Comments on: BLOODY MEN

By: Diana

Diana — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 05:07:35 +0000

Hi, Julia, No Quakers in my family that I am aware of! My scientific background honed my research skills, which I use extensively in my writing. Plus, I visit many of the places that I use in my writing when I need more information and background. I'm a third generation native of Flagstaff, Arizona, in fact. I wrote a little bit about about my parents in my essay titled “Myth and Mountain Birthdays.” -Diana

By: Julia m Cleaver

Julia m Cleaver — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 03:24:11 +0000

Friend Diana,

I know this is an old thread in your blog, but it seems to be a place that you talk about Quakerism a bit.

I am on my second reading (actually listening) of your series. I am struck this time by your description of members of the Society of Friends in your books. It seems as if you are pretty familiar with Quakers, though probably not one yourself. I don’t think that just reading about Quakers would lead you to portray Rachael and Denny in such a playful and yet earnest manner. I would be interested in how you came to this understanding. Do you have Quakers in your family?

And on a side note, I live in NC and am of Scott-Irish decent. I have been to so man of the places that Jamie and Claire go. I was born in Philadelphia, and have visited Edinburgh and Inverness. I really enjoy knowing so many of the areas that I hear about in the series. I laughed today when Brianne was suddenly in Redondo Beach, CA (though I still don’t know why she is there). I can’t say that I remember it, but I lived there as a baby.

Finally, I just love the perfect narration by Davina Porter. I am having a bit of a hard time with the tv show since it is her voices of Jamie and Claire that I know.

Julia McMullan Cleaver

By: Diana

Diana — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 19:11:53 +0000

Dear Shoshana–

You can stop cringing–at least on _my_ account. Yes, the 18th century version of Quaker Plain Speech was indeed carefully researched (like just about everything else in the books…). I’m aware that this version looks ungrammatical by contrast with Elizabethan forms of English, but you’ll have to take that up with the 18th century Quakers. [g] If you read the Author’s Notes in AN ECHO IN THE BONE or WRITTEN IN MY OWN HEART’S BLOOD, you’ll find both the historical explanation for the shift and (in WRITTEN) a couple of scholarly references describing it. (Have you by chance read Jessamyn West’s very entertaining historical novels? She’s a Quaker by birth, very well read in the tradition, and her early-19th century Quakers all talk the same way mine do.)

Best wishes,

–Diana

By: Shoshana

Shoshana — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 04:52:24 +0000

Dear Diana,
Could you please explain your use of “thee” when you write dialogue for your 18th century Quakers? Is there something about the way they spoke that you researched? We don’t generally use the thees and thous and thy and thine in our time, but I have some familiarity with it and the way you’ve used it in your books seems odd to me. Generally “thee” would be like “you” today (I understand you was used at the time as well and we just dropped the “thee” form of the second person in modern speech), “to you” would translate to “to thee”, “your word” would be “thy word” and “yours” would be “thine”. What confuses me is that you write “thee is” instead of “thou art” for “you are” when you write the dialog (yet I noticed you do use “thou art” in the bits where that wording is used by the church, for example for weddings). Wouldn’t saying “thee is” be like saying “you is” (or even more confusing being that such a form of you doesn’t even exist as the difference between thee and thou)? Is this a mistake or are you trying to purposefully make your Quakers sound like backcountry hicks or is there historical records of 18th century North Carolina Quakers speaking like that? I’m having a hard time reading those sections without cringing.

By: JerryT

JerryT — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 17:27:14 +0000

As someone who is in the midst of a seventh reading I can assure you that at least one or two re-readings will provide new information and a sincere and abiding love of the whole series.

By: Diana

Diana — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:30:03 +0000

Dear Jennifer–

Well, Book Eight is coming, I assure you–with answers to your questions. {g} But the big books of the main series -are- big, and also complex, with a lot of engineering to make them readable both alone, and as an integral part of the larger construction. So it does take me about three years to write one. Add in all the travel time for promoting books, and you got something like 3 12/-4 years between the large book releases. That’s one reason why I do smaller things, like THE EXILE or the Lord John novellas, along the way (the other reason being that I always work better–and faster {g}–when I’m working on more than one thing; it keeps me from having writer’s block).

But you _will_ get SCOTTISH PRISONER (they’re now calling it THE SCOTTISH PRISONER (A Lord John Novel), as it’s half-and-half Jamie/Lord John) on November 29th! Hope that’ll ease the wait some!

–Diana

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:12:38 +0000

I am dying here!! Just finished Book 7 last week and knew there had to be another-WAY too many loose ends:
What about Jem and the underground train and the time travel “thing” down there-is he going to end up embeded in rock 200 yrs in the past?!
What about Roger-did he make it back to the past okay?
Brianna and Rob – will they go back too?
William, Ian, Rachael, Claire and Jamie????

Going through these posts I’m trying to figure out when the release date will be for Book 8-can anyone tell me? I saw that someone mentioned 2 years?! That will make me nuts to wait that long!

LOVE this series! I have turned so many of my girlfriends on to these books, much to the dismay of their husbands (I’m afraid your books are the culprit for many undone loads of laundry and dirty dishes!)

I can not wait for Book 8…PLEASE HURRY!

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 02 May 2011 20:24:42 +0000

Ditto to Karen.

I am a constant reader and you have ruined every other author for me. I have searched for anything that can compare and they all come up short.

Diana, you truly are blessed with a gift. I have so many paragraphs highlighted for rereading and whole chapters that I have read countless times just for the beauty of your writing. Thank you for sharing your gift. I pick up my Kindle with happy fingers knowing they are going to transport me to beautiful writing.
-Beth

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:16:15 +0000

It has been nearly a year since I picked up my first Outlander book. I finished the entire series in two months. Not a fast reader, really, but an obsessed one at that. I estimate I have read at least 100 books since…seriously. What am I searching for? Sara Donati came close. I finally figured it out today. As I have made yet another attempt to begin the series for the third time (usually make it 3/4 through Outlander), my endeavors become thwarted by getting too emotionally involved with characters to the point of distress. Silly, especially for me. (Thank you for making my menopause such a freaky time, Diana!) But, here’s my epiphany. I have never in my life, read tales that weaved so much every day reality in such a captivating way. I can’t find them by any other author, no matter how hard I try. Kindle in hand, I search book after book. By the way, I truly enjoyed your story about Roger’s parents in the book, “Songs of Love and Death.” I am a paragraph skipper. “Get to the point…” I say. But your words MAKE me read every line. You talk to the reader (me) as if the character is sitting across the kitchen table sipping coffee, and I’m at the edge of my tipping seat saying, “And, and, and…” So, thank you, I guess. For tears and torture. This is why your fans screech for more. Think I will have to read Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade. Need to fill my void…

––Karen

(By the way, being a redhead myself and coming from a family full of them…as we age, it just gets lighter and eventually turns a shade of white…just saying, if Jamie wants to “keep it real”…I am 53 and never had a gray hair yet…)

By: Diana

Diana — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:20:28 +0000

Dear Georgia–

Probably about six months after I finish writing it. {g} It takes me 2-3 years to write one of the Big Books.

–Diana