Marti Dolata asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

I just read in Jo Walton's review of Falling Free that it was originally going to be the first volume of a trilogy. If this is true, would you care to comment on why that didn't happen, and what you had planned for the rest of the trilogy? This is not a plea for "more of the same", just a curiousity about what might have been. I've been a fan since the 80s and have been pretty happy about reading whatever write

Lois McMaster Bujold Mostly, I think, Miles happened. I had some vague plans for more, but the next thing I tackled was Brothers in Arms, and after that one thing led to another. By the time I reached a point where I might circle back and pick it up again, the material had gone pretty cold, and I wanted to do something new. (Which I eventually did, with The Curse of Chalion.) Sending Miles and Ekaterin to Quaddiespace in Diplomatic Immunity was my substitute, and gave me as much closure as I wanted.

Properly, following the Escape from Pharaoh should have come the 40 Years in the Wilderness followed by the Conquest of Caanan, i.e., the passage to the future Quaddiespace, and the initial building of the asteroid colony. But that spaceship has sailed.

Looking back, I think I picked my projects not by plot or even character, but by themes I found psychologically interesting or resonant in any given year. Or whatever book I write wraps around that resonance as it goes, and allows it to embody itself. (It's far from a linear process.)

Ta, L.

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