Anne
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
This question contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[...Ok, exactly how long have you been waiting to spring those perspective shifts in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen on us? Two days after reading, I'm still counting up all the stuff that categorically changed in that book. I'm thinking some of those have been sitting around as little hints and implications for more than a decade. You, madame, are a literary magician of the first water. (hide spoiler)]
Lois McMaster Bujold
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[(Not only does the question contain spoilers, so does the answer. Beware.)
The answer varies with the specifics. I'd been thinking about the business surrounding the Cetagandan pullout from Barrayar for at least 15 years, or at any rate, so long that I've forgotten how long. I wanted to put it in at the end of Ivan's book, but was talked out of it by my test readers for issues of tone control. Aral, of course, has been canonically bisexual, and Cordelia canonically Betan, since 1983. I can't think how anyone could have missed that, but oh well. Readers.
Jole had been a glint in my eye since 1989, when I wrote The Vor Game, but that development certainly didn't belong in that book. (Nor in any of my other books of the 90s, when my most critical concern was career-building in order to make a living/not fall back into poverty in an extremely demanding literary marketplace.) The Sergyar developments were not thought of till after I'd written Memory, certainly. Then after the turn of the millennium I went off to write those seven fantasies for HarperCollins, with no plan to get back to the Vorkosiverse at all till Toni Weisskopf coaxed Cryoburn out of me. And then the Ivan book came along on its own, for lagniappe and for fun.
And then people kept asking and asking (and asking, and also asking) what happens to Miles after Cryoburn, which fell on deaf ears till I realized it was the wrong question. The real question was, what happens to Cordelia. This book is the answer to that question.
Ta, L. (hide spoiler)]
The answer varies with the specifics. I'd been thinking about the business surrounding the Cetagandan pullout from Barrayar for at least 15 years, or at any rate, so long that I've forgotten how long. I wanted to put it in at the end of Ivan's book, but was talked out of it by my test readers for issues of tone control. Aral, of course, has been canonically bisexual, and Cordelia canonically Betan, since 1983. I can't think how anyone could have missed that, but oh well. Readers.
Jole had been a glint in my eye since 1989, when I wrote The Vor Game, but that development certainly didn't belong in that book. (Nor in any of my other books of the 90s, when my most critical concern was career-building in order to make a living/not fall back into poverty in an extremely demanding literary marketplace.) The Sergyar developments were not thought of till after I'd written Memory, certainly. Then after the turn of the millennium I went off to write those seven fantasies for HarperCollins, with no plan to get back to the Vorkosiverse at all till Toni Weisskopf coaxed Cryoburn out of me. And then the Ivan book came along on its own, for lagniappe and for fun.
And then people kept asking and asking (and asking, and also asking) what happens to Miles after Cryoburn, which fell on deaf ears till I realized it was the wrong question. The real question was, what happens to Cordelia. This book is the answer to that question.
Ta, L. (hide spoiler)]
More Answered Questions
Sara
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I am an admirer of your work. One of your greatest talents is creating whole, interesting characters that make you want to follow the story, and the complete worlds the characters inhabit. When I start one of your books, I know I will escape into another dimension. When you write, do you set the stage (place and time), or does the character evolution do that for you? Do you use outlines in your creative process?
Jerri
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Happy Winterfair wishes to Lois and all who read her works. I am assuming that Winterfair takes place on and around the Winter Solstice, which is today, as I type this, on Old Earth. And Penric, Des and the rest in the world of the Five Gods should be celebrating Father's MidWinter? I can't remember, do the Sharing Knife characters celebrate a middle of winter holiday?
Martha
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
So with the deal between Kobo and Walmart (see, for example, http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-will-start-selling-rakuten-kobo-ereaders-and-ebooks-2018-1), any plans on adding Kobo to your list of ebook sites? (I don't actually have a dog in this fight, since I don't currently own any sort of e-reader -- I just use whatever apps are provided by Amazon/B&N/Apple -- but the news item caught my eye.)
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