An Introduction to Lois MCmaster Bujold
This chapter sketches the life and career of Lois McMaster Bujold. Lois McMaster was born in Columbus, Ohio, on November 2, 1949, the third child and only daughter of Robert Charles McMaster and Laura Gerould McMaster. She began reading science fiction when she was nine years old. Her favorite writers in the field included Poul Anderson and James H. Schmitz. In 1971, she married John Bujold, whom she had met at a science fiction convention two years earlier. Bujold's first professional sale was a short story, “Barter,” which was published in Twilight Zone Magazine in spring 1985. It was later bought, adapted, and mutilated almost beyond recognition for the TV series Tales from the Darkside. She sold her first three books, Shards of Honor, The Warrior's Apprentice, and Ethan of Athos to Baen Books, which were released in paperback, in 1986, at three-month intervals, in June, August, and December.