Pipkia asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

What’s the background of Jole as a character? He plays a very quiet role in earlier books—when did you decide he and Aral were lovers?

Lois McMaster Bujold
Jole was first developed in 1989, when he popped into The Vor Game and was so vibrant and suggestive despite his short time on stage. The strong possibility occurred to me then, but that wasn't what that (or subsequent) books were about so it remained more imagined potential than developed. The Sergyar section of any of the characters' biographies couldn't occur till I decided to send Aral and Cordelia off to Sergyar when I wrote Memory in the mid 90s.

Following VK books had other characters and business, not to mention settings, to explore, and then there was that long stretch entirely away from the series when I was writing the two fantasy series. So it didn't switch from potential to kinetic till after that. And then the relationships finally became thematically and plot relevant to the book at hand, aka "more fun with uterine replicators: the next generation (-al shift)", with both gender and generational issues to explore versus the technology, in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen and so Jole went, a bit belatedly, to center stage. (Because, you know, for all the character-and-relationship drama, this is supposed to be science fiction, here.)

Ta, L.

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