Crosenblum
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I am a huge fan of the Vorkosigan series. Especially, as I was born with a mild form of dwarfism. Being different means you have much more to overcome to just reach normal levels of achievement. What inspired you to make Miles different? Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold
In the early 80s, when I first came up with Miles, I wasn't thinking in those real-world terms at all. Well, only insofar as one wants one's action hero to be distinguishable from all the others on the market. In particular, thwarted from direct physical/violent solutions, I wanted him forced to use his brains. (*)
Like other people, Miles began with his parents -- I had the basic idea for him and his physical (if not mental, though I suppose emotional) challenges during the writing of Shards of Honor back in 1983; I'd written the first draft of that up through the soltoxin attack before I circled back and found the current ending. The writing (and, eventually, publication) of The Warrior's Apprentice came next, as I set out to explore things I'd set up in the first book. It all grew chapter by chapter in the writing, so, more discovery than decision. (As a rule, my writing explores people, not issues, though I grant from an outside view issues do sometimes seem to come along for the ride.)
* -- I've since wondered, watching all those 15-y-o anime heroes begging their masters to make them stronger, why not one ever begs their master to make them smarter. It seems a much more urgent need...
Ta, L.
In the early 80s, when I first came up with Miles, I wasn't thinking in those real-world terms at all. Well, only insofar as one wants one's action hero to be distinguishable from all the others on the market. In particular, thwarted from direct physical/violent solutions, I wanted him forced to use his brains. (*)
Like other people, Miles began with his parents -- I had the basic idea for him and his physical (if not mental, though I suppose emotional) challenges during the writing of Shards of Honor back in 1983; I'd written the first draft of that up through the soltoxin attack before I circled back and found the current ending. The writing (and, eventually, publication) of The Warrior's Apprentice came next, as I set out to explore things I'd set up in the first book. It all grew chapter by chapter in the writing, so, more discovery than decision. (As a rule, my writing explores people, not issues, though I grant from an outside view issues do sometimes seem to come along for the ride.)
* -- I've since wondered, watching all those 15-y-o anime heroes begging their masters to make them stronger, why not one ever begs their master to make them smarter. It seems a much more urgent need...
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Linda
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Is the massacre of the Wealdings at Holytree by Audar’s forces based on the Blood court of Verden?
J. W.
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
The phrase "the singing woman at the forest's edge" appears to affect Ingrey too deeply to be a throwaway line, yet there is no more reference to it in The Hallowed Hunt. Is there something that was cut or a story yet to be written? I did a web search thinking it might be a reference to something, but all I found was a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, "The Singing Woman From the Wood's Edge" which does not seem right.
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