An interview
I have interviewed Lois Bujold. As I am nerdy and untrained, I expect the results to have been nerdy and imperfect.
Still, see them here: Interview With Lois Bujold.
Lois, on "The Worst Thing"
In response to a question about a variant of her well-known plot device, "What is the worst thing I can do to this character?":
"Technically, the "worst possible thing" would pertain to the plot, not the theme. The theme is an emergent property of the story as a whole, an after-the-fact perception. But anyway.
I've tried to correct this misquote/misunderstanding before, but never seem to catch up. What I was trying to get at in the original exchange was that what happens in a story is most satisfactory for me when it most deeply reveals a character's character. It's not meant to be an invitation to authorial sadism. So it would be much better expressed as "What is the most revealing thing I can do to my character/s?"
I actually think that almos…
Lois, regarding "Was Bisexual" line in Barrayar
In an email-discussion on Jan 22, 2021, Lois Bujold discussed the "Was bisexual" line in the book Barrayar (chapter 5, Cordelia speaking to Vidal Vordarian). Text below is copied from her statement:
"Was bisexual. But now he's monogamous."
Yeah I've been getting reader confusion and heat, but no light, about that line for years now, all post-internet when/after the conversions on the subjects of assorted sexualities expanded across the culture.
Just for the record, that line was actually written in 1983, in the part of the original draft of /Shards of Honor/ that got cut off the end and went to my attic (in a single carbon copy) for several years, till I got the idea of using it to jump-start what became /Barrayar./ Which, at the time, was a…
Upcoming new book
Copied from the blog of Lois McMaster Bujold:
- I am pleased to report that a new Cordelia Vorkosigan novel has been sold to Baen Books for publication, tentatively, in February of 2016.
- The title is _Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen_.
- It is not a war story. It is about grownups.
- And that is probably all I ought to say right now in a venue read by the spoiler-sensitive. It is, after all, a long haul till next February.
- 2016 will also mark the 30th anniversary of my first publication by Baen, which ought to be good for a little PR fun.
- Gentleman Jole and The Red Queen - for information about the book as it becomes known
- New Book Spoilers - for known/published snippets of the to-be-published book
Council of Counts List
I'm putting this here because I really don't know where else it might go!
So, because I have an obviously serious mental problem, I decided to go and come up with a list of the sixty Counts of Barrayar, their heirs, and their livery colors (in that order)! Clearly, I am deranged and need to be put in Betan therapy.
Until then though, I have this list. It is set post-CryoBurn, and it is partially complete. I have completed the full sixty Count, in alphabetical voting order, with names (some of whom I made up and some of whom are Vor mentioned in-story who got promotions). What is partially completed are the list of heirs (which I am working on ['Author's Note: Heir List is COMPLETE as of 9/18/14]'), and the livery colors (it's difficult to find…
Where to put speculation about in-universe background?
As a linguist, I noticed that the name Tuomonen is Finnish: outside the usual Barrayaran source-ethnicity set of English, Russian, French, and Greek. The character's ancestry / name-origin doesn't bear on the story at all, but since it's in-universe it's not exactly "Behind the Scenes" either, so I created the Talk page and put it there. Do we have any standard for placing such items?
While I'm at it, do we have anything like Wikimedia's Village pump / Help desk / Information Desk / Tea room forums for asking questions like this one these?
--Mark Mandel 20:29, February 8, 2014 (UTC)
It's covered by posting "Behind the scenes" in the relevent page, even if it's in-universe as speculation. JAF1970 (talk) 22:26, February 8, 2014 (UTC)
Current state
So... I haven't added any new articles in the last two weeks, but I did finish the big pass through the site correcting articles to past tense, fixing grammar and spelling, adding/fixing references and quotes, and correcting and adding details. I went ahead and shifted planets and some technology articles to past tense, though others resist too much. Some planet articles now have "Places on X" sections - I don't promise to have gotten every named location on that planet, though.
This doesn't mean that no article is in need of fixups, however. In particular, I passed over a fair number that required more than I could do quickly, and the old articles that I identified as being in need of repair are still in need of it. Thus my current list of…
And another update
So. More passing through the site happens.
I think there aren't any people left whose article names include their titles unless there's another character who would be confused with them, so that task is taken care of.
A lot of articles have been shifted to past tense, but some of the ones that remain are sticky - my brain refuses to put the planets in past tense, considering that the Vorkosiverse does not feature exploding planets and such things. Some others are for technology items, and I'm reluctant to say that "unicorns" should be in past tense. Others are from the "Background Information" category, which has some articles that I'd just as soon ignore and others that describe simple concepts that really don't belong in past tense. And fi…
Update - Dec 30, 2013
I've continued the pass through the site, doing general cleanup and adding of lists. Lists are good for more than just "here's everybody with such-and-such association". In particular, they're very handy for providing glue to hold the site together (random loose articles gain hooks to the main collection), so I'm looking to add them whenever they would be meaningful.
Done so far:
- The shipyard and orbital depot articles have made it into a container article for such.
- I've also gone through a few categories to get their articles in shape - mainly "Groups and Corporations" and the subcategory "Mercenary Fleets".
- The front page is pretty good. Probably should clear out the "New on Vorkosigan Wiki" header and move the contents to the "Editing Notes…
Current work
Thought I'd start trying to log what I'm trying to accomplish with the site.
Most articles that I've wanted to add are present or red-linked from a suitable place, but there are still a few others I'm looking to see added.
Important articles that are still missing:
- Barrayaran Laws - a collection of laws as seen in the Vorkosigan Saga. I have a good pile of them, but I've not yet put them into the site.
- Komarran Integration Plan - an article about this; most information would come from Brothers in Arms, but there's some also in Komarr and in Diplomatic Immunity.
Middling-important:
- Imperial Orbital Shipyard (TVG, ch 1)
- Sergyar Fleet Orbital Depot (CVA, ch 7)
- Northbridge Invitational Conference on Cryonics
People that don't yet have articles (and tha…