Featuring reviews, author biographies, and special features, Romance Reviews is meant to be a guide to romantic reading - to help you select a good book to read, to help steer you away from a book that might be a disappointment. These reviews consist of mysteries and other works of fiction, not just romance, but there will always be some romance included in each story. A new edition will appear the first of each month.

Diana Gabaldon - a name much revered by all her many fans, had the 7th book of her famous Outlander series released in late September and is our person of interest this month - again.  For a biography was done on her in the December issue of Romance Reviews in the year 2001. (Afraid that has been lost and so this biography was done from scratch.) Time for an update!

Diana Gabaldon, was raised in Flagstaff, Arizona and currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband, Doug Watkins. They have three adult children. Diana was born on January 11, 1952 and is of Mexican-American and English ancestry. Her father was from New Mexico and her mother's family was from Yorkshire, England. Her great-grandfather immigrated to Arizona from England in the 1860's.

Diana is a little thing, being all of five foot two and seven eights. Her hair is black. Her husband, on the other hand, is six foot three and his hair is red.

Diana tells us she elected not to take her husband's name after they married. She explains, "My husband was mildly put out that I refused to take his name when we got married. I told him, though, that I'd been spelling 'Gabaldon' for people for twenty-five years, and I was attached to it." She says the proper pronunciation is GAH-bull-dohn ("rhymes with stone").

Diana has received three degrees from two different institutions - a B.S. in Zoology and an M.S. in Marine Biology. A dormitory on the campus of Northern Arizona University was named after her (Gabaldon Hall).

Since a very early age, Diana knew she was a storyteller. She and her sister would stay up far into the night telling these large, convoluted stories to each other. But knowing she had this gift and passion for it didn't mean she pursued it.  She says, "I didn't know quite what to do about it." Her sister went on to become a lawyer. Diana became a research professor at a large university with lots of fringe benefits. Still, she wanted to write a novel.

While working at Arizona State University writing Fortran programs to analyze the contents of bird gizzards, she was asked to use her computer skills (no one else in the department had any) on a program. After 18 months of labor and a 800 page co-authored monograph on the dietary habits of the birds of the Colorado River Valley, Diana said to herself, "You know, there are probably only five other people in the entire world who care about bird gizzards. Still, if they knew about these programs I've written, it would save each one of those five people eighteen months of effort. That's about seven and a half years of wasted work. Why is there no way for me to find those five people and share these programs with them?"

The result of these rhetorical questions was a scholarly journal called Science Software, which she founded, edited and wrote most of for several years.

During this time, her husband quit his job to start his own business and "we needed more money," she explains. "I was in a position to seek freelance writing work with the computer press." She sent query letters to various editors of computer magazines.

For some time, Diana was writing for comic books. Yes, as incredible and as big a leap as that seems, Diana was a comic book writer. You see, her mother helped her to read thru comic books by Walt Disney and her love of comic books continued thru her adult years. When she was around 28-years-of-age she was reading one that she found particularly offensive and wrote that editor. Said she thought she could do better. And the editor invited her to do so. Her second story he bought and she calls this, "One of the Great Thrills of my Life." She wrote both for him and another Disney editor for some three years. This taught her about story structure, something she never had to think about before. 

Diana, by this time, was considered one of about a dozen 'experts' in the new field of scientific computation as the microcomputer revolution first bloomed. She got immediate assignments. One software vendor sent her a trial membership to CompuServe for the purpose of mentioning a support forum that the vendor maintained for the software she was reviewing. And so Diana was introduced to the new world of an online chat room. It was the mid-1980s. There was no World Wide Web yet. She found something called Literary Forum.

The people in this group only had one thing in common - their love of books. She began logging on to the Literary Forum several times a day, to read and exchange messages with the kindred spirits there. She says, "At this point in my life, I had a full-time job with the university, I was writing part-time for the computer press, and I had three children, ages  six, four, and two. I'm not sure why I thought this was the ideal time to begin writing my long-intended novel - mania induced by sleep deprivation, perhaps, but I did."

Since she never expected to be published, she didn't feel self-conscious about what she wrote. This was only practice and great fun, she told herself. She figured a historical novel would be the easiest to write. As to where the plot would take place, fate intervened. Diana seldom watches TV, but had one favorite show called Doctor Who (a British science-fiction serial). On this show she saw a companion of the Doctor's - a young Scottish lad named Jamie MacCrimmon who wore a kilt - and things started coming together after this.

Diana says, "I was sitting in church the next day, thinking idly about this particular show (no, oddly enough, I DON'T remember what the sermon was about that day), when I said suddenly to myself, 'Well, heck. You want to write a book, you need a historical period, and it doesn't matter where or when. The important thing is just to start, SOMEWHERE. Okay. Fine. Scotland, eighteenth century.'"

She went out in her car after Mass, dug a scrap of paper out from under the front seat, and started to write Outlander.

Diana didn't tell anyone what she was doing - not even her Literary Forum. She felt she had to be the one to work this out - without help. She wrote a bit each day and in between other things she was doing, "like changing diapers, and writing grant proposals."

Eight months later, while arguing with a gentleman in the Literary Forum about what it felt like to be pregnant (he felt he knew since his wife had had three children), he asked her to explain what she felt it was like. Diana used a passage she had written where Jenny tells Jamie what it feels like. She got back all kinds of positive feedback from people asking where that scene came from. She was encouraged to post more. Diana had a number of fragments to her story written, but not a beginning nor an ending or even a story outline. So, she posted some fragments and people started wanting more and encouraging her to make a complete novel of it. She was told to get an agent. And that's how it all started.

Her Writing Technique - Originally, Diana gave her agent about 10 pounds of manuscript in orange boxes. She told him she felt there was more story to tell, but "thought that perhaps I should stop while I could still lift the manuscript." Offers came in and they decided to go with Delacourte for a three-book contract. She says, "Which turned out to be the best choice I ever made - other than choosing my husband and my agent."

Diana says, "I don't write with an outline, If I knew what was going to happen, it wouldn't be any fun to write the book, now, would it? However, as I go along. merrily gluing pieces together, I do sometimes get a vague idea as to SOME events that may take place in the story."

As Diana wrote, she realized there was more to write than three books would cover. When the first books sold decently (Outlander wasn't a huge success initially - that came later), she told the editor and an offer for a 4th book was made. That was supposed to be IT. At this time Diana also negotiated for a contemporary murder mystery she wanted to write later on.

But four books weren't enough to contain all she had to say. She says, "After a year and a half of this, I said, I've got a quarter-million words here; why the heck am I not nearly done with this?"  Soon, she thought it would be a double trilogy, six books in all. The first three books were centered around the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The second three books were centered in a similar way around the American Revolution. But, in time, she saw that it would take even longer to tell the story around this period. No end is yet in sight. She has learned not to predict how many more books it will take.

Diana makes a comment about the eighteenth century. She says, "The tide of history was changing, flowing from the Old World to the New; borne on the waves of war, and what better way to look at this than through the eyes of a time-traveler?"

Diana says, "Romance novels are courtship stories. They deal with the forming of a bond between a couple, and once that bond is formed, by marriage and sexual congress (in that order, we hope) - well, the story's over. That was never what I had in mind.

"I didn't want to tell the story of what makes two people come together, although that's a theme of great power and universality. I wanted to find out what it takes for two people to STAY together for fifty years - or more. I wanted to tell not the story of a courtship, but the story of a marriage."

She says, "As to coming up with plots, scenes, and characters . . . I sit there and stare at the wall, and eventually I see things. Writers write in all sorts of ways; about half the writers I know are 'linear' in approach - they profit from careful planning, they like outlines and timelines and notes, they keep character sheets, they write from the beginning to the end, and so on. Roughly half are what I call 'piecers' - they DON'T write in a straight line, they DON'T plan things ahead of time, and they leap around in their story, adding bits and pieces where they feel the urge.

"You want to guess which half I fall into?

Diana doesn't do research before writing. She says, "A lot of people do, but it seems to me to be really dangerous; after all, how do you decide when you've done ENOUGH research? There's always more you can find out. So the danger is that you'll just go on researching and never write!"

So, she begins to write and researches as she goes along. It works for her.

Diana says the REAL rules for successful novel-writing is read, write and don't stop!

People have asked Diana if she doesn't get tired writing about the same two people all the time. To which she responds, "I certainly would be, if these WERE the same old characters - but they're not. They grow, and they change. They get older, and their lives become more complex. They develop new depths and facets. While they do - I hope - remain true to their basic personalities, I have to rediscover them with each new book."

As for writer's block, Diana says, "I find that working on multiple projects is a really good way both of preventing writer's block and of keeping one's productivity up. If you're stuck on one book . . , shift over to the other and keep going!"

Diana says, "To me, writing is a lot like walking along next to a big field in which all kinds of things are happening. Some of them are close, some are far away. And in between me and the people in the field is a big sheet of plastic. The plastic is clear in some places, and I can see and hear perfectly; in others, it's opaque, like a garbage bag, and I can only see occasional bumps and bulges as people on the other side brush against it.

"In those spots, I have to get up close to the plastic, press my ear against it to hear the muffled voices, and feel with my hands to make out the shapes. Once I've seen or heard or otherwise 'felt' the characters, though - after that, it's a matter of technique.

"In those spots, you use dialogue, body language, and what I call 'underpainting' (an unobtrusive - and VERY tedious - method of adding depth to a scene by means of slight background details) to get them from your head to the page."

For the Outlander series, Diana used many resources to get the Scottish brogue right. "I just listened to any Scottish speakers I could find - TV actors, tapes of live performances by Scottish musical groups (the performers often talk between numbers), etc. - and I read all the novels I could get my hands on that were either set in Scotland, or (more importantly) written by Scots. Scots is an honest-to-goodness dialect of English, and it has identifiable patterns of sentence structure, as well as idiom."

It takes Diana about three years to write an Outlander novel. The Lord John books, being smaller stories, take about a year. She's still working on her contemporary stories. But, the actual writing of each novel only takes her a little more than two years, as she doesn't write much while doing her book tours. She spent nearly half of 1997 doing book tours, for instance, plus conferences in four countries.

Her Writing Routine - Diana is a night person, she claims, and fortunately for her, her husband is a lark, she says. Because when the children were young and she was involved in her writing, this worked for them. The routine was as follows (written some years ago):

Her husband got up early, "and so he will fortunately roust the kids out of bed and get them off to school and all that. But I get up normally at nine or so and sort of slowly wake up and do email and eat breakfast and do office shores; read contracts, sign letters and deal with all that debris. Then around 11 I'm usually compos metis enough to begin writing. I like to get a foothold on the day's work fairly early on because then I can be thinking about it in the back of my mind during the day and return to it. Whenever I get a chance I can come and sit down and work some more.

"And then my husband comes home around noon. He comes home for lunch most days and we'll go run errands together; we'll eat lunch either in or out and mess around for an hour or two, lie down and relax if there's time. The kids start coming home at two - one comes home at two, and the other at three (another child was at university) - sometimes we have to go and get one of them. There's after school rehearsals if one of them is in a play. We do the errands: go grocery shopping, take the dog to the vet for shots, take in the dry-cleaning, just run around. Water up the garden, dig up the seedlings, that sort of thing.

"Then I cook dinner and then it's sort of family time: we do homework or go to the bookstore together. We always told our children we would buy them books any time they wanted so occasionally one of them will say: I don't have anything to read and so we all go down to Barnes and Noble and, you know, clean out the place. [Laughs] So there's family time and then my husband usually goes to bed around 10. I'll tuck him in bed and then I go lie down on the couch with a book and read so I'm available if anybody needs anything - because kids usually stay up later than that - and if nobody needs me I'll go to sleep after 15 or 20 minutes and I'll nap until midnight and then I get up and go to work. Midnight until three a.m. is my main time.

So, I get that morning hour. Sometimes I get an hour in the afternoon and then I have my three hour block in the evening. And, of course, when I'm doing research - and I do a lot in the early stages of a book - then I'm usually carrying a book around with me and when I have time I read. Sitting at the vet's or I'll have the book in the car with me if I have to go pick up someone and wait for them or if I'm doing my daily exercise on the treadmill or the bike, then I do my research reading.

So I guess I'm disciplined. But things give way on any given day. Occasionally I just have a really, really busy day and I lie down at 10 and I don't wake up again. [Laughs] Or I wake up long enough to go crawl in bed, but that's it. Or I wake up at midnight and I think: Oh, it's not going to work tonight. [Laughs}"

Diana says she's a slow writer. "Toward the early part of a book I may be writing half an hour a day because I don't know very much and I'm doing a lot of research. As time goes on and I segue into the middle part of a book my working pace is usually about two pages a day. That goes on for a long time. Toward the end of a book when I know everything and I don't need to do very much research at all I'll be working flat out, 18 hours a day: getting maybe 20 pages."

She admits she is a very slow, fiddly (her word) sort of writer. "I need what I call a kernel to start writing which is very vivid: a major line of dialog, something I can sense. So, I'll put that down as clearly as I can in a sentence or two and then sit there and stare at it. [Laughs] I pick out a word and then I put it back in and then I take it out and put in another one and then I divide the sentence and put in a clause and then I'll say: No, I liked it better the first way."

So, Diana plods on, going back and forth and by the time she has finished, she usually has gone over the one scene hundreds of times. At least once it's done it's really done! She says, "Gradually I get these pieces and they begin to stick together. I'll get one that I think: Oh, that goes with what I wrote four months ago and I bring them together." She tweaks what needs to be tweaked and bridges things together.

The Publishing Process - Diana took the time to explain the entire publishing process  so we can understand what happens after an author submits her manuscript to the editor.

1. Editor reads the manuscript, discusses it with the author and suggests minor revisions that may improve the book.
2. Book goes back to the Author who does the same with the editor.
3.The manuscript goes back to the Editor who reads it again, asks any questions that seems necessary and sends it on to -
4.The Copy-Editor, (whom Diana has a heck of a regard for) whose job is to read it thru carefully, find typos and errors in grammar, punctuation, or continuity and writes queries to the author regarding anything questionable. Then the manuscript goes back to the author again!
5.The Author re-reads it all again, answers any questions the copy-editor has put to her, changes anything she disagrees with, and then sends it back to -
6.The Editor who again re-reads it and checks everything and then sends it to -
7.The Typesetter, who sets the manuscript in type according to the format laid out by -
8.The Book-Designer, who decides on the layout of pages, chooses a suitable and attractive typeface and decides on the size of the font. Additional artwork is added in places, and chapter and section headings are designed. Next comes -
9.Cover Artist, who takes care of the cover and then sends it on to -
10.The Marketing Department, whose job is to figure out how to sell the book. Then the manuscript comes -
11.Back to the Editor and Author from the Typesetter (to which Diana quotes her husband, "to a writer, 'finished' is a relative concept."). This is the very last chance to change anything. Meanwhile -
12.A number of copies of the galley-proofs are bound in very cheap covers and sent to Reviewers. Cover quotes are used by these comments. But Diana says they don't always bother with this step with her books since they are in a rush to get them in bookstores by this time and it takes several months more to get reviews prior to publication and used.
13.Finshed with the final editing, the book is then sent to the Printer and then sent to -
14.The Bindery, where covers and dust-jackets are put on. Next these are shipped to -
15.The Distributors, a number of companies like Ingram and Baker and Taylor, who ship, distribute and warehouse the books. The Publisher also ships directly to -
16.The Bookstores. Since they can only house a limited number of books, they draw on the distributors warehouses to resupply a title that's selling briskly, because it takes much longer to go through the publisher.
17.The Reader. At long last, the reader has the book! (Diana  makes all this explanation of the total process much more entertaining than I have.)

Diana says that her publisher is Random House and they prefer to publish her books in the Fall quarter because that's the time when the biggest sales occur in time for Christmas. The "big" titles are released by them in the Fall, between September 1 and December 31.

Some Personal Comments from Diana - Way, way back in 1997, Diana was asked to comment on Brianna, the daughter of Jamie and Claire. Some people thought her "stupid" and some "a brat." Some said she should have known what Bonnet was like. (To this Diana said, "Ummm . . . how?")

As for Brianna boarding a ship by herself and, consequently, getting raped, she explained that in those days it was perfectly proper for someone to meet the captain on board his ship in the daytime. And, furthermore, she says, "What SHOULD she have done, having found him with Claire's ring? She'd know her mother wouldn't give that up willingly."

Some called Brianna selfish and to this, Diana says, "Selfish? Going through the stones to save her parents is selfish? Accepting Lizzie as her servant to save her from 'a fate worse than death' is selfish? Nursing Lizzie through malaria while dying to get on with her own quest is selfish? Keeping her baby - even though she thinks it's the product of rape, and KNOWING that keeping it condemns her to be stuck in the past more of less permanently - that's selfish?"

And she continues, "Trying to arrange matters so that Roger won't feel an obligation to marry her is selfish? Trying to find forgiveness for both Bonnet and Jamie is selfish? Forcing Bonnet to rescue John Grey from the burning warehouse is selfish? Goodness. So far as I can see, the only regard in which she pays the slightest attention to her own feelings is in insisting that she won't marry for the sake of anything but heart-felt love - not to give her child a name, not to take advantage of Roger's sense of honor - only for love. I hardly think that's extreme, in the circumstances. But then, I could be biased."

Diana has said, "So, I don't write either literary novels or genre novels; I just write Big, Weird Books. And since it seems to work, I've just kept doing it."

The Real Diana - Someone asked Diana what she is really like, to which she had a few responses. She said, "My son - himself a novelist - asked me the other day what I thought of a particular book we'd both read. I told him. After a few minutes - we were walking through a parking lot - he said thoughtfully, 'You know, everybody thinks you're this cuddly little hobbit. They're wrong."

She adds, "Well, I was a scientist in my previous professional incarnation. This was my father's fault: he was fond of saying to me during my formative years,'You're such a poor judge of character, you're bound to marry some bum. So be sure to get a good education so you can support your children!' Well, OK. I knew from the age of eight or so that I was meant to be a novelist, but I did have better sense than to mention it. So I went into science. I liked science, I was reasonably good at it, and in the fullness of time, I ended up with three degrees in the biological sciences, including a Ph. D in Quantitative Behavioral Ecology (don't worry about it; it's just animal behavior with a lot of statistics).. . . . . . . . Anyway, people find out about the 400-page doctoral thesis on 'Nest Site Selection in the Pinyon Jay, Gymnorphinus cyanocephalus,' (or, as my husband remarks, 'Why Birds Build Nests Where They Do, and Who Cares Anyway') and immediately go all drop-jawed, asking, 'But HOW did you get from being a scientist to being a novelist?'" Her answer is, "I wrote a book (shrug) How else?"

"Ever since Outlander was published," Diana reveals, "I've been going in to bookstores and talking to the staff and saying: Oh, I see you have a copy of my book on your shelf, would you mind if I signed it? And they say: Oh, that's fine. And you sign it, and you chat with them and they say: Oh, what sort of book is it? And that gives you the chance to tell them a little bit about the story and so on. Because telling people the story is really the only way I've found of describing the books. You start out saying: Well, in 1946 a British ex-combat nurse, and so forth. And by the time you get to her joining up with the Scots to get away from Black Jack Randall they're sort of hooked and they'll say: Well, that sounds interesting. And at that point they'll pick it up themselves."

Diana shares a little of what her schedule and life is like sometimes by a few accountings. One time, she says, "Well, I'm back from Germany, and now have 48 hours to unpack, wash my underwear, rush my good wool pants and silk shirts to the dry-cleaner's, repack, and tie plastic flagging on all the plants in my garden that require watering, so they won't die while my husband is taking care of things during the next round of absence (he's a dear man, and very responsible, but unfortunately plant-blind; they all look like weeds to him, unless they have enormous colored blossoms or fruit - and he regards my pomegranate tree as a giant weed, fruit notwithstanding (he's not fond of pomegranates))."

Then she relates how way back when she was a university professor teaching a class called Human Anatomy and Physiology - a popular science elective that most of the football players took under the misapprehension that it would be easy - she'd walk in at 8 a. m. and, "see 400 bodies sprawled in the chairs of the auditorium, most of them sound asleep. And so I'd walk up to the edge of the platform, microphone in hand, and say, Well, this morning, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to talk about the History of Contraception.' And a number of persons would start to blink. And then I'd say . . .

'In days of old,
When Knights were bold,
And condoms not invented . . . [dramatic pause]
They wrapped old socks
Around their cocks,
And babies were prevented!'

Yes, well, it did wake them up. [g]"

In 2005 she wrote, "Mind you, last week sixteen men with sledgehammers showed up to destroy the back half of my house - a renovation project MEANT to have started six months ago - and there is a gigantic ramhoe in my backyard, which fires up every morning at dawn and makes enormous thunking noises while breaking up the old swimming pool, knocking pictures off the walls and breaking ceiling light fixtures jarred loose by the vibrations. The neighbors are doubtless Most Amused, This morning, the gentleman operating this piece of equipment evidently got bored with staring into an empty swimming pool for hours on end, and took into his head to drive around the backyard smashing up the walks and patio slab (which were meant to be removed, all right, but not by a ramhoe, according to the apoplectic supervisor who arrived later in the day). We also have our very own Porta-Potty, sitting out by the curb; my husband said that as he was driving down the street this afternoon, a pickup truck with the logo of a pool remodeling company - but not the one doing OUR pool - pulled up, a man leaped out, entered the Porta-Potty, reappeared a moment later, got back in his truck and drove off. I had no idea that we were maintaining a Public Convenience, but I suppose that unless someone drowns in it or has a heatstroke or something, the potential for lawsuits is low.)

And another time she apologizes to people in a letter dated July 19, 2004. She tells of coming home from an appearance one Friday night and collapsing in bed. She woke up Saturday morning and , in a state of grogginess, going around that whole day doing her laundry, tidying up, fetching groceries and then sitting down to work on parts of A Breath of Snow and Ashes, having about 2/3 of it completed at this juncture. 10:30 at night she awoke abruptly from a nap to, "the hideous realization that it was July 17. I sat bolt upright and smacked myself in the head and yelled, 'Oh, RATS!!!' - to the considerable startlement of my husband." She was supposed to have attended the Flagstaff Celtic Festival that day. Diana made profound apologies and offered to make amends in  a number of ways, saying she only blanked out completely like that one other time in fifteen years of appearances - saying that didn't make it any better, tho.

Asked who are some of her favorite authors and books, Diana names some. But, she warns, she reads ALOT, so can't possibly name all her favorites.

Mistress of the Art of Death, by Arianna Franklin  - A 12th century forensic thriller, with good dosage of sex and humor.
The Remains of An Altar, by Phil Rickman - She loves all his books, but this one is about a widow and her obnoxious teenaged daughter. Says the earlier books are about horror and supernatural.
The Bloomsday Dead. by Adrian McKinty - The third in a Very Violent trilogy about a young Irish gangster. Not for the weak of stomach.
Natural Born Charmer, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Phillips is one of her favorite romance authors and she loves all her books, but thought this one of her best.
Nefertiti. by Michelle Moran - Terrific classic historical fiction. Early Egyptian history and culture.
The Blooming of Jack Absolute, by C. C. Humphreys. Classis historical adventure, 18th century. 
Smuggler's Bride, by Darlene Marshall. Hilarious pirate romance - all precious books as well. Great sex.
Death Comes for the Fat Man, by Reginald Hill. One of her longtime favorite authors. Series features twisty plots.
Judith McNaught - Does Cinderella stories particularly well.
Laura Kinsale - Tends toward Beauty and the Beast-type stories.
Nora Roberts - One of the most dependably entertaining novelists.
Martin Cruz Smith - Writer of both historical and contemporary. Mysteries featuring Renko are a particular favorite.
Patricia Finney - Her Robert Carey mysteries written under the name of P. F. Chisholm, but under her own name there are some espionage thrillers that include some great humor.
Jennifer Crusie - Writes enormously funny comic romance novels, but warns readers that since becoming a big name, her previous smaller stories have been reissued in hardcover at a bigger price.
Kathleen Eschenberg - Writer of wonderful Civil War romances.
Arnette Lamb -
Anne Stuart -
Mary Jo Putney -
Cheryl Reavis -
There's many more, but these are some excellent names to consider.

Diana and Sara Donati - There is a bit of fun between Sara Donati, author of numerous long stories taking place a number of years after Diana's stories take place. They know each other and keep in touch. One day Sara sent Diana this scene from a forthcoming book and said, "I won't do this if you have any objection, but I thought it was sort of funny." What she had done was - in her story, set in 1795 - have one of her characters tell another character what had happened at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Sara knew that Diana was going to write about that battle further along in  her series. Sara had her character tell this other character how after the battle they sent across the rebel lines for a physician for this sick little boy and a woman named Mrs. Fraser, known as the White Witch, comes - along with her husband Colonel Fraser for protection - and treats the boy. Ian is also mentioned as he'd come with the Mohawks (the Mohawks fought in it). (Personal comment - You can't imagine my reaction when I read this Sara Donati story and came across this scene!)

The Outlander Series - Diana says, "I did make an effort to construct each novel so that it would stand alone, since I couldn't be sure that people would necessarily encounter the series as a whole, but the overall effect is naturally richer if you read the books in order. The novels are interlinking parts of a greater work, and I like to think that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts."

And Diana said, "I was not writing women's fiction. There's stuff in these books that appeals specifically to men and some of it, in fact, women don't even see."

When Outlander won the prestigious RWA's RITA award for Best Book of the Year when it first came out, Diana received a number of negative comments back. One well-known writer emailed her to say she felt it was not right for her to have won since the book wasn't really a romance (there wasn't enough concentration on the relationship between the hero and heroine), she was older than him (!!!), and they don't meet until page 69.

Well, Diana herself never intended her books to be labeled as romance novels. She says, "Outlander has some elements of a standard romance - enough to make it appealing to romance readers in general - but the second and third books don't; they deal with an ongoing relationship between two decent people who already love each other - there's no falling-in-love, getting acquainted, now-we-like-each-other-now-we-don't kind of conflict. It (the Outlander cycle) is primarily an adventure story, in which history is as important a player as any of the individuals. To say nothing of which I don't have guaranteed happy endings [grin] (I got threatening letters after DRAGONFLY came out - all saying 'How DARE you end a book this way, when you know the next one won't be out for a year!' [grin]."

There have been a few times when someone has given her an idea for the series, such as one woman asking what she thought Jamie would have said if he saw his daughter, Brianna, in a bikini. So, she thought about that idea and it led to a conversation in VOYAGER and Claire's letter to her daughter.

And then there was the friend who said one of her fondest secret ambitions was to be a carnival geek, like one who bites off heads of live chickens. This led to an exchange on the subject and Diana eventually wrote about the white geek voodoo priestess with a sideline in oracles. To which Diana states, "And if you think THAT was easy to work into the plot. . . !"

The Father Fogden character, the disgraced and exiled priest of Hispaniola, was the result of some bantering around between she and some friends and what one person's relation, who was a shepherd, might have done with his sheep.

Outlander - Amazing first story in this series. A must for all to read. Claire is swept back in time, leaving her husband (Frank) behind. She constantly tries to get back again. It's one ugly close call after another as she meets Jamie. They are forced to wed for her protection, but this turns out to be a wonderful thing. Jamie nearly dies of the torture he endures near the end of the book. Much happens and it's filled with excitement and terrible, twisted villains.

This wasn't an overnight success. It started off rather slowly and built up over time. Part of this was due to the fact that no one could figure out a proper genre to classify it under. It's hard to know what to call it. Diana calls it weird. Sales pick up with each new book release.

Actually, the release of this book was stalled by some 18 months because the publisher could not figure out how to market it. Her contract was almost cancelled - all because they could not decide on what kind of book to call Outlander!

The UK version is called Cross Stitch, which was the original title Diana chose for this book. However, the Americans said, "It sounds too much like embroidery, can you think of something more . . .adventurous?" and she did. She says, "Also, when I wrote it, I had in mind that Claire would cross, not once, but twice - future to past, past to future - which would make an X, which is the basic embroidery cross stitch. It also had to do with Claire's occupation - that of a healer. Lots of meanings, but overall, not really a good title, I don't think."

Diana admits that the rape scene in this was very difficult to write.

Dragonfly in Amber - Jamie sends Claire, who is pregnant, back to her own time for their protection. He expects to die at Culloden. They are separated for 18 years before she decides, after her husband Frank dies, to try and find out what happened to Jamie at Culloden. Roger, a friend, assists in the research and he and Brianna, Claire's 18-year-old daughter, meet. Large parts of story are told in flashback. Diana found it hard to write Jamie and Claire's farewell scene.

As for the strange title, Diana explains, "The title is sort of a symbol of Jamie and Claire's marriage - not only via the token Hugh Munroe gives Claire - but as a metaphor; a means of preserving something of great beauty that exists out of its proper time. Also, Amber is an interesting substance that's been used for magic and protection for thousands of years, One fan has suggested the notion of Jamie's past being preserved in artifacts - I like it!"

Voyager - Claire returns to Jamie when she discovers he survived at Culloden, but not until she explains her story to Brianna and Roger. Past events in Claire and Jamie's lives are explained to the reader. Brianna and Roger feel an attraction. This has a wonderful start to the story. Diana says that Claire's farewell letter to Brianna was very difficult to write.

"The scene with Mayer, the coin-dealer," Diana says, "which appears in Voyager, was originally written for Dragonfly." She sometimes pulls a scene from a book when she decides it doesn't fit and saves it - and sometimes it can be used elsewhere.

Claire says that if you look at the first half of this story, it is "done in a 'braided' technique, telling Jamie's story in third person in a linear chronology, Claire's story in first person backwards, in flashback, and using the sections in Roger's voice as the 'turn' points that trigger the other two voices."

Drums of Autumn - Jamie and Claire arrive in the Colonies and stay with his aunt - without a penny to their name. They then search and find land that they build and start a community on. Meanwhile, first Brianna and then Roger go back in time to join them.

This book came out as #1 on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list when it was first released. A reporter from the Wall Street Journal called her the following day and asked, 'Who the heck ARE you? We've never heard of you before!" To which Diana commented, "That's what I get for only writing a book every two or three years, I suppose."

The Fiery Cross - This story contains some truly amazing and shocking scenes not to be missed. Like Roger being hung! The love between Jamie and Claire is reinforced in this one. This was the thickest book of all in the series up to this release. (Since then, A Breath of Snow and Ashes is equally long.) And Diana explains it is because the story is just getting more complex and because the other characters, Roger and Brianna, have a bigger part in the telling.

Another reason the book is longer than previous ones is that Diana first intended for this book to finish on the brink of the Revolutionary War in 1776. When she saw she had far too many bits and pieces and chunks to have that happen, she decided to concentrate on the War of the Regulation, which precedes the Revolutionary War. instead. And this also became the evolution of the relationship between Roger and Jamie. The story sets itself as preparation for the war that's coming. Diana says, "It's a book about male responsibility, essentially. I mean, it's about everybody's responsibility, but it focuses chiefly on Jamie and Roger. Jamie knows what his role is, and he always has. But at the same time you can see the difficulties he has in fulfilling it. You know he's pulling his people together to face what he knows is coming and having to do things he doesn't want to do, and at the same time he's not forcing Roger to do anything. And yet he's showing him."

And there's something else about this book. The publishers were so eager to have the story, that they announced a publication date before Diana had even finished it. She finished writing it in August and normally it would take eight months to a year for a book of that size to be edited, copyedited, proofread and all. But it went to bindery in early October - five weeks later. "And," she exclaims, "They did not copyedit the last three sections at all."

The galleys are the last chance to correct things, but she never got the chance. Fiery Cross is 500,000 words and she estimates that about 30,000 could have been pruned from it before publication. (Drums of Autumn was about 425,000 words.) It ended with Diana having but three days with the galleys - hardly enough time to do it justice (the publishers were determined to have it out in the book stores for Christmas). Diana printed off the last three sections of the book and proofread those as if they were galleys. She had her husband and his secretary work three days on it when the actual galleys arrived while she madly read through the first six sections. She made these corrections for the paperback edition, but the original hardback was published without this being done.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Odd title which is explained in dramatic form near the end of the book. Very dramatic episode in the first part of the book A real shocker! In this, Roger and Brianna end up going back to their own time. Powerful story.

Echo in the Bone - This latest book is a little bit different as the characters each carry the story almost equally. We have Jamie and Claire, of course, and Roger and Brianna (in another time), William (Jamie's grown up son and a soldier) and the young Ian, as well as John Gray. Jamie and Claire leave their home and travel to Scotland and his former home, stopping along the way at a number of places. Then, return again. A number of love stories and Revolutionary War battles.

The Outlandish Companion - Amazing book in which Diana explains the first 4 books of the Outlander series. Details are unbelievable and we learn more about this amazing writer. She even gives previews into upcoming books.

The Lord John books - Lord John is a beloved character from the Outlander series, first appearing in an earlier book, briefly, then another with a more important part. He is gay and has always loved Jamie above all others. He adopts Jamie's son and does a sterling job of raising him well. This is a man of rare character - a man to be respected. In these stories there is always a mystery to be solved and he leads a very active life as a soldier. He also engages in sexual acts with other men and some may find this distasteful, while others can accept this and enjoy the fascinating adventures of John Gray -  his path crossing Jamie and Claire from time to time.

The Exile - This is a graphic novel for which Diana wrote the dialogue and someone else did the artwork. It is done, but no release date posted so far. It will be sometime in 2010. (It's actually finished, but that doesn't mean it can be immediately published, can it?) All are asked not to post the pictures in advance, tho Diana herself has given us an advance peek on her web page. There is a copywrite on it.

The story is one which features Jamie and Claire and starts with Murtagh, Jamie's godfather, awaiting the return of his godson to Scotland, and the fulfillment of a vow made years before. The graphic novel will be approximately 192 pages.

To explain how this graphic novel was made, Diana tells us, "The script is the beginning of a graphic novel - but only the beginning. The artist - the estimable Hoang Nguyen, in this case - then sets about the difficult task of translating the script into artwork."

And Diana explains the whole way of doing it. "I (the writer) lay out a script page in panels - anywhere from one to six of them on a page - and at the top of each panel, describe what the scene is, which characters are present, what they're doing, how they look (in terms of clothing and expression), and add any specific details that need to be present (for instance, a full moon, or brooding cliffs, or a white owl), as well as indicating the position of the characters and objects (by specifying, for instance that so-and-so is in the foreground of a panel, while Mr. X and Ms. Y are having a conversation in the background)." Various abbreviations are used and the panels are numbered in order.

And she continues, "The artist looks at all this, and then produces layout pages - quick pencil sketches, done without any great reference to character details, but laying out the composition of the scene, catching the major angles, perspectives, and elements. I can then look at these, to be sure we're on the same page (literally), before the artist invests a lot of time and energy in the actual painting of a panel. and let the artist know if I see anything that ought to be changed."

The Outlander movie - At long last a movie is underway of Outlander and being filmed in Scotland. Diana has no say in the casting or development of this movie and many are curious about it, but we just have to wait and see. Hard to do. Diana has said, "Someone told me that of all the books published in a given year, only 3% are optioned (for movies). Of THOSE, maybe ONE TENTH of ONE PERCENT make it to film."

Many, many thanks to The Outlandish Companion from which I've inserted a number of quotes. Diana gives a fascinating 'life in the day of' on page 453. And, here's a bonus not everyone may have noticed. On page 406 is a picture of Diana and a very tall man in a kilt. Her husband? I think so.

More info can be found on Diana's web site - www.DianaGabaldon.com.

The novels of Diana Gabaldon:

Outlander series:

1. Outlander (Cross Stitch in the UK) - Delacorte - 1991.
2. Dragonfly in Amber - Delacorte  - 1992.
3. Voyager - Delacorte  - 1994.
4. Drums of Autumn - Delacorte  - 1997.
5. The Fiery Cross - Delacorte - 2001.
6. A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Delacorte  - 2005.
7. Echo in the Bone  - Delacorte  - 2009.
Lord John Series:

1. Lord John and the Hellfire Club (only available as an audio download) - 1998.
2. Lord John and the Private Matter - 2003.
3. Lord John and the Succubus (novella, in Legends II) - 2004.
4. Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade - 2007.
5. Lord John and the Hand of Devils (a collection of 3 novellas - Lord John and the Hellfire Club, Lord John and the Succubus, and Lord John and the Haunted Soldier) - 2007.

Non-Fiction:
The Outlandish Companion - 1999.

There is no other author I admire more than Diana Gabaldon. So much so that I started a Diane Gabaldon Discussion Group 8 1/2 years ago and it's still going strong. We read about 40 pages a month and sit and dissect what we have read and share other info each month. We started with Outlander and now we're starting on Echo in the Bone. Should we finish Echo before her next release comes out, we will simply go back to Outlander again.

Diana treats us all well. She makes a number of personal appearances, maintains a web site and is on Facebook and a number of blogs and other places where we can keep in touch. She updates us on everything as it happens.

Her Outlandish Companion was an amazing book - a must for all her fans to read and to own. How on earth did she ever accomplish this? In this book is a rare insight into what her days were like as she wrote her first books and how she came about writing what she did. She lets us see inside her fascinating mind. She is talking of doing a 2nd version of this to bring us up to date with the books written since the original Outlandish Companion.

Personally, I've been very impatient to read her contemporary murder mystery that she's been working on for so dog-done long!

Anything she writes is a "must" read, but I'm not very fond of Graphic Novels. However, this will have the added advantage of seeing drawings of Jamie and Claire and she must have approved of how they look.

There is much speculation on the upcoming movie of Outlander and we are all dying to hear details, but so little is given. Once she sold the rights, Diana had no more input into the casting or development of the story, so we learn nothing from her. And we want to know so much! It's agony to have to wait! But wait we must. Afraid no movie can live up to our expectations and no actor or actress can ever fulfill our image of these people. It's being filmed in Scotland and won't be out for about another year it seems.

Her brilliance always shines thru and even tho some of us may be a little critical about some things in each book, we also don't voice these thoughts aloud because everything else about the book is so terrific! Ok, I'll go out on a limb here (knowing full well few will agree on some of what I'm about to say). There are times when her scientific research background takes over and we learn more than we ever wanted to learn about some of her doctoring and medical work. And sometimes Claire and Jamie get stuck in a peculiar situation that isn't so much our favorite - like that voodoo episode.

But on the other hand, there are so many exciting, unbelievable parts - like Claire's abduction and rapes; like Roger's hanging; like Brianna's rape; like when Claire and Jamie find one another again. I could go on and on. The love story between Jamie and Claire is above any other. It lasts thru time and as they age. We read of Roger's maturity into the strong man he becomes, of he and Brianna's developing love story. We read of too many different character's to count who leave a lasting impression on us. Oh, the dialogue - especially that from Jamie - is priceless at times. Many, many gems that we will never forget. And, more recently, we read with rapid fascination of the growth and development of William, Jamie's son, as well as that of Ian, his nephew. And, always - Lord John Grey. Near the end of Echo in the Bone he plays a particularly important role and we are open-mouthed, flabbergasted and amazed at this new twist to his character and the story line. Oh my gosh - how are we ever going to wait until the next book comes out!!!

To sum things up, there is no other writer quite like her and she is simply amazing. Aren't we lucky?

Back to Index