Author Diana Gabaldon answers fan questions:
And thank you all for joining us tonight. You might recall that you were invited to submit some of your most burning questions for me to answer, and I understand that we had over 10,000 of them submitted. I'm afraid I won't have time to get through all of those, but I think I'm equipped to answer a few of them.
I have my trusty Penicillin at hand. I understand this is a delicious concoction of whiskey, ginger, lemon, and something else I forget, but anyway that's going to fuel me through the rest of this. So you might want to take hold of your own trusty Penicillin, and I hope you enjoy that as well. This is going to be fun.
Question One: Has the story changed from how you thought it would go?
Well, I kind of had to because I didn't have any idea how it would go. I wrote Outlander as a practice novel, and I had nothing in mind. I just wanted to learn how to write a novel. It didn't matter what kind, but I thought historical fiction would be the easiest for me. As I was a university professor, I knew my way around the library, and I thought it would be easier to look things up than make them up. And if I had no imagination, I could steal things from the historical record, which works pretty well.
So that's what I did, essentially. And then things happened in the course of writing, which I kind of went along with. The next thing you knew, I had this odd book which nobody knew how to sell because it couldn't be classified as any genre or another. It kind of has all of the genres.
So far, I have seen my book sold as fiction, literary fiction, science fiction, military fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, LGBTQ fiction, and horror. This is true. I actually beat George R. R. Martin for a Quill Award in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror category, so I'll take that one.
Anyway, the story just kind of evolves under me. I don't plan stories ahead of time, and I don't write them in a straight line. I write where I can see things happening, and lots of things do happen. So yes, the story has certainly changed. I just don't know how in advance.
Question Two: What does a typical writing day look like for you?
Okay, this would be a day where I am actually just staying home writing and nothing else weird is happening. Last Wednesday, for instance, Good Morning America came around to infest my living room, so everything was kind of ups and downs through the entire day owing to having a film crew in the living room and having to come by and talk.
But if I were just left to my own devices, I would probably get up around nine by preference. I am a night owl. I work at night. My husband is a lark, and he doesn't. So he goes to bed around nine at night. I tuck him in, and then I go lie down with the dogs and a book. I fall asleep in ten minutes, but then I wake up again around midnight and go upstairs to work.
I work until about 4:30 in the morning, when I start shutting down the office, and I go and crawl back in bed with my husband around five. He then gets up around 6:30, so we spend a good hour and a half together in bed. Then I will wake up again around nine in the morning.
So that's about it.
How do you choose a book title?
I don't know. Some books kind of name themselves. Like Voyager—I mentioned before, I knew that was the name of that particular book because of the long voyage that I knew they were going to undertake to get into the New World.
The other books—Outlander took forever. It was originally called Cross Stitch, which I had in mind just because I thought Claire was going to cross into the past and then cross back into the future in that book. That's not what happened, so Cross Stitch didn't really work, but that's what it was called.
So we sold it in the U.S., and they said, "Well, cross stitch sounds like embroidery. Can you think of something more exciting?" So it took 11 months to come up with Outlander, at which point they said, "Oh good, it's only one word. It won't block the art."
Meanwhile, in the UK they said, "Well, to us, an outlander is someone from South Africa. Can you think of something better?" And I said, "Well, I did call it Cross Stitch." And they said, "Oh, lovely," and called it that.
So I have gotten very funny letters over the years from people in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand saying, "There's this funny story about how I found your first novel. I was in the bookshop looking through the craft section, and it was under embroidery."
So yeah. Otherwise, it's kind of like rock polishing. You take little words and throw them in the back of your mind, and things come up.
What is one thing you can't live without?
Well, 50-50, it's either my husband or Diet Coke. Luckily, I can have them both.
What is your favorite Outlander-inspired recipe?
Well, I'm assuming that you might mean those from Theresa's fabulous cookbooks. My favorite so far is one from Lord John's Lunchbox. It's called breast of duck marinated in its fabulous marmalade sauce, served with a German potato salad spiced with vinegar and small pickled onions. That's terrific.
Okay, well, speaking of Lord John:
Will we get to see more Lord John and Percy in future books?
Yes. I don't want to be more specific than that. The answer is yes, for the time being.
Which Outlander character would you most likely be friends with, and why?
Well, that might be Denzel Hunter, Rachel's brother. He's the young Quaker physician whom we met and saw to some degree in Written in My Own Heart's Blood. He's a physician and what they called a Fighting Quaker, meaning that he did subscribe to Quaker principles, which means that you're against killing people, but he also felt very strongly about the principles of liberty.
He wanted to lend his efforts to the Revolution without killing people if he possibly could, so he joins the army as a military surgeon. He has the sorts of military experiences you might expect, except that he's not armed and he doesn't kill people, which puts him in considerable danger most of the time.
Meanwhile, he has fallen in love with the daughter of Lord John's elder brother. Harold, Duke of Pardloe, is of course not at all pleased that his daughter has married this penniless Quaker physician. Quakers were considered not quite the thing in London, and there's been a little bit of family trouble. Let's just say that the family trouble kind of continues in this book, not necessarily focused on Denzel.
But I think I would be friends with him, not only because of his curiosity and attitude toward medicine and science in general, but because of his generosity of spirit and his genuine friendliness toward just about anybody. He also is a man of deep and serious purpose. So while he can certainly be a nice companion to have a drink with on occasion, he will also be willing to discuss the state of the universe with you in all seriousness.
I have my trusty Penicillin at hand. I understand this is a delicious concoction of whiskey, ginger, lemon, and something else I forget, but anyway that's going to fuel me through the rest of this. So you might want to take hold of your own trusty Penicillin, and I hope you enjoy that as well. This is going to be fun.
Question One: Has the story changed from how you thought it would go?
Well, I kind of had to because I didn't have any idea how it would go. I wrote Outlander as a practice novel, and I had nothing in mind. I just wanted to learn how to write a novel. It didn't matter what kind, but I thought historical fiction would be the easiest for me. As I was a university professor, I knew my way around the library, and I thought it would be easier to look things up than make them up. And if I had no imagination, I could steal things from the historical record, which works pretty well.
So that's what I did, essentially. And then things happened in the course of writing, which I kind of went along with. The next thing you knew, I had this odd book which nobody knew how to sell because it couldn't be classified as any genre or another. It kind of has all of the genres.
So far, I have seen my book sold as fiction, literary fiction, science fiction, military fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, LGBTQ fiction, and horror. This is true. I actually beat George R. R. Martin for a Quill Award in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror category, so I'll take that one.
Anyway, the story just kind of evolves under me. I don't plan stories ahead of time, and I don't write them in a straight line. I write where I can see things happening, and lots of things do happen. So yes, the story has certainly changed. I just don't know how in advance.
Question Two: What does a typical writing day look like for you?
Okay, this would be a day where I am actually just staying home writing and nothing else weird is happening. Last Wednesday, for instance, Good Morning America came around to infest my living room, so everything was kind of ups and downs through the entire day owing to having a film crew in the living room and having to come by and talk.
But if I were just left to my own devices, I would probably get up around nine by preference. I am a night owl. I work at night. My husband is a lark, and he doesn't. So he goes to bed around nine at night. I tuck him in, and then I go lie down with the dogs and a book. I fall asleep in ten minutes, but then I wake up again around midnight and go upstairs to work.
I work until about 4:30 in the morning, when I start shutting down the office, and I go and crawl back in bed with my husband around five. He then gets up around 6:30, so we spend a good hour and a half together in bed. Then I will wake up again around nine in the morning.
So that's about it.
How do you choose a book title?
I don't know. Some books kind of name themselves. Like Voyager—I mentioned before, I knew that was the name of that particular book because of the long voyage that I knew they were going to undertake to get into the New World.
The other books—Outlander took forever. It was originally called Cross Stitch, which I had in mind just because I thought Claire was going to cross into the past and then cross back into the future in that book. That's not what happened, so Cross Stitch didn't really work, but that's what it was called.
So we sold it in the U.S., and they said, "Well, cross stitch sounds like embroidery. Can you think of something more exciting?" So it took 11 months to come up with Outlander, at which point they said, "Oh good, it's only one word. It won't block the art."
Meanwhile, in the UK they said, "Well, to us, an outlander is someone from South Africa. Can you think of something better?" And I said, "Well, I did call it Cross Stitch." And they said, "Oh, lovely," and called it that.
So I have gotten very funny letters over the years from people in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand saying, "There's this funny story about how I found your first novel. I was in the bookshop looking through the craft section, and it was under embroidery."
So yeah. Otherwise, it's kind of like rock polishing. You take little words and throw them in the back of your mind, and things come up.
What is one thing you can't live without?
Well, 50-50, it's either my husband or Diet Coke. Luckily, I can have them both.
What is your favorite Outlander-inspired recipe?
Well, I'm assuming that you might mean those from Theresa's fabulous cookbooks. My favorite so far is one from Lord John's Lunchbox. It's called breast of duck marinated in its fabulous marmalade sauce, served with a German potato salad spiced with vinegar and small pickled onions. That's terrific.
Okay, well, speaking of Lord John:
Will we get to see more Lord John and Percy in future books?
Yes. I don't want to be more specific than that. The answer is yes, for the time being.
Which Outlander character would you most likely be friends with, and why?
Well, that might be Denzel Hunter, Rachel's brother. He's the young Quaker physician whom we met and saw to some degree in Written in My Own Heart's Blood. He's a physician and what they called a Fighting Quaker, meaning that he did subscribe to Quaker principles, which means that you're against killing people, but he also felt very strongly about the principles of liberty.
He wanted to lend his efforts to the Revolution without killing people if he possibly could, so he joins the army as a military surgeon. He has the sorts of military experiences you might expect, except that he's not armed and he doesn't kill people, which puts him in considerable danger most of the time.
Meanwhile, he has fallen in love with the daughter of Lord John's elder brother. Harold, Duke of Pardloe, is of course not at all pleased that his daughter has married this penniless Quaker physician. Quakers were considered not quite the thing in London, and there's been a little bit of family trouble. Let's just say that the family trouble kind of continues in this book, not necessarily focused on Denzel.
But I think I would be friends with him, not only because of his curiosity and attitude toward medicine and science in general, but because of his generosity of spirit and his genuine friendliness toward just about anybody. He also is a man of deep and serious purpose. So while he can certainly be a nice companion to have a drink with on occasion, he will also be willing to discuss the state of the universe with you in all seriousness.
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