Talli Ruksas asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

Do you give GG a pronunciation guide? Some words are pronounced differently in different audio books and sometimes in the same book - Dendarii, Galeni, Radovas, Ky, etc. Any hints? Is By bi? Do you think Richars was the one who lied to By's father about him? Do you know the names of Cordelia's other 4 girls like she does?

Lois McMaster Bujold Grover Gardner (the Blackstone Audiobooks narrator) has in recent years often called me on the phone before starting a project to check pronunciations. In the earliest works he recorded, we hadn't yet made that connection, so the pronunciations are inconsistent over recording dates.

By is bi, although it's uncertain how much of that is situational with respect to his (old) ImpSec job. The occasional over-the-top swishiness is mostly an act, to mislead or annoy people.

I don't know who lied to By's dad about By and his sister. Richars would be an interesting and plausible candidate, certainly. If so, it's quite possible By never found out, or at least not at the time; equally possible that he eventually did.

No, I don't know the names of Cordelia's other 4 girls. I had some notes somewhere. I know she'd wanted Simone, but then Miles nipped in and grabbed it first, somewhat to Cordelia's annoyance.. "Olivia" is doubly likely, to honor both Aral's mother and Oliver, though that might be saved for if she and Oliver ever had a girl together. "Elizabeth", after Cordelia's mom, has also been snapped up. There are lots of other possibilities, anyway, Alys and Xaviera among them.

Ta, L.

flag