Meet Lois McMaster Bujold
Science Fiction Writer
Getting Started

Karen: So, when did you discover writing?

Lois: About 8th grade. I had started reading science fiction when I was in about 4th grade. I don't remember which was THE first book. I can remember some of the first books. Certainly the early Heinlein juvenile adventures like "Have Spacesuit Will Travel" and "Citizen of the Galaxy". I read those during grade school. I've found at least two other writers who read "Visit to the Wonderful Mushroom Planet" by Eleanor Cameron during those very early years. The book is quite dated now - heavens, it was quite dated *then*, being from the 1930's. Andre Norton was another early read for me at that very early stage. And then when I went to junior high school, I got access to all the adult library shelves and just read up everything that was available at the time.

This would have been the early 60's. So I was reading the writers who were active in the early 60's, plus those from the 50's and 40's that were lingering on those library shelves to which I could get access. I could get to two public libraries plus my school library. And so that gave me a fair range. But, you know, the science fiction sections were only six feet tall and three feet wide at that time. You could read them all up.

Karen: Are there any books you'd recommend to girls to read?

Lois: I'm less familiar with what's currently available, particularly at the younger reading levels. Norton and the Heinlein juveniles, though dated, might still be fun reads reads, also Isaac Asimov. There's lots of good YA fantasy - my friend Patricia C. Wrede has some splendid stuff out - but SF is thinner on the ground. Among my own books, I'd recommend starting with "The Warrior's Apprentice". I don't think of my stuff as juvenile fiction, but I have had delightful and intelligent fan letters from girls as young as 11 and 13.

Karen: So how old were you when you tried your first experiment at writing?

Lois: About 8th grade. I started with imitation Heinlein adventures, and scripts for my favorite television shows. I produced fragments, mostly, bits and pieces. I had a command of the language that you could maybe recognize as the close precursor of my current style, except I spell much better now. It was command of underlying story structure that I had to develop. I had to learn how to put the whole story together and follow through to a finish, and that came much later in my life, probably in my early 30's.

Karen: Did you have a little support group of girls who wrote together?

Lois: I had a best friend. She and I were the two brightest girls in the school. We were friends with each other and we wrote for each other and made up stories together. We started out from "Star Trek" and then dropped the names, dropped the universe and changed everything to the way we wanted it as one does with fan fiction. Then we proceeded to develop a storyline that eventually ran through 14 generations and about 126 named characters which we would do during breaks in school and after school. We would take long walks and tell the stories to each other that we were making up. (That friend was) Lillian Stewart, now Lillian Stewart Carl and she also went on to become a writer.

Karen: Did you ever do little plays and act them out?

Lois: Well, we kind of talked them out. But, I think we were prose-oriented even at that time. Although the television scripts might have been actable, but we would have needed a larger cast than just the two of us.

Karen: But you did "Star Trek" scripts and what else?

Lois: Oh, let's see. "The Wackiest Ship in the Army". That was a show that was on for one season. We divided the heroes up among us. She had hers and I had mine. And, of course "Star Trek" came out and blew everything else away. And before that, it was "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". Everybody was into "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

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