Penric’s Demon

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Michaeline: Lois McMaster Bujold Answers Three (Okay, Four) Questions about the Writing Process

penrics-mission-cover-2016-11-book-three-bujold

Today, we’ve got a short interview with Lois McMaster Bujold about the writing process. Just in time for National Novel Writing Month’s first weekend! Lois writes the thrilling tales of the Vorkosigan family, the Wide Green World, and the World of the Five Gods. This week, the third story about Penric in the W5G came out: Penric’s Mission was published on November 2, 2016. (Announcement on her Goodreads blog, here.) Lois is a master of speculative fiction, and her liberal use of romance in these genres makes her worlds rich and real. Grab a cyber beverage from the Eight Ladies Writing fridge, and pull up a seat!

MD: So, National Novel Writing Month is basically about creating a first draft of at least 50,000 words. What’s your favorite thing about writing the first draft?

LMB: Finishing it. (-:

Starting it runs a close second, true. Then, probably, those moments when a sticky knot gets suddenly undone by some neat idea or inspiration that I didn’t have — often couldn’t have had — earlier. Continue reading →

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Michaeline: Lois McMaster Bujold Answers Three Questions about Self-Publishing

the author Lois McMaster Bujold signing at a glass table

Lois McMaster Bujold (Image courtesy of Lois McMaster Bujold)

Today, we welcome to the blog Lois McMaster Bujold, whose new e-novella, “Penric and the Shaman” came out yesterday, June 24, 2016. (Her GoodReads blog announcement is here: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/13524143-penric-and-the-shaman-e-launches-today.) She’s a science fiction and fantasy legend who has won multiple Nebula, Locus and Hugo awards and written some of the best books in the universe. Thank you for agreeing to answer three questions about self-publishing for our blog. I sure hope I chose the right three questions!

MD: You have a long history of publishing. You were writing and assembling a fanzine with friends back in the 60s, you wrote short stories that were published in established magazines like Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, then your novels were published by the well-known SF publisher, Baen Books, and two of your fantasy series were published by HarperCollins’ Eos Books (now rebranded as HarperVoyager)—(HarperCollins is one of the Big Five publishing houses). So, in some respects, you are returning to your roots with self-publishing the novellas, “Penric’s Demon” (July 6, 2015) and now “Penric and the Shaman”. Why? Continue reading →

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Michaeline: Wedding Dance

a peasant wedding from 1566 with many people dancing and enjoying themselves, among other things

Some things don’t change. Fortunately, the fashion for wearing your best codpiece to the wedding does seem to be buried in the depths of time. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

The cake has been cut and the booze has been flowing freely for about an hour when you look across the dance floor, and you see him. He was at your table, and sitting, he was a well-dressed nothing. But now, he’s dancing, and there’s something about the fluid motion of his arms, the way his kneebone connects to his thighbone, and oh lordy, will you look at his hips? You look away before your heart pops over your sweetheart neckline. You look back, and there he is, asking you to dance. You take his hand, and take your place in the crowd of people swaying and celebrating a new marriage. Welcome to the dance.

What can I say about the wedding dance as a writing prompt? It permeates most cultures, so we’ve all seen it, or can enjoy it on YouTube. When you see the same ritual conducted in so many different settings, it’s easy to imagine it conducted in more fantastic places. A historical Scottish penny wedding, as described on Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion website here. Or a frontier wedding dance on a newly settled planet. Or maybe a fantasy wedding in some delightful fairyland of your imagination.

And of course, what kind of story doesn’t have Things That Go Wrong? Continue reading →

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Michaeline: Description: Part Two

 

Description can be a spark that sets off fireworks in the body. (Positive discharge, via Wikimedia Commons)

Description can be a spark that sets off fireworks in the body. (Positive discharge, via Wikimedia Commons)

One thing you should know about me: I enjoy being a devil’s advocate. I am proud that I have an open mind and that I try to look on all sides of an issue. I like sitting on the fence. And this causes me a lot of problems as a writer, because instead of “picking a lane”, I tend to wander around and check out too many things. But at least it produces a blog post for today.

So, anyway, last week I told you how I found Jane Austen to have rather sparse description, and she’s super-famous, so it must be all right, right? This week, I’m going to turn around and look at the descriptions that appear in one of my other favorite books, A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold. (link is to sample chapters from the publisher, Baen Books)

A Civil Campaign is the 13th book in the Vorkosigan series, and our hero, Miles Vorkosigan, is courting a woman for the very first time. In past books, Continue reading →