conference make the point that the style of storytelling used in entertainment fiction, as she describes genre fiction, is closer to that of modern film and TV than it is literary fiction. So it seemed a very good idea to find out how film makers do tell stories.
So far it's been fascinating. A quite different mindset, and it would be good to have more experience of the physical reality of filming, to see what you can and can't do. But it's also a lot of fun. And 6 pages of script can take longer to write than 6 pages of prose, despite having a whole lot less words on them. Also,  'cut' seems to be the operative word when editing. You have to examine every single word, particularly of dialogue, to see if it is really needed. And that is good for the soul, but hard on the heart.

Friday, June 10, 2011

ConText and writing workshop

Back from an exciting week, and into the doldrums of an annoying cold. But it was worth it. The previous week I had the joy of taking part in a 3 day writing workshop by Catherine Asaro - one of my favourite writers and author of the brilliant Skolian series. The workshop was magic. A whole lot more work than I'd counted on, but after 3 days she had made me invent new characters, a new world and a whole new book. The morning of the third day she asked us to present a draft synopsis for the story we had been working on the previous 2 days. Now if anyone had told me beforehand that I could come up with a complete outline for a book I hadn't even thought about and in 3 days, I would have told them they were dreaming. I'm a pantser. I find out what happens when I write the whole story. But I did it, thanks to Catherine. She was brilliant.
That was followed by NZ's annual con - this year called ConText, at which Catherine Asaro was the guest of honour. And did they make her work! She was involved in so many talks, and she was constantly gracious, warm and so interesting. A marvellous weekend all round. And it finished very nicely - I came runner up in the con short story competition with my story "Exile".
Now I just have to finish off my other works so I can start on the great new book I have the beginnings of.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Procrastinating

I'm currently in caught-between land. I've just sent off my latest assignment for the screenwriting paper I've done. Hathe, prts 1&2 are finished and waiting for me to get some time off, to spend a day printing them off and post off in submission. No short stories pending. So it's time to get back to my Gorge Creek book and start the 1st edit. Which is why I'm in classic writer phase of 'what else can I do'? Anything, please, anything to put off me opening up and starting the editing. Not that I don't enjoy editing. Just have my head space elsewhere at the moment, still caught up in other stories, and not quite ready to jump into the Gorge Creek space. Maybe I better just dive on in - rather like swimming in Lake Taupo as a kid. There was only one way to do it. Dive in and swim vigorously until the water temperature actually felt enjoyable. So I'm off to dive into Gorge Creek. Honest, really and truly. Maybe.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

ConText 2011 programming conflicts

I've just checked out the programme for this years NZ con - ConText, to be held in Parnell over Queen's Birthday weekend. See con website here http://context.sf.org.nz/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

There's such a lot of good stuff there, and the organisers are really making Catherine Asaro work! But they have scheduled too many great events at the same time. What to go to, what to miss? There are clashes with guest of honour talks and talks from NZ writers such as Grant Stone and Ripley Patton. Not fair.It's all too hard.
 I'm also going to the writing workshop that Catherine Asaro has wonderfully agreed to give in the 3 days beforehand. Her Skolian series is my current absolute favourite SciFi series. A brilliant mix of innovative hard sci ideas with real human interest and a touch of romance to make it perfect. It's all about the people, the family at the heart of the stories.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Writing in the inbetween

My writing life has been a bit scrappy lately. I had an assignment to finish for the Massey screenwriting course I'm doing, and a story to complete for the ConText con competition. Plus everyday life rearing it's usual mucky head. But the assignment got done and just last night I pushed the send button for the short story contest entry. A straight scifi story, with the dark overtones that have been creeping in to all my short stories the last few years. I seemed to have developed a pattern of light historical NZ romances alternating with dark, even dismal, scifi & contemporary short stories. The SF novels fall somewhere in between. Hathe is a romance but is also pretty dark in places, and the latest one that is still in limbo is definitely darker. It deals with the farming of humans by an alien species. And yes, I know Ann MacCaffrey has done something similar in her Freedom series, as well as  the amazing  novel The Sparrow  by Mary Doria Russell.  But hopefully mine is different enough to still be original. I'm pretty sure neither of them first got the idea of their book by watching lambs watching the stockmen in a freezing works yard one day. So at least I can claim a degree of authenticity.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

No go from Carina

Another rejection, and this one really hurt. Not because it was unfair - quite the contrary. Deborah Nemeth from Carina Press said no to my revised version of Hathe. But she did so in a very nice letter, with  both the things she liked about Hathe  and what didn't work for her, and why overall it didn't make it.
Solid gold info for a writer, and I am grateful. It's very kind of an editor to take so much trouble.  After I've stopped sulking and got over the initial downer, I'll go back and do some re-writing in line with her comments. The most annoying part is that I can see her point. She thought my heroine fell into love too quickly with the hero, so that it wasn't credible, which I had sort of wondered about and should have done something to fix before I sent it in. And she didn't like the hero. Which as a writer is totally my fault as I didn't show the conflicts that drive him fully. It's what hurt the most. I love my hero.
Plus she thought it needed to be more subtle. This is the bit I can't seem to win with US readers of all kinds. I seem to be either too subtle or not subtle enough. I'm not sure how much this is a problem of my ability as a writer, or if it's due to my poor understanding of how Americans communicate with each other. NZers tend to use a lot of non-verbal communications, as well as relying on social mores. In many instances, what we don't say is far more important than what we do say. Which is true for lots of cultures - we just seem to take it to the extreme. So when writing for other cultures, I'm always having to make a kind of guess as to what you need to have a character say or do, to communicate a given feeling or response. But since other kiwis can figure it out, then I just have to as well.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Normality and Submitting

I am getting back into writing again. One of my goals this year was to submit more. So I have now followed up on a submission to Mills and Boon Historicals, which I made by email last year. It turned out they had not received my first submission, and they have now entered it into the system. So it does pay to follow up if you don't hear anything from a publisher.
     And I have just sent off Hathe Part 1 to Carina Press, for which I received a 'revise and resubmit' request last year. At the last RWNZ meeting, a number suggested I send off the first part, even though Book 2 still needs a bit of work, to find out if they are still interested and do they want anything in the first part changed that might affect the second part. Since the 'suggestees' were a bookseller (Barbara of Barbara's Books no less) and published authors, it seemed very good advice to take.
     RWNZ is an excellent organisation to join for any budding authors. It is particularly aimed at romance writers, but is chocka with published authors with spot on advice and knowledge for novices, and everyone is very helpful and supportive. Their conferences are very professional, and are always attended by at least one agent and an editor from significant overseas publishers and literary agencies( mostly US) .
       My kids are still fine and slowly getting to terms with 'what now'. Two are relocating to Auckland and the one in his final year at uni is staying in Christchurch.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Kids safe

My family are all safely out of Christchurch and they are starting to look at 'what next'. Two are at uni there - they are coming home for a spell, then back into it when uni restarts. Their side of town is quickly getting back to normal - they have showers and toilets. The greatest inventions ever. The third is going to come home and re-examine what he should do next. But is now sounding positive rather than shell shocked. Ain't people amazing. To all the heroes down there - thank you. There are no other words to say what all the country is feeling.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Christchurch Earthquake

Writing isn't happening at the moment. I have 3 sons in Christchurch. All are fit and well, but one has lost his home.  One is a first year student, and we've got him on a flight home tomorrow. Another flies out on Saturday, and the 3rd is staying on. He is in a good old weatherboard house, with minor damage only. But the important thing is they are all safe. Unlike so many others. My thoughts and prayers are with all the other families and people whose lives have changed so suddenly and are going through such awful pain at the moment.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Hathe Part 1 Finished

I've finally finished the re-edit of Hathe part 1. Working title at the moment is "To Resist the Heart".  I chose it mainly because I am going to enter it into the RWNZ Clendon award, which is for a romance novel by an unpublished author. One short story is OK by their rules. So it needed a romantic title. Mind you, the Clendon entry form does say a romance needs a happy ending. "Hathe" does have one, it's just not at the end of Part 1. Actually, Part 1 has got a pretty miserable ending. But Part 2 ends up happyish - and if there is no such word, there ought to be.
     Now I just have to rewrite Part 2.  That may be more problematical, as I have to change it to add in the basic info from Part 1,  without clogging up the story with big pieces of exposition. Also, Part 1 ended up at 91,000 words. Part 2 is currently only 73,000. And at the end, will the "revise and resubmit" invitation from Carina Press still stand? They sent it to me in July 2010. At the rate I'm going, I won't be finished both books till July 2011. Maybe I better stop blogging  - or any other form of procrastination - and get back to writing.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

2010 round up

It seems to be the time of year for a review of the previous year's ups and downs as a writer. So here's mine.
     2010 was an important year for me - in that it was the year I made that first step towards becoming a professional writer. It's the year I got published. That was the biggy.  My story A Conjunction of Interests  was published in the March 2010 issue of Semaphore,  and then made the cut to be included in the Semaphore Anthology 2010.  So I got to be in a proper book. One which is available to the public to buy, one which they need to use real money for. Now that's what I call being published.
    Other ups of the year include: finishing the first draft of my latest NZ historical romance; getting a "revise and resubmit" response from Carina Press, for which I have just about finished re-editing the first book of a two book series; passing two more papers towards my extramural Massey University Grad Dip Arts in English; making myself get to more of the monthly meetings of the Auckland chapter of RWNZ; joining SpecFicNZ, the new organisation founded by a number of NZ resident spec fic writers, driven by Ripley Patton; and attending the first two monthly Auckland get togethers of that organisation.  The latter were maybe the hardest to do, and also probably the most helpful. I tend to avoid having to meet new people - it's something I find particularly tough to do - but actually talking face to face to other writers in the same genre is hugely helpful.
       Things I need to improve on from 2010:  submit more work. I haven't submitted a story or book to anyone for months. And if you don't submit, you don't get published. That's another thing I have to really push myself to do.  I'm always quite sure that my work is nothing like what they are looking for, and how dare I bother an editor, agent, etc with my amateurish stuff. Plus like most writers, I hate rejections. My ego is quite fragile enough already, without it being added to.  But again, if you really want to be a 'proper' writer, then you have to get your stuff out there. So that's my resolution for 2011. Submit more work.
     And finish editing the two Hathe books so I can submit them again to Carina Press.