Softness
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I read one of your interviews on LJ (Karen Miller, 2007). In it you mentioned a 6 week study tour of Africa. What was that like? Have you written more about that trip somewhere? Do you still have any of those picture slides you took? You also mentioned hitchhiking in Europe! What countries? I'd love to hear more if you ever feel like talking about these adventures. ^^ -Kalli
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Africa trip was in 1971, and the Europe one in 1965, so both over 50 years ago. While I still remember more about them than any of my high school classes, I don't think I have the endurance to type them out just now.
I do still have all the slides. No slide projector or other method of displaying them, however. (Note to all the techie readers about to jump in with advice, Yes, I know they could be converted to digital. No, I'm not on for that project just now either, thanks.)
The hitch-hiking was with my 21-year-old brother (I was 15.) 1965 was likely just on the cusp before such a thing came to be considered too dangerous. Youth hostels and his valiant attempt to tour Europe on $5 a day. We did England, Scotland, and a bit of Wales. Switzerland and north Italy were in there somewhere, and passenger trains, a novelty to my Midwestern experience. (My brother was a big train and model railroad buff. To this day I still find public mass transportation alien and daunting.) Three weeks of this, switched to trains in France, where it wasn't so easy to thumb it, then he dumped me with my parents in Paris, once we'd finally found their hotel, and he went north to Scandinavia and we went south by car to Germany and Italy.
This was back in the days when a trip overseas was considered a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not a weekend jaunt. I was, of course, totally ignorant of the histories much of what I was seeing, and no internet to fill in, hah, but less so by the end. 1965 trip is also memorable for being where I first found The Fellowship of the Ring, on a used-book rack in Rome. I would say, "Left by some hippie," but hippies weren't invented yet.
Ta, L.
I do still have all the slides. No slide projector or other method of displaying them, however. (Note to all the techie readers about to jump in with advice, Yes, I know they could be converted to digital. No, I'm not on for that project just now either, thanks.)
The hitch-hiking was with my 21-year-old brother (I was 15.) 1965 was likely just on the cusp before such a thing came to be considered too dangerous. Youth hostels and his valiant attempt to tour Europe on $5 a day. We did England, Scotland, and a bit of Wales. Switzerland and north Italy were in there somewhere, and passenger trains, a novelty to my Midwestern experience. (My brother was a big train and model railroad buff. To this day I still find public mass transportation alien and daunting.) Three weeks of this, switched to trains in France, where it wasn't so easy to thumb it, then he dumped me with my parents in Paris, once we'd finally found their hotel, and he went north to Scandinavia and we went south by car to Germany and Italy.
This was back in the days when a trip overseas was considered a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not a weekend jaunt. I was, of course, totally ignorant of the histories much of what I was seeing, and no internet to fill in, hah, but less so by the end. 1965 trip is also memorable for being where I first found The Fellowship of the Ring, on a used-book rack in Rome. I would say, "Left by some hippie," but hippies weren't invented yet.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Kate Davenport
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
You say the e-writing process has gotten frighteningly fast. Good thing? Bad thing? Has it changed the way you write? Or any of the different stages of your writing? For myself, I can look back and see so many things that I now do totally differently because of the computer and the internet.
Samuel Hutchison
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I know a lot of people ask you when you're going to write another Miles book, but I feel like Cordelia is the only one of your major characters that hasn't reached the end of her character arc and I think I'd very much like to read a book about how she manages the transition into the next phase of her life after Aral's death. Is there anything like that brewing?
David Samuels
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I just finished/loved the Penric's Demon series. The Cantons are cozy as heck and the Empire has that Byzantine motif that's right down my alley. Anyway, I wanted to know what role jesters play, if any, in the world of Chalion. I assume they'd fall within the Bastard's province, but just how religious would they be? The idea of a jester-divine brings a smile to my face haha
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Jan 21, 2018 12:45AM
Jun 11, 2018 01:48PM