[LMB] Parallel between ACC and Barrayar

[Katherine Collett]

And the Nikki-having-to-find-his-shoes thing has cropped up a number  
of times in Komarr and Civil Campaign.  I can't cite chapter and  
verse, but I know it always struck me as adding to the realism--that  
one detail, especially recurring like that, stands for all the  
minutiae of bringing up children.

Katherine, who has in the past spent many a frantic few minutes  
trying to locate shoes, etc., before the school bus got here-- 
especially when our keeshond would help by randomizing all the shoes  
she could find, carrying away odd shoes and leaving them all over the  
house.

On Sep 22, 2007, at 7:00 AM, Ed Burkhead wrote:

> Elvi wrote:
>> . . . a point is made of Ekaterin finding
>> Nikki's shoes and putting them on him.
>
> <snip>
> My thought, though, is that it's simply some true-to-life, experienced
> mother background, tossed in to add richness and depth.
>
> One of the things I like about Lois' writing is that she does  
> include such
> fillers and background but she keeps them sparse.  I have a medium  
> clear
> image in my mind of the Vorthys' house but the description of it is in
> little snippets, scattered around the book, that don't impede the  
> story.
>
> This aside took five or six lines but it gives richness and texture  
> to the
> story.  Good writing.