Robbi Holman asked Lois McMaster Bujold:

I'm re-reading Borders of Infinity right now, and I was wondering how you came up with the idea of the dome?

Lois McMaster Bujold You do realize, I wrote that tale back in 1986, and I can't actually remember what I had for breakfast last week...

That said, my first notes for the story envisioned a camp rather more like the ones I'd seen in WWII movies. I certainly wanted something more SFnal; not sure when I made the switch-over, but it was pretty early in the notes stage, before I'd started actual composition. Force domes, walls, whatever, had been tossed into my VK story mix before then, so it was just a matter of scaling up.

That plus, as an introvert who likes solitude, I could imagine nothing more dire than being trapped somewhere with a crowd of 10,000 people and not being able to get away from them to be by myself. (And no books, argh.) Miles dealt with it rather better than I would have.

Ta, L.

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