Angelley Ragasa
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Good Day Ma'am,Hi, I'm Angelley Ragasa from Philippines.I really love to read your stories, the way you right your stories, it's very interesting. You inspires me. Now, I really want to read your stories more. May I ask you some questions? Can you recommend any new or upcoming authors to us? What keeps you motivated during creative slumps? How did you come up with the idea for your book? I hope I could get a response.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Okay! I see I am confronted this morning with five nearly identical sets of questions to the most recent answered, all apparently from the same high school class, and therefore an assignment. My friend who writes YA gets tons of these, and they are a great burden on the target author -- teachers should be made aware that it is unfair to make a kid's grade hinge on this, and teachers really shouldn't do it to any writer from whom they have not first asked and received permission. But one can't blow off kids, so.
I will treat them as one unit, and only answer non-duplicating questions. Classmates, if you click my Q&A column into "newest first" order, at the button on the upper right, you should be able to see them all grouped, albeit in reverse order than I answered them.
First of all, many of these questions have been answered previously in this very column, at greater length. If you scroll down to the beginning and read up, you will find them. More is available free online (this being what it is, free online seems the way to go) at the Vorkosigan wiki, http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth... Not to mention my Wikipedia entry, and those of my books and characters. (I find it a source of great amusement to reflect that my imaginary friends have their own Wikipedia entries...
But, of course, I gather that the purpose of the assignment is not "learn this material", but rather, "practice writing a letter". (And possibly in a 2nd language, which deserves respect.) So.
Breaking out questions in order received:
"Can you recommend any new or upcoming authors to us?"
I'm very fond of Megan Whalen Turner's series starting with The Thief. That would keep you going for five books right there. I can also rec the works of Patricia C. Wrede -- her The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are very popular. Neither of these are exactly new, as I don't keep up with even my own genre. Now that I'm blogging on Goodreads, which makes it easy, I've taken to dropping short reviews of whatever I happen to have read, which you can find here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Naturally, they are not filtered for children, since I am 68. Lots of manga lately, in part due to improved access, in part due to my eye issues.
"What keeps you motivated during creative slumps?"
Formerly, running out of money. Half a story is about as economically useful as half a bridge. These days, as well as formerly, a story demands its own completion. Think of an unfinished story as like an imaginary splinter in the mind, which cannot heal till the thing is out.
"How did you come up with the idea for your book?"
Oh, dear, such an assignment question. Don't worry, I don't blame you. But it is not answerable unless you specify which of my 30 or so works you are asking about. Conveniently, your classmate has already asked it in a more general way: answer here. https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...
An additional note to pass on to teachers generally: if you are doing this, and have one or a few target authors, get the kids who are targeting the chosen author together in groups to collate their questions and send them as one letter, not six or sixteen near-duplicates. Alternately, some teachers do the collating themselves as a class exercise. (This also has the privacy advantage that the return address can be to the school, when this is done on paper or even email, not all the kids' homes or home e-addys.) My YA-writing friends are pathetically grateful to teachers who think to do their assignments this way.
(And Angelley, good luck on your reading and writing!)
Ta, L.
I will treat them as one unit, and only answer non-duplicating questions. Classmates, if you click my Q&A column into "newest first" order, at the button on the upper right, you should be able to see them all grouped, albeit in reverse order than I answered them.
First of all, many of these questions have been answered previously in this very column, at greater length. If you scroll down to the beginning and read up, you will find them. More is available free online (this being what it is, free online seems the way to go) at the Vorkosigan wiki, http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth... Not to mention my Wikipedia entry, and those of my books and characters. (I find it a source of great amusement to reflect that my imaginary friends have their own Wikipedia entries...
But, of course, I gather that the purpose of the assignment is not "learn this material", but rather, "practice writing a letter". (And possibly in a 2nd language, which deserves respect.) So.
Breaking out questions in order received:
"Can you recommend any new or upcoming authors to us?"
I'm very fond of Megan Whalen Turner's series starting with The Thief. That would keep you going for five books right there. I can also rec the works of Patricia C. Wrede -- her The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are very popular. Neither of these are exactly new, as I don't keep up with even my own genre. Now that I'm blogging on Goodreads, which makes it easy, I've taken to dropping short reviews of whatever I happen to have read, which you can find here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...
Naturally, they are not filtered for children, since I am 68. Lots of manga lately, in part due to improved access, in part due to my eye issues.
"What keeps you motivated during creative slumps?"
Formerly, running out of money. Half a story is about as economically useful as half a bridge. These days, as well as formerly, a story demands its own completion. Think of an unfinished story as like an imaginary splinter in the mind, which cannot heal till the thing is out.
"How did you come up with the idea for your book?"
Oh, dear, such an assignment question. Don't worry, I don't blame you. But it is not answerable unless you specify which of my 30 or so works you are asking about. Conveniently, your classmate has already asked it in a more general way: answer here. https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...
An additional note to pass on to teachers generally: if you are doing this, and have one or a few target authors, get the kids who are targeting the chosen author together in groups to collate their questions and send them as one letter, not six or sixteen near-duplicates. Alternately, some teachers do the collating themselves as a class exercise. (This also has the privacy advantage that the return address can be to the school, when this is done on paper or even email, not all the kids' homes or home e-addys.) My YA-writing friends are pathetically grateful to teachers who think to do their assignments this way.
(And Angelley, good luck on your reading and writing!)
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Nikoleta L.
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi! I've been told my whole life there is no such thing as a stupid question, so here I go. I was wondering if you have maybe seen the covers of the Croatian edition of the Vorkosigan saga by the amazig Esad Ribic? Your local fans are very proud of this edition (the translation is also amazing!) so I was wondering what do you think of the artwork? https://www.tumblr.com/fuckyeahesadribic/107642144987/vorkosigan-saga-c
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