Site Announcements 2006
This page archives the announcements that Diana sent in 2006, which were originally posted on the home page.
16 December 2006
'Tis the Season
Of wreaths and fudge, menorahs and holly, greeting cards and carols, and whatever it is one does to celebrate Kwanzaa or the Winter Solstice (eat a lot, probably; that's what everybody else does at this season). And, of course, of signed books and bookplates for presents.
Bookplates
If you'd like signed bookplates (these are sticky labels, about 2" x 3", that one puts inside a book in lieu of shipping the book to the author for signing), please send an SASE (Self-addressed, Stamped Envelope), with a brief note saying how many bookplates you'd like, and how you'd like them inscribed. Bookplates are free, and you can have as many as you need, but-given that a lot of other people want them, too-if you ask for twelve, say, it would be appreciated if you didn't ask to have me write, "To my greatest fan in the whole wide world, who so appreciates the books, I hope you find your own Jamie Fraser to cherish forever and ever and ever" on all twelve of them. One, OK. More than that, you may have to settle for "Nollaig Chridheil!" ("Merry Christmas" in Gaelic. I'm afraid there is no Gaelic expression for "Happy Channukah," but I will ask my literary agent, who's Israeli, how to say it in Hebrew, if you like).
Send bookplate requests to me at:
Diana Gabaldon
10810 N. Tatum Blvd. #102-321
Phoenix, AZ 85028
Autographed Books
For those of you who would like autographed books, the quickest and easiest way to arrange this is for you to order said books from The Poisoned Pen, (480) 947-2974). (And no, I have no financial stake in the Poisoned Pen [g]; they're just my neighborhood bookstore.) I drop by the store at least once a week to sign book orders, and the bookstore staff will ship them anywhere in the world.
ALL the books are available in hardcover, trade paperback (these are the large ones; not Large Print, just large books), and mass-market paperback (the smaller, almost-cuboidal ones)--except for The Outlandish Companion, which is still available only in hardcover, and for A Breath of Snow and Ashes, which hasn't yet been released in the mass-market size.
Just tell the staff when you order a book how you would like it inscribed, and I'll take care of it next time I stop in.
And as a small Christmas present from me to you-here's my ancestral recipe for Christmas Fudge (you only make it at Christmas, because if you ate it more often, you would weigh 400 pounds and/or die).
Diana's Christmas Fudge
It's a very simple recipe--one of the "ancestral" ones handed down from one of my great-grandmothers:
4 cups of sugar
1/2 pound of butter (two sticks)
1 can of Carnation Evaporated milk
3 bags Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 jars marshmallow creme
walnuts (the recipe says "1 can of shelled walnuts," but they don't
sell them in cans anymore. I really like walnuts, so I use tons, but I don't measure
them. [g])
Anyway, you melt the butter and sugar and evaporated milk together over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When it comes to a full, rolling boil, cook seven minutes by the clock, stirring constantly. Then remove from heat, mix in marshmallow creme and chocolate chips, stir in chopped walnuts, and pour or scoop into greased dishes. Put in refrigerator to cool and harden. Makes about five pounds (in the pan. It will make about ten, if you eat it all yourself. I recommend sharing). [g]
Nollaig Chridheil !!
Fun Links
Barbara Schnell's Photo Diary of Diana's Visit for the Corine Awards
Dutch Links
http://dianagabaldonupdate.web-log.nl/
http://groups.msn.com/DeReizigercyclus-DianaGabaldon
27 November 2006
Whew.
Home at last, home at last—thank God Almighty, I am home at last! (meaning no disrespect either to Dr. King or God Almighty, believe me; that's a heartfelt prayer of Thanksgiving.)
Meaning—I've
been through four or five different countries (five, if we count Canada twice)
and racked up several hundred thousand miles in the last four months, but now
I'm DONE with travel and appearances until mid-February of 2007 (well, bar
one quickie signing for the Changing Hands bookstore in Mesa on Dec. 13, but that
hardly counts, since I won't miss supper and can sleep in my own bed). Meaning
also that now I can sit still and write. [g] It's great to see y'all
and talk to people who like my books—but it's really nice to be able
to sit peacefully in my "not quite completed but at least they tell me I'll
have an oven to cook
the turkey in even if I still have to make the gravy on the-BBQ-grill
out on the porch house" and think about Jamie, Claire, Lord John, and whoever
else happens to drop in (my subconcious is pretty much open 24/7).
We can also perhaps do a few more regular updates to the website. So, in the hopes that all of you will had a wonderful Thanksgiving (whether American or not), here are a few early holiday treats:
Do-It-Yourself Outlander Movies
I guess we can gauge the impatience with which some folks would like to have a movie by the number of them who get fed up with waiting and do it themselves. [g]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrqvgaXs2HE&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQotZg-kIQ&mode=related&search=
http://youtube.com/watch?v=V_zuxlLra38
You guys are really talented!
(Great casting, for the most part—though I gotta say that these guys ain't Jamie. Love the music, though!)
If anybody makes or comes across any further DIY movie-lets, let us know! We'll be sure to provide links. [g]
Multilingual Fan Sites
My foreign-rights agent tells me that at the moment, the books are published in 23 countries, which is pretty staggering (gratifying, but staggering [g]), and thus, appear in 19 different languages! (The US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all being English, of course. Wait…maybe that makes it only 18 different languages. Well, pretty staggering, either way. And we could argue with some justice that the French spoken in France is not the same language as the French spoken in Quebec [g], so we might as well call it 19, for general purposes.)
Anyway, while I know that a great many of you do speak and read English in addition to your first language, many don't—and even those who do would probably like the chance to discuss books and things Outlandish in your mother tongues, as well.
Now, eventually, I'd really like to have a little update feature that we could provide in multiple languages, to at least make the high points (such as they are [cough]) available to everybody. While I'm working on that idea, though, I thought it might be a good idea to provide links to such non-English fan sites and groups as come to my attention.
I recently did online interviews for a Spanish site and an Italian one, with the respective moderators of these sites being kind enough to take the trouble to translate the questions and answers for me. So—here are the links for those two sites:
http://www.elrinconromantico.com/phpbb2/index.php
Spanish (this site includes interviews with a number of other authors, so the
link here goes to the home page)
http://leggiamo.altervista.org/rosa_gabaldon_intervista.htm - Italian
If any of you belong to, or know of, other non-English sites that might be of interest to Outlander readers, please let me know, and we'll put the links up here. Thanks!
New Brotherhood of the Blade Excerpt!
Two New Podcasts (Episodes 7 and 8)
Direct Download
Episode One, A Breath of Snow and Ashes
Episode Two, What Draws a Reader In
Episode Three, On Writing: The "Kernel Process"
Episode Four, Ghosts
Episode Five, Sex Scenes
Episode Six, The Lord John Stories
Episode Seven, Fans and Tours
Episode Eight, Author-Reader Roundtable Discussion
31 October 2006
Quills Awards Update
Thanks! You Did it! [g]
I'm thrilled to announce that we won a Quill Award last night! For which victory, credit goes entirely to you guys, who all so generously voted for A Breath of Snow and Ashes.
The event was held in the American Museum of Natural History, which is a pretty cool venue. Cocktails in the rotunda with the rearing dinosaur skeletons, followed by dinner and awards downstairs in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life—an immense room with dioramas of walruses, elephant seals, and other pinnipeds, any number of plastic fish models, and a life-sized model of a blue whale arching playfully across the ceiling. More interesting than the usual ballroom, I'll tell you.
The interest was furthered by the assorted presenters the organizers had rounded up, these ranging from Al Roker (whom I actually recognized) and Lester Holt (whom I didn't; my editor had to explain who he was. What can I say, I don't watch television), to Judy Blume, Judd Hirsch, Janet Evanovich, and a few people not beginning with "J," including Stanley Tucci, Harry Connick, Jr., and Donald Trump (him, I recognized. Yes, it is real. Goodness). Caroline Kennedy was given a special platinum Quill, and made a very graceful acceptance speech, and Quinceton of "Avenue Q" sang (not at the same time, I hasten to add).
I actually didn't think I was going to win anything, so had removed my Extremely Stylish but Really High stiletto-heeled boots (three hours being about the maximum wearing time for these particular items) under the table, and was thus obliged to accept the award in my sock-feet.
"Well, so now you know the awful truth," I told the crowd. "I'm short."
Upon hearing that I was nominated for this award, my son asked, "What do they give you if you win?" "Some sort of feather?" I hazarded (having had to explain to someone just why the award is called the "Quill."). In fact, the award itself is rather nice; a book-shaped (and sized) rectangle, made half of lucite and half of …I think it's aluminum or something, with cut-outs to simulate the barbs of a quill. It's pleasantly heavy. It was also too big to cram into my very minimal luggage, but the publisher is kindly sending it home for me. When it (and I) both reach home again next week, I'll take a picture of it to show you, though I'm sure there's one somewhere on the Web, if the suspense is too much for you. [g]
Anyway, MSNBC recorded the whole thing, and proposes—I'm told—to boil it down to 45 minutes and broadcast it on TV on Oct. 21st. That's all I know about it, though If you watch and think I look funny, don't tell me, OK? I already know I'm short. [g]
And THANKS once again!
(One of the cool things about it was beating Stephen King in the "Horror" category—we won as best "Science-Fiction/Fantasy/Horror" [cough]—and having one more Really Interesting Category I can say I've seen my books mentioned as. [g])
7 September 2006
Diana Gabaldon Podcast
When the publisher
asked me to come to New York to record podcasts I said, "Sure! Great idea!"
I then hastily emailed my agent to find out exactly what a podcast is.
I'm figuring
those of you who are techno-savvy and/or have teenagers already know what a podcast
is, but just in case-it's evidently just a really short radio program, except
that it's provided in digital form, so that those so inclined can download
it into their iPods or mp3 players and listen to it at their leisure. (For those
of us who don't have iPods or mp3 players-I believe you can just download
and listen to it on your computer.)
Anyway, I did it.
I recorded a series of podcasts, dealing (briefly) with all sorts of things, from
how I started writing Outlander to my personal experiences with ghosts,
my daily writing routine (one of the nice things about writing novels for a living
is that nobody makes you get up at 7 AM, wear pantyhose, and go to an office),
and a number of other interesting things that I don't remember at the moment.
Oh, the shapes of the books, that was one…
So, if you have a few moments of leisure, and would like to debate with your friends whether I sound more like Katherine Hepburn (to whom I've had a few kindly interviewers compare my voice-I think they just mean I talk fast and sound raspy) or Donald Duck (my own personal impression)…click on the links below:
Direct Download
And I hope you enjoy listening!
[NB: The iTunes link requires that you have iTunes downloaded to your machine. The RSS link requires an RSS podcast reader (before you all send me a bunch of emails asking about what the heck an RSS Podcast reader is, I'll tell you I don't know, but I'll be doing some research on it when I get back from my travels and let everyone know what I find out). The Direct Download links will require that Quicktime be downloaded to your machine. iTunes, Quicktime and the RSS reader are all free software. -- Rosana]
27 August 2006
Well...You Know....Cool!
Which is to say—
The US publisher called this morning to tell me that A Breath of Snow and Ashes has just been nominated for a Quill Award. "How nice," I said. "What's a Quill Award?"
Well, there are more than one of them, it seems; this is a group of awards, given for different categories of books, and meant to be analogous to the Emmys or the Oscars, only for the publishing world.
So this is very neat, no doubt about it. I am a trifle bemused by the fact that whoever nominated the book put it in the "Science Fiction and Fantasy" category, though. Say what? (I mean…yeah, you could call it sf. Or fantasy, if viewed from a particularly narrow angle. You could call it lots of different other things, though, and they'd all be just as right—or wrong. That's why they say "Fiction" on the spine.) Still, it seems also to be in the running for "Book of the Year," which is Way Gratifying.
Now, this is only a nomination, of course; the winners are picked by readers voting for their favorite books in the various categories. Soooo…well, always assuming that a) you've read A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and b) liked it, and c) feel the urge…
You could vote for the book (in one or both categories – "Science Fiction, etc." and/or "Book of the Year", at
And if you do—THANK YOU! We appreciate your support. [g]
9 June 2006
Congratulations to the Random House "See Scotland" Sweepstakes Winner
Michelle Weber, of Marion, Iowa! Congratulations also to the sixty runners-up, who got (I'm told) a copy of the Outlandish Companion as a consolation prize. (I'm told that even if you aren't interested in the contents in general, the chicken recipes are killer.)
Quick Summary for the Busy or Impatient
1. NO, A Breath of Snow and Ashes is NOT the last book in Jamie and Claire's story.
2. YES, there will be another book about Jamie and Claire. Maybe two.
3. NO, I don't have a title for this/these book(s).
4. NO, I haven't written it/them yet.
5. NO, I don't know when the publication date will be. Publishers kind of like to have a book in hand--or at least see one approaching on the horizon--before they set pub dates (well, actually, I have had a publisher try to set a pub date before I finished writing a book. Didn't work all that well).
6. YES, there are more Lord John stories: TWO more novels (at least), and one more novella (at least).
7. YES, I know the titles for these: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (novel), Lord John and the Haunted Soldier (novella), and Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner (novel).
8. NO, I don't have pub dates for these yet, except for the German edition of a collection of "Lord John" short pieces--that's announced for August 6 of this year.
for the More Leisurely or Bored,...
Now, let's all just pay attention here for a minute...
My assistant, my German translator, and lots of other friends who hang in more online places than I do report that Wild Rumors regarding what I'm writing, what I've written, and what will be published when, are flying through cyberspace like bats out of hell--driven on, no doubt, by faceless minions from amazon.com, wielding whips made of live scorpions.
I have therefore been requested by the aforementioned assistant and translator (who are getting sick of trying to answer the avalanches of email in multiple languages) to write up a manifesto (or at least a bulleted list) regarding What's Published, What's Next, When, and What Comes After That? (And This Isn't the END, is It? Answer - No, it isn't.)
Now, in order to do this effectively, we will first require a short Review of Vocabulary. (My apologies to the people who already know what a novella is. They can skip the following and join us further down the page at item #1.)
I notice that a great many of my interlocutors (look it up, babe [g]; people who read my books own dictionaries--or at least know where to find one online (www.dictionary.com suggests itself, though if you have access to the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam-Webster's Third International Unabridged (my own favorite), so much the better)) apparently don't recognize the terms "novella," "anthology," and "short story," and thus are inclined to translate all these terms indiscriminately as "books!" and write frenzied queries about not being able to find a book titled HELLFIRE (which they can't find among the novels because it is a short story) or SUCCUBUS (which is not on the shelf with my novels because it is a novella, published in an anthology under the editor's name), etc., etc.
In fact--
A short story is a story told in (usually) 15,000 words or less. Mind, the length is kind of arbitrary, and you'll find slightly different length standards--but the point here is that this is a story that is short. i.e., not the size of a novel, and hence, not usually published in a book by itself (unless it's Brokeback Mountain and someone makes a hit movie of it, in which case some publisher most assuredly will bind it as a (very thin) book and try to charge you ten dollars for it, in hopes that you won't realize it was originally published in a short story collection by Annie Proulx and go buy that instead (it was, and you should. Close Range: Wyoming Stories, it's called).
A novella is defined either as a "short novel," or a "long short story" (just to make things difficult). The standards of length are even fuzzier than they are for a short story, and vary depending on who you're talking to, but for general purposes of discussion, we'll say the average novella usually runs somewhere between 20-40,000 words. Yes, this is confusing.
However, a novella is demonstrably shorter than the average novel, and thus also is not usually published in book-form by itself.
So, the fact that short stories and novellas are not usually published by themselves leads us ineluctably to the conclusion that they must be published along with other stories, QED. (All right, I'll tell you that one, since people write and ask all the time. QED is a well-known (no, really) abbreviation (like PDQ, SNAFU, or FUBAR), which stands for the Latin phrase, Quod erat demonstrandum. Which in turn means "That which has been demonstrated," or more loosely, "Thus it has been shown" (or if you want to be crude about it, it's the Latin form of "Ta-dahh!"). It's commonly used (or at least it was, when I learned geometry back in the Dark Ages) to indicate the conclusion of the proof of a theorem, and how people get along without it in daily life, I simply don't know.
Anyway, the point here is that both short stories and novellas are normally published in books that contain a number of similar objects. Such a book of short stories is sometimes called a "collection," but is also known by the technical term, "anthology."
An anthology (or collection, if you prefer) is a book in which some perspicacious editor has assembled a selection of several short pieces. These short pieces may be by the same author (in which case, the term "collection" is most frequently used) or by a lot of different authors (in which case you usually call it an "anthology").
Now, the difference here is that a collection of stories by the same author is--reasonably enough--published under that author's name, just as if it were a novel, a book of nonfiction (e.g., The Handbook of Tractor Repair or The Dietary Habits of the Birds of the Colorado River Valley), or a book of poetry (no, many thanks to those of you who asked, but I really don't write poetry, nor do I have any interest at the moment in writing children's fiction (what is it with the children's fiction? Why does everyone assume that all writers must be writing kids' books on the side, or harbor a long-term desire to do so? Writing kid-lit is a very specialized and difficult skill, requiring--among other things--the ability to tell an effective story in a very small space. I patently don't possess that skill [g], so why on earth do you think I'd write children's books?)).
An anthology, composed of pieces by a number of different authors, obviously can't be published under the name of just one of those authors. Ergo, it's published under the name (or names) of the editor (or editors) who selected the pieces for inclusion.
OK, I'm kind of figuring that y'all do know what a novel is. That's a stand-alone book of fiction (yes, this means the author is allowed to make things up and is not trying to pull a fast one on the audience), composed of one internally-cohesive (well, we hope) story, usually written by one single author under his or her own name (or pseudonym, as the case may be. And no, I don't write under any pseudonyms, for heaven's sake. I have people breathing down my neck day and night for the next book--which will, thanks for all great blessings, probably sell reasonably well--and you figure I'm not writing the next book, I'm off writing something else under another name that likely wouldn't sell nearly as well? What do you think I am, nuts? Besides, if I wanted to use a pseudonym in the first place, I sure would have picked something easier to spell and pronounce than "Gabaldon" (It's GAH-bul-dohn - rhymes with "stone." It's Hispanic. It's also mine, so please stop calling me "Mrs. Gabaldon". My husband's name is something else, but I only use that one for talking to schools and pediatricians (actually, if you insist on a formal title, it's Dr. Gabaldon [g] (Ph.D. in Quantitative Behavioral Ecology--don't worry about it, it's just animal behavior with a lot of statistics), but most people just call me Diana, which is perfectly fine)).
Good. Now that we have our terms and definitions straight, we can begin.
So, OK. Starting with what I have written:
I have (so far) written seven novels, one novella, one short story , and a nonfiction "Companion" in a gigantic series which no one can describe*, but luckily, people still seem to want to read.
For the sake of convenience, the US publisher normally refers to this series as "The Outlander saga/series," the first novel having been entitled Outlander. (All right, I'm not mad-keen on "saga," just because it sounds rather turgid and/or Scandinavian, and whatever else people say about my books, nobody's ever called them boring or Swedish. I'd prefer "epic," myself, but what the heck.)
Now, a certain difficulty arises when we deal with other countries, owing to the fact that the first book isn't called Outlander, even in other English-speaking countries.
The first novel is titled Cross Stitch in the UK/Australia/New Zealand axis (long story; it's in The Outlandish Companion, if you're wildly interested in where titles come from and other such things). Rather than call it "the Cross Stitch series," the Brits have opted to call it "The Jamie and Claire series," which is pretty blah, if you ask me, and makes it sound like either a soap opera or a children's book--"See Jamie run. See Claire stab. Look, look at the Loch Ness Monster. Run, Jamie, Run!" (though I suppose the size should tip people off, there).
The Germans like the more comprehensive, "Die Highland-Saga." Which would be fine, save that not all the books take place in the Scottish Highlands, but then, they do take place at least partly in the mountains of North Carolina as well, so I suppose it isn't inaccurate.
Anyway, whatever you want to call this whopping sequence of enormous novels (I did suggest to Barnes and Noble, when they finally saw the light and moved the books out of Romance and into Fiction, that they celebrate the occasion by doing displays of my books, along with Sho-Gun, The Thorn Birds, Gone with the Wind, and more recent entries like The Historian or Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, under a sign reading, "I Like…Big…BOOKS!" (with apologies to Sir Mix-A-Lot), but I don't think they took this suggestion, oddly enough.), there are actually two distinctly different types of novels in it, as well as one book of nonfiction (how is it possible to write nonfiction about fiction? You got me, but I seem to have done it).
The Jamie and Claire Books
There are six (so far) novels, which are focused on the evolving affairs and ever-present dangers of James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser--Highland farmer, dauntless warrior, and intermittent criminal--and his wife, Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser--nurse/doctor/healer/witch, time-traveler, and habitual smartarse--to say nothing of their family, friends, picturesque enemies (featuring a bisexual sadistic pervert (it's not the bisexual part that's perverted, btw, it's the "sadist" part--for the benefit of any hypercritical PC-type readers (not that I have many of those; I think they all imploded after the first book and went away)) and an Irish sociopath (no, I don't have anything against the Irish; this was just a nice sociopath who happens to be Irish, OK?) and assorted livestock.
These novels are (in order of publication):
Outlander (aka Cross Stitch, aka Feur und Stein--and a lot of other things in other languages, but we'll just do German and English for now)
Dragonfly in Amber (Die geliehene Zeit)
Voyager (Ferne Ufer)
Drums of Autumn (Der Ruf der Trommel)
The Fiery Cross (Das flammende Kreuz)
(Note to the astonishingly large number of persons who apparently have never seen the word "fiery" and keep asking me in dubious tones whether that's pronounced "feery"?: Is the word "F-I-R-E pronounced feer? No. Does the word "fiery" mean "on fire"? Yes. So we logically conclude that it is pronounced "Fy-ree," do we not? Also see "dictionary," above.)
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Ein Hauch von Schnee und Asche)
All the novels above are available (in the US, at least) in hardcover, trade paperback (the big size), and mass-market paperback--except for A Breath of Snow and Ashes, which is still only in hardcover (but will be out in the trade paperback size in September 2006, they tell me).
YES, you can get them without searching eBay; I don't care what the nimrod behind the desk at your local bookstore told you. Any bookstore worth its salt can order you any of these and get them in a matter of days; otherwise, amazon.com has all of them, in any format.
(And if you want any of them--hardcover, trade paper, mass-market--signed, go to www.poisonedpen.com and tell them so. I go by there once a week or so and sign whatever orders they have.)
Still to come in the Jamie and Claire storyline - and no! It isn't written yet! (What do you people think I am, a machine?) - at least one (maybe two, I don't know. How do you expect me to know these things--what am I, psychic or something?) further novel(s), untitled.
(It--or they--are untitled because a) I haven't yet come up with a working title, and b) if I did, I wouldn't say what it was in public, because bloody amazon.com would promptly snatch it and start taking orders. Watch--just watch--I'll bet within a week of my posting this, if you do an Amazon search on my name, it will pop up a "new novel!" titled…UNTITLED. I kid you not. They do this.)
*So far, the best description is one supplied by Salon.com magazine: "the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting "Scrooge McDuck" comics."
The Lord John Grey novels (and shorter pieces)
OK, Lord John is a minor but important character from the main series. The novels and stories about him are thus much shorter than the gigantic Jamie and Claire books, and tend to be fairly tightly-focused, with the general structure of historical mystery novels/novellas.
These novels and short pieces are:
Lord John and the Hellfire Club - short story, originally published in a UK anthology of historical crime stories, titled Past Poisons, edited by Maxim Jakubowski. Presently reprinted in the back of the US trade paperback edition of Lord John and the Private Matter, and eventually to be included in a collection of short Lord John pieces.
Lord John and the Private Matter - novel (Published as Das Meer der Lugen, in German)
Lord John and the Succubus- novella. This one was originally published in a fantasy anthology, titled Legends II: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy ([cough] - hey, I didn't pick the title), edited by Robert Silverberg. It will eventually be included in the aforesaid collection of short pieces.
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade - novel - in progress. I will finish this in 2006. I have no idea when anybody will publish it, but as soon as I find out, I'll let you know.
Lord John and the Haunted Soldier - novella.
(OK, here's where we stop to be confusing again. [g] The German publishers intend to publish the collection of three short Lord John pieces--Hellfire, Succubus, and Haunted Soldier sometime this summer, under the title Die Hand des Teufels (The Hand of Devils). We presently have no arrangements to publish this collection in English, but I'll be wildly surprised if the US/UK publishers don't do just that, the minute they learn it's available. So no pub date for an English version, but probably sometime this year--2006.)
(The even more confusing part is that--in terms of Lord John's personal chronology, Brotherhood of the Blade precedes Haunted Soldier. However, the Germans evidently plan to publish the short-pieces collection before Brotherhood of the Blade. Bear this in mind. [g])
Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner - novel - not yet started.
Nonfiction - The Outlandish Companion
Well, The Outlandish Companion is my attempt to answer all the questions people asked me about the Jamie and Claire novels during the first seven or eight years. It covers the first four novels in the series, and includes:
Detailed synopses of the first four novels (for the use of people who want to refresh their memories without necessarily re-reading two-and-a-half-million words)
A Cast of Characters, listing everyone (almost) who appeared in any of the first four novels, along with notation indicating in which book(s) that character appeared.
Essays on my research methods, how I create characters, where my titles come from, how I wrote novels while holding down a full-time job and having three small children without losing my mind, and other matters of general interest.
Also,
A glossary and pronunciation guide to the Gaelic and other foreign phrases used in the books.
Illustrations of some objects and places from the books.
An appendix of the poetry and other quotations used in the books, with sources.
A bibliography of the 600-odd (and some of them were pretty dang odd) books I used as reference while writing the first four novels,
And a lot of other interesting stuff that I don't want to bother typing in here.
Other Stuff in the Offing
Red Ant's Head - Contemporary Mystery
OK, when I decided to write a novel for practice, I originally thought I'd write a mystery, because I read lots of those. But then I thought, "No, mysteries have plots; I don't know if I can do that, yet." So I wrote Outlander for practice, and then things got out of hand and here we all are.
But I did still want to write mysteries, sometime, and thus blackmailed my publisher into giving me a contract to do just that. I've been sitting on that contract for ten years, but I think we may just be able to finish the first of these books--maybe--by the end of this year (NB:NB:NB!!! (NB, btw, for the non-Latinate, stands for "Nota Bene," which means, "Note well," or "Read Carefully,"--or, less politely, "Listen up, People!") The fact that I say I will finish a book by this or that date means nothing regarding when it will appear on shelves. It just means the books will exist at that point, and then the publishers can do all the stuff they have to do in order to make it real.
Anyway, the contemporary mysteries are set in the American Southwest--Phoenix, to be exact--and feature a journalist named Tom Kolodzi. (Why is he Polish? I haven't the slightest notion; it was all his idea. But here are a couple of short glimpses of him:)
Red Ant's Head
Copyright 2006 Diana GabaldonThe photographer was waiting for me in the lobby, festooned with the usual assortment of paraphernalia, plus two bottles of water, slung off her belt like a pair of six-shooters. She came up to my elbow, maybe, with a tough little face under a baseball cap. T-shirt and jeans, narrow shoulders. Wide butt, but a nice shape to it.
She stuck out a hand, took mine and gave it a short, sharp shake, like a terrier killing a rat.
"Paulie Bronson," she said, giving a me a hard look. "I'm a lesbian."
"Tom Kolodzi," I said politely. "I'm not."
She blinked, and I decided to play it--you should pardon the expression--straight.
"I don't tell dumb-blonde jokes or refer to women with four-letter words," I said. "You don't do PMS on me. Deal?"
If I hadn't taken her off guard, she probably would have smiled. As it was, the muscle by her mouth quivered a little bit.
"Deal," she said, and turned toward the elevators. "Come on, then. Where we going?"
A big cockroach sauntered out from under my desk and paused, waving its feelers. I eyed it, and tapped my foot threateningly. The roach just sat there, looking smug. I couldn't smash them on the carpet and they knew it; a squashed roach just flattened into the pile, then bounced back up as soon as I took my foot away, no worse for wear.
I wasn't any stranger to roaches; Philly has its share. It was a matter of attitude. You walk into a dark kitchen in Philadelphia, snap on the light, and you hear a sound like hail--dozens of roaches hitting the deck, running for cover like grunts in a rice paddy. Come in and find a four-inch Phoenix sewer roach rifling your garbage and you feel like apologizing for disturbing its dinner.
Eastern roaches know they're roaches. Western roaches have no sense of shame.
I nudged the roach with the toe of my shoe. He moved an inch sideways and sat there. If he'd had a face, it would have been leering.
"Yeah, well, screw you, too," I told him.
"Shhhh!" Veliger scowled at me, hand over his mouthpiece. "I'm talking to the Bishop!"
"I think he's heard the word," I said. "Especially if you're asking him about Father Lockwood."
The Reverend Albert Lockwood, that is; a parish priest who'd picked up a teenaged hitch-hiker and taken him back to the rectory for the night. What might have been an act of Christian charity went downhill fast when the Reverend put on an x-rated video, removed his pants, and began to masturbate, saying heartily, "I'm not going to be shy about this; are you?"
Evidently so; the Reverend's guest asked to use the bathroom, escaped through the window and called the police. Bootleg photocopies of the ensuing interrogation had been floating through the news room all week, embellished with notes and drawings that could best be called marginal.
It was one of those buildings tall enough to require separate elevator banks for lower and upper floors, and in a building like this, the rent goes up with the elevators. A crowd of what looked like young lawyers clustered in front of the bank for floors 1-15. Floors 15-28 had a smaller crowd of older men, one or two women, more expensively dressed; partners and CEO's. The single elevator for floors 29-40 had only one person waiting; a nice-looking woman in her forties.
She had on a bright pink suit and politically incorrect shoes made out of the same kind of discreetly-colored reptile who'd died for her bag. Not a secretary, then, and not a politician.
She didn't look at me as I stood back to let her go in first. Her jacket was short enough to give me a look at her very nice backside. I flicked my eyes away before she turned around, took a deep breath and stepped into the corner farthest away from her.
I hate elevators. They're cramped, they're usually crowded, and most of them smell like a janitor's supply closet. On the other hand, there's something really erotic about riding in an elevator alone with a member of the opposite sex.
She'd pressed the button for 39 already. The doors slid shut and the floor pressed upward against my feet. I stared at the button panel, having a pleasant three-second fantasy about just what the pink lady would do if I suddenly pressed the Stop button, turned to her, and reached under her jacket. Luckily, this sort of fantasy seldom involves cans of mace or an arrest for sexual assault.
The elevator had brass rails and walls and ceiling of smoked mirror-glass. Great. If she unbuttoned her blouse and leaned over the rail, facing the wall while I got her skirt up around her waist, I'd have a terrific view.
Before this line of thought could go any farther, I glanced upward at the ceiling. Her eyes met mine in the reflection overhead, then jerked away. I kept my eyes fixed on the part in my hair for the next second and a half, until the elevator stopped and the doors slid open.
Master Raymond
Yes, yes, yes, I do plan to write a book (or books) about Master Raymond, whom you met in Dragonfly in Amber. No, I don't have the slightest idea when the first one will be done, but I have at least started working on it--in the interstices of everything else. Don't hold your breath, is my general advice, but I hope you'll enjoy it--and everything else--In the Fullness of Time. [g]
14 May 2006
New Excerpts Page - What's your Favorite?
I've decided to re-do the Excerpts page from scratch, in order to clear up any confusion caused over the years by the changing of working titles, the inclusion of scenes that don't end up in the book they were written for (or sometimes, don't end up in print at all!), and so on.
Now, I'm putting up here three new excerpts from A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Also, excerpts from some of the Lord John Grey books and stories, and from the contemporary mystery, Red Ant's Head.
Eventually, I mean to put up two or three excerpts for each of the earlier Outlander novels: Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, and The Fiery Cross. But it occurred to me that it might be fun to ask what you-all think are your favorite excerpts from these books. If you were recommending the books to a friend, and wanted to give them a sample-which scenes would you pick?
(From Rosana: I have created a new Yahoo group called Gabaldon Favorite Excerpts that you can join to help Diana out with her decision on what excerpts would be the best to include for newer readers. Currently the group is unmoderated, but if too many weird messages start popping up, I'll change it to a moderated group. Join by clicking here - Gabaldon Favorite Excerpts.)
Outlander Movie Casting
OK, look. If and when anything official happens in terms of a movie being made, I assure you that you will be the first to know about it. Meanwhile, I don't myself have any ideas regarding casting of this hypothetical movie, since I already know what Jamie and Claire look like (and no, Jamie does not look anything at all like either Martin Henderson or David Wenham. If you crossed Gerard Butler with Jason Flemyng, you'd be close; that's all I can say).
I know, though, that a lot of people derive a great deal of harmless amusement from this practice. So, for the benefit of those so inclined, here is a site on which people do just that:
Outlander Casting Gallery
If anyone is aware of any other similar sites, do let me or Rosana know, and we'll add them here.
Unabridged (i.e., the good one) Audio Version of A Breath of Snow and Ashes available on CD!
AND….available at a great price on amazon.com! This is the complete version, produced by Recorded Books, and narrated by Davina Porter, who is marvelous.
If you want all the books in audio on CD, though, the Recorded Books website is, I think, offering a special on both the complete set of novels in cassette, and on CD. They tell me that all the books will be available in the CD version, as of late September.
27 April 2006
Diana is back on tour. She'll be in the Los Angeles area (Pasadena at Vroman's and the LA Times Festival of Books) in April; Tempe, AZ in May; and, Milan, Italy in June.
Rosana
21 January 2006
I did a lot of interviews, in the leadup to the publication of A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Most of these will appear in various print publications, from New Zealand to Germany to Canada (and a few in the US as well [g])-but some will be published online. I'll do my best to provide links here to those interviews, as they become available (and to older interviews, that I've dug up in the archives, but that still seem interesting).
allaboutghosts.com Interview - This interview appeared on allaboutghosts.com, and for all I know, will still be there when the site is updated. Since the "All About Ghosts" site is being restructured right now, though, I've provided a separate link here to the interview itself.
Hugendubel interview - this one appeared in print in Germany in November
Meanwhile…if you happen to be an interviewer, and have an interest in interviewing me (on any subject whatever [g])-or if you're having to write a term paper or report about me --I'm posting here a link to the Prologue of The Outlandish Companion.
The Outlandish Companion is a nonfiction book that I wrote as an attempt to answer all of the questions that people had been asking me for the last ten years. (It seems to work, too; when the book came out, one interviewer said in frustration, "I can't think of anything to ask you! Whatever I ask, you can just point at the book and say, "Page 281!")
The Prologue, though, explains all the Basic Background Stuff-how and why I came to write these particular books, how I wrote the first one, how I created the characters, how I found a literary agent, how I got published, etc. Without intending the slightest offense to anyone, I will just observe that everybody asks me the same damn questions. I don't mind telling you the same damn thing for the ten millionth time-but we'll both have more fun, maybe, if you read this first.
03 January 2006
Buy Bob's Book! (Er…ROB, I mean)
The minute I finish a book, I begin getting email from people who've already read it, and want to know a) when is the next one coming out? (how would I know? I haven't written it yet, for goodness sake), and b) what else can they read while impatiently waiting?
In answer to the second of these queries, I started The Methadone List some years ago, and continue to post new additions—recommendations of some of my own favorite books and authors, which you might enjoy.
Well, now I've got something special to recommend—my excellent, talented, and delightful brother-in-law, Rob Palmer (we call him Bob, but he writes as Rob; evidently his publisher thinks that looks better on the cover) has written an excellent and delightful thriller, titled No Time to Hide. Official pub date is today, January 3, and so I wanted both to congratulate him on the book—and, of course, to urge y'all to go have a look at it, at www.robpalmerbooks.com. (You can, of course, get it at www.amazon.com , www.barnesandnoble.com, or your friendly neighborhood bookstore.
This is a terrific book, starring Ben Tennant, aka "The Laundryman," whose job with the Witness Protection Program is to launder people's pasts, and present them with a shiny new identity. But what about the people who are too hot for the FBI to handle? He helps them disappear, too—on the side.
One of these hot potatoes is Patrice Callen, a beautiful con artist. She's disappeared, all right—but now the CIA wants her back. Ben can find her, but will he give her up? The story plays out like a game of Chinese boxes, in a charade of lies and secrets, against a back-drop of high-stakes arms smuggling, international politics…and the thing inside the very last of the boxes.
Anyway, for anyone looking for a good read for the New Year, I can't recommend this one highly enough. And as if that were not significant inducement….
My dear sister is offering the recipe for the Famous Gabaldon Holiday Fudge (highly addictive) to anyone who buys a book before Easter (after Easter, I believe you get a gaily dyed—but possibly slightly stale—hardboiled egg. Maybe with a few petrified marshmallow Peeps thrown in. In case you need an incentive to Act Now [cough]), her email address, for fudge-redemption purposes, is tam.gabaldon@gmail.com).
I understand that the publisher, also hugely behind the book, is offering a special contest, with an exotic cruise as prize, but I don't have the details on that—see www.dorchesterpub.com for these.
Happy New Year, and Good Reading