• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1035 0

took Elizabeth Moon and me out to some tower of power reached only by marble-lined elevators. The vegetable course, a mounded puree of what I dimly remember as featuring mainly turnips, arrived—decorated with a microscopically thin layer of gold foil about five inches square. As a science fiction writer, I take it as my duty to try any food once, a dubious rule that once led me to eat a wichetty grub, but that's another story. Elizabeth, however, was quietly horrified by the gold, and carefully ate around it and under it, cautiously excavating with her spoon. "Elizabeth!" I murmured in maternal reproval. "You're not eating your gold!" We let her have her dessert anyway.

I've been asked what has surprised me most about writing and the writing business. Actually, I live in a state of perpetual surprise. "My God! The Bulgarians paid me after all! I signed that contract three years ago!" "Good heavens! The Dutch sub-agent has disappeared with all the receipts!" "Publishers Weekly gave me a starred review!" "My first quarter's estimated taxes are higher than my first quarter's income!" "The fans put/didn't put that one on the Hugo ballot?!" "They're putting that cover on my book? Eep!" "They're putting that cover on my book? Hallelujah!" "They went to six figures?! Oh! . . . well . . . how much past?" "Somebody e-mailed me from Kazakhstan/Alice Springs/Finland/South Africa/Portugal/Pakistan/Croatia?" "What's 'The New York Times Extended list'?" "A fan who is dying from cancer wants to see my book early?" "The fan I sent the story to last month passed away yesterday." "I've been stuck on this same damned plot point for 2/3/4/5/6 weeks!" "Pirated in Greece? I didn't even know they read SF in Greece!" "My brother/mother/cousin actually read my latest novel!" "How many days ago did you mail it overnight express?" "Korean rights?" "I can't figure out what the devil happens in Chapter 4." "The Russian fans are holding a Bujold convention in Moscow!" "The new minor character, who I hadn't even imagined last week, just hijacked Chapter 4 and is closing in rapidly on 5 and 6. Will my putative hero ever get another sentence in edgewise?" "We got a blurb from her? Wow!" "Perth?" "Spain?" "London? . . . England?" "St. Petersburg? You mean the one in Russia?" "Where is Zagreb?" "New Zealand?"

All real examples. If a week goes by without a surprise, these days, I get pettish. From fried wichetty grubs to gold-plated turnips, when you're a writer you never know what's going to appear on your plate next. It keeps a woman alert, it does.

A Conversation with Toni Weisskopf

John Helfers

Toni Weisskopf has been working closely with Lois almost from the very beginning, when she was establishing the Vorkosigan Saga. As the current Editor-in-Chief at Baen Books, she has been instrumental in bringing out another Miles novel, as well as editing practically all of the books in the series. I asked her to share what it has been like working with Lois, and here is what she had to say.

How did Lois get discovered by Baen?

This was actually before my time at Baen, but legend has it that the three novel manuscripts The Warrior's Apprentice, Shards of Honor, and Ethan of Athos had made the rounds of all the older, established publishers, and that they had either been rejected or languished unappreciated, before they came to Baen Books, which had just shipped its first books in 1984. Jim took one look at The Warrior's Apprentice and called Lois up to ask her if she had more. She did, two more novels, and Jim bought all three on the spot.

Did anyone see her potential during that early time?

Jim Baen certainly did. They were the first books he told me to read when I was hired at Baen as an editorial assistant. I was so jaded (straight out of college and already jaded!) that I didn't believe new SF authors could bring anything fresh to the table. Jim and Lois proved me wrong, gloriously wrong.

What do you remember best about the first time you read one of Lois's manuscripts?

The first time I spoke to Lois after reading her books, I offered to have