Meet Lois McMaster Bujold
Science Fiction Writer
My Life

Karen: Where did you grow up?

Lois: I'm a native of Ohio. I was born and grew up in Columbus. I lived there until I was bout 30 years old, and then we moved to Marion, Ohio, which is a small town. I lived there for about 15 years. My writing career got started in Marion.

Karen: What were some of your interests when you were a girl?

Lois: Horses. I got into horses like very early. We had moved, when I was about four years old, from the city out to the country. There was a riding club and a fellow had a farm with ponies just down the road. This was a magnet for me, so I was horse obsessed until about sixth grade.

Horse stories were the first reading I did when I found out that I could go to the shelves and get any book I wanted, not just the thin little boring books laid out during the library period for us to select from. I began with Walter Farley, "The Black Stallion", and Marguerite Henry. I read up everything I could find that had anything to do with horses, during that period of my life.

Karen: Did you ever actually get to own a horse?

Lois: Yes, as a matter of fact. Because of the proximity to a place where we could keep one, I managed to inveigle a pony about second grade and had a pony until about seventh grade.

The pony's name was Sunny and he was silver white, very beautiful and very splendid. He used to come when I called. I'd yell across the pasture, "Sunny" and he'd get up and come running. Of course I always had some apples, carrots, or oats. It worked very well as a feedback system. We were very pleased with each other.

Karen: Did you come from a big family with lots of brothers and sisters?

Lois: I have two older brothers, six and eight years older than me. I'm the only girl and the youngest. I grew up in a very masculine world I think. I never had a sister so that was something that I missed. It probably gives me a little bit of that loner feeling.

Karen: After you graduated from high school, what did you decide to do?

Lois: Actually I took a short break and this is where I found science fiction fandom. I had been reading, not knowing anything about fandom until then. And, I was working in a downtown department bookstore and one of the fellows from the local [science fiction] club came in and we struck up a conversation. He invited me to the club meeting. This is how I got into fandom in my late teens. This is the late 60's and early '70's.

Then I went on to Ohio State University and sort of went from major to major. I was in English. Then I was in Biology, that was what I was in for the longest time. I had one quarter in Education and decided that was not for me. Continuing on, I was in Pharmacy School for a while but I never really connected it with what I wanted to do.

What I wanted to do was be a writer, I think, even then. But that's not something you learn in college. All the writers I know are self-taught. They may pick up stuff from college and use it but that's not how you learn to be a writer. You learn to be a writer by writing. And, any way you do it is fine and any educational background you bring to it is fine and then you go and learn what you need to know to make it work right.

Karen: What's the most important thing you learned in college?

Lois: Learning how to learn. That's something you can pick up in school if you're lucky enough to have the right teachers. I sort of wandered through college for five years and ended up with more credit hours than I would have needed to graduate but still two years away from any degree because I didn't have the course sequences.

Karen: So curiosity led you----

Lois: --In all directions. I was interested in photography. That led me to an important experience. There was a Biology study tour of East Africa in the Spring of 1971. It was a really good time to be off campus because that was the time of Kent State riots and you'd wake up to the smell of tear gas in the morning.

So, I got on a six weeks Biology study tour of Kenya, Tanzania, and we went to Mr. Kilamanjaro. We went to all the great parks, Tsavo Park and I did my photography. I was very interested in close up and insect photography and the bugs in East Africa are just amazing. I have eight hundred slides of these great bugs, you know. Technicolored grasshoppers, astonishing things. So, that was pivotal, although I did not go on to become either a Biologist or a wildlife photographer.

Later on, I used the landscape when I began to write "Shards of Honor". I used East Africa as my alien planet, with some variations. Things that I had seen appeared in the book a little bit mutated for the science fiction setting. That's the one thing about being a writer. It's very redemptive. All your experiences get recycled and reused. Even if they were a failure at the time, they become an experience you can draw on when you begin to create.

Karen: What's the best moment so far in your life?

Lois: Gads, well, when I had my children, that's pretty pivotal. But, the first book sales, getting the recognition, getting the Hugos was really nice. That first Nebula [an award from other science fiction writers] and, getting the books to exist and getting them read!

Karen: If you couldn't write, what else would you do with your life?

Lois: Oh, gosh. I had an original lifeplan where I was going to go back at age 40 and get a degree in chemistry, but I think that's gone out the window over time. There's really nothing I want to do more than writing.

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