Shane Castle
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
When you were producing “Penric’s Demon”, did you have any ideas of the stories to follow, or have they emerged more or less spontaneously from the story well, over time?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Both. My first notions were for an older Penric, but prior experience with series has shown me that skipping over large swathes of time tends to limit what stories can later go in between. Besides, I thought I could get to know him better by beginning at his beginning.
The particular details of each novella were developed one by one, in the writing. I like surprising myself. (And you all.)
I arrived at what eventually became the novel Falling Free, decades back, by a similar process. My first notions were for the race of quaddies in situ in their asteroid colony in Miles's time, but then I reasoned back to their necessary beginning, Leo popped up, and other characters and the story began to coalesce around him.
Ta, L.
Both. My first notions were for an older Penric, but prior experience with series has shown me that skipping over large swathes of time tends to limit what stories can later go in between. Besides, I thought I could get to know him better by beginning at his beginning.
The particular details of each novella were developed one by one, in the writing. I like surprising myself. (And you all.)
I arrived at what eventually became the novel Falling Free, decades back, by a similar process. My first notions were for the race of quaddies in situ in their asteroid colony in Miles's time, but then I reasoned back to their necessary beginning, Leo popped up, and other characters and the story began to coalesce around him.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Rob Yale
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I’m wondering about this: “It bothered him extremely that he could not now remember the man's name, though he had spoken, hypocritically, at his funeral.” In The Warriors Apprentice, Miles seemed to have eschewed speaking at the dead pilot’s funeral. Am I missing something? Rob Yale
Karen Kramer-Medema
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I recently read Edward James' book on you (in the Modern Masters of Sciense Fiction series). In it, you are quoted, saying: "I've often wondered if, somewhere in my writerly apprenticeship and unknown or forgotten by myself, I'd made some sort of deal with the Infernal Powers that my books would stay in print forever, but the covers would always be *dire*". Do you feel Pen&Des have somehow lifted this curse?
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