Claire Barner
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I'm a sci-fi romance author with my debut coming out in July. I've seen your name come up often as a founding author in sci-fi romance. I'm curious if you agree with that characterization? Did you deliberately lean on classic romance tropes in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance like marriage of convenience and oblivious to love or was that more of a happy accident?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, I've been reading romance off and on since my twenties, so in over a half-century it's impossible that I not have sopped up pretty much all of the tropes, not to mention all the romantic subplots in other fiction.
Boy Meets Girl (or vice versa) is one of the biologically fundamental central story patterns, along with Coming of Age and Justice (or Revenge) Attained. Another good one is Rescue. And, for a more mature audience, Redemption. I've played with all of these basic patterns in all of my fiction, weaving them in and out as needed by the characters in question.
I suppose my primary romance influences are Georgette Heyer and Dorothy Sayers. Falling a bit later, well after my career was launched, (then) contemporaries Jennifer Cruise, with maybe a side jaunt into the occasional Jayne Ann Krentz in her assorted pseudonyms. Austen was a late acquisition, though I had hit Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre back in, hm, college? Around then. Well, and all that Shakespeare -- besides live plays and films, I was in an excellent play-reading group for several years in the 90s, among other experiences. My later romance reading has been more diffuse and occasional -- the last few years I have tried to at least briefly note much of my reading here in my Goodreads "My Books" section, for the curious.
But I consider myself a science fiction author, no modifiers. Or speculative fiction author, to avoid the awkwardness of shoving in "...and fantasy!" as though it were some sort of afterthought, which it's not.
Whether to class something as a romance or as some other genre with a romance subplot depends on where the spine of the story lies. Where does it begin, where does it end, what is the point of the story and at what point is the story told? If the structure starts with two potential partners meeting, continues through the stress-testing of their relationship, and ends when the relationship is successfully confirmed, it's a romance spine, regardless of what other business makes up the musculature. So ferex Shards of Honor qualifies, The Warrior's Apprentice does not. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance qualifies, The Vor Game does not. The duology Komarr and A Civil Campaign is a portmanteau of a dramatic romance and a full-on romantic comedy. Paladin of Souls is a redemption story with a lesser romance subplot. Mirror Dance is a redemption story flat-out. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen... is in a class by itself, as a study of grief and recovery is wound around an exploration of future reproductive technologies and the curve balls they could throw.
My SFnal not-quite-joking definition of romance is, "a story about the promulgation of human evolution through sexual selection", making all of romance, seen with that squint, a subset of science fiction. (Yes, yes, I know perfectly well that not all romances need or even can end in reproduction. Hijacking the tools that evolution bequeathed us for purposes of our own devising is the grandest of human traditions, after all.)
Ta, L.
(More discussion here, for the curious... http://dendarii.com/accc.html )
Well, I've been reading romance off and on since my twenties, so in over a half-century it's impossible that I not have sopped up pretty much all of the tropes, not to mention all the romantic subplots in other fiction.
Boy Meets Girl (or vice versa) is one of the biologically fundamental central story patterns, along with Coming of Age and Justice (or Revenge) Attained. Another good one is Rescue. And, for a more mature audience, Redemption. I've played with all of these basic patterns in all of my fiction, weaving them in and out as needed by the characters in question.
I suppose my primary romance influences are Georgette Heyer and Dorothy Sayers. Falling a bit later, well after my career was launched, (then) contemporaries Jennifer Cruise, with maybe a side jaunt into the occasional Jayne Ann Krentz in her assorted pseudonyms. Austen was a late acquisition, though I had hit Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre back in, hm, college? Around then. Well, and all that Shakespeare -- besides live plays and films, I was in an excellent play-reading group for several years in the 90s, among other experiences. My later romance reading has been more diffuse and occasional -- the last few years I have tried to at least briefly note much of my reading here in my Goodreads "My Books" section, for the curious.
But I consider myself a science fiction author, no modifiers. Or speculative fiction author, to avoid the awkwardness of shoving in "...and fantasy!" as though it were some sort of afterthought, which it's not.
Whether to class something as a romance or as some other genre with a romance subplot depends on where the spine of the story lies. Where does it begin, where does it end, what is the point of the story and at what point is the story told? If the structure starts with two potential partners meeting, continues through the stress-testing of their relationship, and ends when the relationship is successfully confirmed, it's a romance spine, regardless of what other business makes up the musculature. So ferex Shards of Honor qualifies, The Warrior's Apprentice does not. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance qualifies, The Vor Game does not. The duology Komarr and A Civil Campaign is a portmanteau of a dramatic romance and a full-on romantic comedy. Paladin of Souls is a redemption story with a lesser romance subplot. Mirror Dance is a redemption story flat-out. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen... is in a class by itself, as a study of grief and recovery is wound around an exploration of future reproductive technologies and the curve balls they could throw.
My SFnal not-quite-joking definition of romance is, "a story about the promulgation of human evolution through sexual selection", making all of romance, seen with that squint, a subset of science fiction. (Yes, yes, I know perfectly well that not all romances need or even can end in reproduction. Hijacking the tools that evolution bequeathed us for purposes of our own devising is the grandest of human traditions, after all.)
Ta, L.
(More discussion here, for the curious... http://dendarii.com/accc.html )
More Answered Questions
Conniption Virtue
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Dear Lois, A few times, Penric twists up a message before handing it off to be delivered; I assume as a security measure. Perhaps you would be intrigued to know* about "letter locking" which is an old this-world solution for same. There are several YouTube videos and a good website about it by Jana Dambrogio. *assuming you don't already know?
TrixM
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I just found my account was hacked, so that might explain some of the garbage appearing randomly under reviews (assuming my account is not the only one to be hacked). Some of the other "questions" are patently there to get people to click on their profile names even if no links are embedded. Goodreads' security options are lacking - e.g. we don't have to approve "friends". And authors have no ability to approve Qs?
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